BRC 1 in 3 unannounced audits

Hi all, I am interested to know what are your views on this, if you are in a similar situation, working in a small company, how will we do it? The BRC are going to force some unannounced audits. 1 in 3 audits will now be unannounced  9 month notice. It will occur 4 months window before due date. We can nominate 10 days which are not available for audits (customer visits NON holidays. etc.) We are a small company with limited resources. I do have a deputy but that person is only part time (1 day in the office 2 days working from home). With this in mind it is going to be very difficult for me to take any time off (holiday or sick) during the 4 month window of the pending audit. There must be others out there in a similar situation. Covid has made working remotely a new thing which is here to stay for some. ITs not very workable. I think there should be a rule about the size of the company & QA dept. allowing for exemption to this new stipulation.

While it may be difficult, this is what the company agreed to when deciding to become certified.   And the 10 days of blackout you're allowed, would allow you to take 2 consecutive weeks of holidays in that 4 week window  (and tell them it's a plant shut down or some such thing)

It's not unheard of for companies to have black out periods when vacations cannot be taken---peek production times, year end inventory, financial year end etc

You could try reaching out to your CB for an exemption based on size of business

This issue just came up with all of my slacking lazy no good employees. Basically you will just have to be on call. There should be a procedure for when this occurs:

1. Call Sharon and tell her to get her ass over here
2. Move the records into the conference room for easy access
3. Make the auditor sign whatever
4. Distract the auditor for as long as possible
5. Yell and scream
6. Hide the toaster that's in the maintenance shop
7. Designate a spot cleaner
8. Falsify records
9. Shred evidence

I mean every company is different but yours should look pretty close to this.

Regarding vacation, it will have to be during the blackout dates.

The rule of 1/3 unannouncement was set by GFSI. BRC just follows that, unless it wants to drop its GFSI status.

I don't think giving feedbacks to CB or BRC will help any time soon.

This issue just came up with all of my slacking lazy no good employees. Basically you will just have to be on call. There should be a procedure for when this occurs:

1. Call Sharon and tell her to get her ass over here
2. Move the records into the conference room for easy access
3. Make the auditor sign whatever
4. Distract the auditor for as long as possible
5. Yell and scream
6. Hide the toaster that's in the maintenance shop
7. Designate a spot cleaner
8. Falsify records
9. Shred evidence

I mean every company is different but yours should look pretty close to this.

 

Regarding vacation, it will have to be during the blackout dates.

:giggle:  :roflmao:

I have no problem with the unannounced issue, just the 4 month window.  If there was a 30 day window or maybe 60 that would be something that I could work with, but 4 months?  That sounds like they don't know how to schedule their audits.

I do have backup as well, but all it is going to do is make everyone's audit miserable, and require many more documents to prove we are in compliance after the audit.

SQF has had the same requirement for several years now.  We can pick what year within a 3 year period our unannounced falls.  Our audit window is 90 days.  The last time we had one, they waited until the last 2 days of the window to come......we were afraid they forgot about us  :oops2:

We are a small family owned company and I have a backup, but they also wear several other hats.  It's hard to keep up with audit lingo and up to the code when you do that.  Luckily, our audit falls between May and July.  We always black out the week of the 4th of July.  So I know I can get at least a few days off.