6 replies to this topic

[U.S.Bev.QA]

Can someone help on this?

 

When I send my Approved Supplier/ Vendor Questionnaire Audit email, some of our vendor say they don't answer questionnaire, but they send the requested documents. I want to know will this be a problem when it's time for our SQF Audit.

[TimG]

The only problem I can see you having with this is if you don't do your due diligence and review the documents they provide to be sure it meets your supplier approval.

If your supplier approval program says the supplier MUST ANSWER the questionnaire, you might want to update that to also include "or provide documentation with review by X."

 

Having been on the other side of this, I have absolutely refused customer's ridiculous questionnaires in the past. It's not our job to write a customer a thesis and/or fill in a 30-page 300 question EXCEL (no joke on this one..) every year on why they should continue buying product from us.

[Scampi]

I would include the email that says as much, and as Tim mentioned, make sure that what is provided is sufficient for your program

[SQFconsultant]

If the documents suffice, are reviewed by your company and accepted, no problems at all - BUT if you have specific questions that they need to be answered and can not find a route around to a document that they could provide, then we use a simple letter to  the owner, president of the company and indicate exactly what their QA Manager, or whatever representative refused to provide and indicate that without this information you can not proceed with having them as a supplier == we've  only had to do this a couple of times now and it works out perfectly.

[U.S.Bev.QA]

Thank you

[jfrey123]

Piling on to agree with the above:  statements on their letterhead or copies of programs can be sufficient if they cover the questions that your questionnaires call out, but make sure your SOP for Supplier Approval permits such a substitution.  If your in-house SOP states "Suppliers must complete and return required questionnaires," then you just forced yourself into a non-conformity with your own SOP.  A better statement would be "Suppliers must either return Company questionnaires or provide signed statements/SOP's showing sufficient evidence of compliance."

 

Example in my program, we have a Social Accountability Questionnaire.  A bunch of suppliers have started providing copies of their SMETA audits instead of completing that questionnaire.  We accept this as long as the SMETA is clean for the issues that our SAQ called out.

[Tony-C]

Hi U.S.Bev.QA,

 

To add to previous posts, I would have your own Supplier Approval Form that you complete and file with the supplier documents that confirms that you have assessed the supplier/documents provided, that they have the appropriate food safety controls in place and are approved as a supplier to supply to the materials you are purchasing.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony