5 replies to this topic

[Gilles]

Hello all,

 

Next month I will be conducting our first supplier audit at a supplier who does some work for us when we are too busy.

We have a long relationship together, the supplier is FSSC22000 certified and do not want to mess things up and conduct a useful audit.

 

I have had a lot of external audits as well as customer audits but the customer audits are not very useful most of the time.

Most of the time they just have a copy of the BRC of IFS norm (We are BRC AA certified) and just check every box or they just give "stupid" non-conformities like:

- Major NC, we never had an ethical audit, even though this was never a request

- Major NC, we need to cover our steel bins we use in the production, even though we extensively tested the risks and it would cost thousands of euro's to do this (we are a small company so this is a lot for a company our size)

And when we say we won’t do anything about this, we hear nothing and they keep purchasing from us.

 

How do you conduct useful and good audits at a longtime partner who is already GFSI certified?

 

Another question, how would you make an audit report of this? "just" a checklist with an answer with each question?

 

 

 

[jcieslowski]

The first question you should ask is "why am I conducting this audit?".  

 

If they're already GFSI level certified and you have no reason to believe that you're getting unsafe food, perhaps you don't need the audit at all?

 

If you DO need the audit (for whatever reason), make sure you establish your audit criteria.  I would use the BRC standard since you're familiar with it.

 

You might also choose to NOT do the 'standard' audit because they already have a GFSI certification and instead make it a 'quality' audit.  

 

See how the product you'd buy is handled through the flow and what steps are taken to ensure both food safety and quality throughout the process. 

Edited by jcieslowski, 18 September 2018 - 12:30 PM.

[beautiophile]

Hi Gilles,

IMO, solely using a public standard to audit a supplier is unprofessional. Most in-house auditors weren't trained with techniques to audit several companies in several kinds of production and they seem to do the jobs by their own experiences that may end up in a conflict. To entrust that to a CB is a better idea.

2nd-party audit is subjective, not like internal or certification audit. Because the audit criteria are your own requirements to suppliers, concerning to quality, FS, shipment reliability, price, long-term business direction, BCP, QMS, EMS, SHE, ethic, etc. You, however, still can refer norms to create questions but have to be careful of their applicability to the supplier's situation. The audit report is an input to decide to start/continue business with them or not. I think it's a big plus when you can make a business-risk evaluation from that audit, beside food safety risks.

 

Most of the time they just have a copy of the BRC of IFS norm (We are BRC AA certified) and just check every box.

[Tony-C]

Hi Gilles,

 

You say that you will be conducting your first supplier audit, have you had any audit training?

 

As you are BRC certified, BRC requirement for supplier audits are a scope to include product safety, traceability, HACCP review and good manufacturing practices, undertaken by an experienced and demonstrably competent product safety auditor.

 

BRC Guidance: A successful site audit covers at a minimum product safety, traceability, HACCP and good manufacturing processes. This audit must be completed by an appropriately experienced and competent auditor (i.e. someone who has completed training in auditing techniques, has experience of auditing, and has knowledge of the product, ingredient or processes being audited).

 

The requirements for auditor competency is less critical as your supplier is FSSC 22000 certified and I’m sure that you are familiar with the product and required controls so that is a plus.

 

In your supplier audit I would be looking to conduct a review as per the BRC scope but also consider any issues that you have had with the supplier and any complaints.

 

In preparation for your audit I would formulate a checklist of items to check and also review the supplier’s certification audit report and note anything to follow up on. Request relevant food safety management system documentation prior to the audit so that you can review that as well in preparation and not need to spend as much time on it during the audit.

 

I would start the audit with a quick review of the food safety management system documentation and food safety plans. Then I would want to have a good look round the facility, looking at key food safety controls whilst getting a view of the level of GMP implementation and noting anything to follow up on. Initiate the traceability and mass balance exercise early on so that the supplier has enough time to prepare the relevant documentation for review later in the audit.

 

Your report should be a reflection of what you checked and your findings, log conformity and non-conformity. For any non-conformances agree corrective actions and include this in your report.

 

One last tip is time management, agree a schedule and timing and try to stick to it. Don’t get bogged down for hours with something minor, look for it to be resolved later if necessary.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

[Zeeshan]

Dear Gilles,

What I recommend,

 

1) Do not expect that as supplier is already GFSI certified there would be no noncompliance against generally accepted requirements of quality and foodsafey . At the same time you should not behave like an aggressive external auditor whose only aim is to find out some findings - no matter how silly they would be.

 

2) As jcieslowski said, make it a general foodsafety and quality audit. Extract generally accepted requirements of quality and foodsafey from any quality and food safety standard(s) and make a simple checklist.

 

3) The areas which need to be covered would be: Personnel hygiene, Food Contact Surface Hygiene, Environmental Hygiene, Time & temperature abuse, Checks at receiving, in-process and final dispatch, Pest Control Programs, Material and product identification and traceability, Training Records, Quality and foodsafety culture, Outsource Validations.

 

4) Share these requirements to your supplier well before audit with expectations if any. Just check and mention satisfactory and non-satisfactory status against each finding. Make the records as simple and understandable as possible.

 

Zeeshan.

Edited by Zeeshan, 19 September 2018 - 05:36 AM.

[Charles.C]

Hi Gilles,

 

Just as an addition to previous posts/suggestions, the audit specifics might relate to the Product / Process, ??