Jump to content

  • Quick Navigation
Photo

Outsourcing 3rd Parties to Manage Regulatory Compliance

Share this

  • You cannot start a new topic
  • Please log in to reply
5 replies to this topic

QAGB

    Grade - PIFSQN

  • IFSQN Principal
  • 685 posts
  • 262 thanks
115
Excellent

  • Earth
    Earth

Posted 22 April 2020 - 12:31 PM

Hi all,

 

I'm not sure if this question falls under a specific category, so please pardon me if I have placed this in the wrong location.

 

We're a midstream company that buys a lot of finished products for resale to end users. We don't produce anything; everything we buy enters our facilities packaged, and leaves in the same manner. We manage thousands of SKUs over many multiple product categories, and would like to have an outsourced company manage the regulatory compliance portion of our Quality program. This would include managing our suppliers and ensuring they can provide proper documentation (migration reports, Prop 65 testing, heavy metals testing, etc.), and keeping track of and monitoring regulatory changes to our existing products. As we don't have a dedicated regulatory department and management of this is becoming overwhelming. 


Does anyone have any experience with contracted companies that can manage regulatory compliance for you? What companies are recommended? 

 

Thanks,

 

QAGB


Edited by QAGB, 22 April 2020 - 12:32 PM.


pHruit

    Grade - FIFSQN

  • IFSQN Fellow
  • 2,071 posts
  • 849 thanks
536
Excellent

  • United Kingdom
    United Kingdom
  • Gender:Male
  • Interests:Composing/listening to classical music, electronics, mountain biking, science, sarcasm

Posted 22 April 2020 - 01:39 PM

What specifically are you looking for in the "managing" aspect?
If it's an external system/service to collect, chase, collate etc for you then yes, such things certainly exist and can be tailored to your requirements.

Safefood360 offer one such platform, but their are others - Hamilton Grant for example could probably also do something similar.

We've got a lot customers using these for the data collection/storage elements, but the final result is still assessed by the customer, so it wouldn't take that part of the burden from you. I'm not familiar with a solution that would offer this as an "all in one" type of service, but you could have a chat with Safefood360 to see what they can do. Alternatively combining one of these systems with a specialist consultant on retainer might tick all the boxes.

 

Personally I find that there is a real danger that these systems can make people very remote from the products and suppliers, and I don't think that's a particularly good thing, so you'll possibly need to be cautious about how you actually implement it and communicate with your suppliers.

Cost can also be a challenge. I did speak to a couple of the providers about it (asked to explore it as a potential alternative to making new hires a few years ago) and at least one of them charged per product/supplier maintained, so with a large number of SKUs and suppliers it rapidly became very expensive.



Thanked by 1 Member:

QAGB

    Grade - PIFSQN

  • IFSQN Principal
  • 685 posts
  • 262 thanks
115
Excellent

  • Earth
    Earth

Posted 22 April 2020 - 02:02 PM

What specifically are you looking for in the "managing" aspect?
If it's an external system/service to collect, chase, collate etc for you then yes, such things certainly exist and can be tailored to your requirements.

Safefood360 offer one such platform, but their are others - Hamilton Grant for example could probably also do something similar.

We've got a lot customers using these for the data collection/storage elements, but the final result is still assessed by the customer, so it wouldn't take that part of the burden from you. I'm not familiar with a solution that would offer this as an "all in one" type of service, but you could have a chat with Safefood360 to see what they can do. Alternatively combining one of these systems with a specialist consultant on retainer might tick all the boxes.

 

Personally I find that there is a real danger that these systems can make people very remote from the products and suppliers, and I don't think that's a particularly good thing, so you'll possibly need to be cautious about how you actually implement it and communicate with your suppliers.

Cost can also be a challenge. I did speak to a couple of the providers about it (asked to explore it as a potential alternative to making new hires a few years ago) and at least one of them charged per product/supplier maintained, so with a large number of SKUs and suppliers it rapidly became very expensive.

 

Thank you! I will look into both of the companies mentioned above. I know about Safefood360 of course, but I didn't know they offered this type of assistance.

 

Well, right now we're really shorthanded, and I'm spending an excessive amount of time trying to do as you mentioned above (collect, chase, collate, research). We spend a lot of time digging into regulations and analytical test reports for each product type, import changes and how products are affected, etc. We also have to keep after the suppliers to have them complete really in-depth technical data for new business opportunities. In trying to keep everything afloat due to decreased staff, I need to be able to devote my full attention wherever it needs to be, and can't spend multiple hours each day doing this while trying to get daily tasks and other initiatives done. 

 

I totally understand the dangers of the systems, but right now, this is more of a fill-in need. If and when the opportunity presents itself, the role will be filled internally so that we can continue to manage processes. We could probably get by with this if the contractor is willing to do this on a supplier level, but if it ends up being SKU level contracting, that could be problematic to a degree. I'll keep that in mind during my discussions with potential contractors.

 

Thanks again!



pHruit

    Grade - FIFSQN

  • IFSQN Fellow
  • 2,071 posts
  • 849 thanks
536
Excellent

  • United Kingdom
    United Kingdom
  • Gender:Male
  • Interests:Composing/listening to classical music, electronics, mountain biking, science, sarcasm

Posted 22 April 2020 - 02:11 PM

Ok, yes, I understand that challenge.
Certainly the ones I've suggested can greatly assist with the chasing up aspect of things. Some of them can even use their own people to telephone the supplier if they aren't responding to emails - not sure if Safefood does this (their platform is quite useable so not had any issues leading to delays...).

Certainly the Hamilton Grant option can be set up to force the supplier to really complete things in full - you can't physically press the "submit to customer" button if all of the fields you've said are mandatory have not been filled in. This possibly makes it easier, but I'd strongly advise caution with this, as it can be difficult to foresee all of the answers that suppliers might need to give, and sorting out problems/missing ones is slow and makes more work...

 

I'm not sure about the reviewing element of things but have seen a few customers bring in a consultant for a fixed-term project on this types of thing, focussed solely on the one area and tasked to get them up to date across the board, so that might be another option - takes it off your plate but is still a bit more hands-on.



Thanked by 1 Member:

QAGB

    Grade - PIFSQN

  • IFSQN Principal
  • 685 posts
  • 262 thanks
115
Excellent

  • Earth
    Earth

Posted 22 April 2020 - 03:55 PM

Ok, yes, I understand that challenge.
Certainly the ones I've suggested can greatly assist with the chasing up aspect of things. Some of them can even use their own people to telephone the supplier if they aren't responding to emails - not sure if Safefood does this (their platform is quite useable so not had any issues leading to delays...).

Certainly the Hamilton Grant option can be set up to force the supplier to really complete things in full - you can't physically press the "submit to customer" button if all of the fields you've said are mandatory have not been filled in. This possibly makes it easier, but I'd strongly advise caution with this, as it can be difficult to foresee all of the answers that suppliers might need to give, and sorting out problems/missing ones is slow and makes more work...

 

I'm not sure about the reviewing element of things but have seen a few customers bring in a consultant for a fixed-term project on this types of thing, focussed solely on the one area and tasked to get them up to date across the board, so that might be another option - takes it off your plate but is still a bit more hands-on.

 

 

Thanks again pHruit!!! I really appreciate the insight and this will be very helpful.  :spoton:



moskito

    Grade - SIFSQN

  • IFSQN Senior
  • 412 posts
  • 85 thanks
21
Excellent

  • Germany
    Germany
  • Gender:Male

Posted 30 April 2020 - 03:21 PM

Dear QAGB,

 

we are using such companies in some countries. We have several, dependent on the country, but always one. Final call is in all cases with us as FBO, but we get an opinion where we are not in detail famiiar with the national laws. It works quite well but not w/o mistakes. It takes time and is really dependent on the partner. We try to have clear administration - 2 named persons at contractor side and changes have to be announced in advance. We try to develope a long-term cooperation and not just "spot-opinions" per need.

 

Rgds

moskito





Share this


0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users