Types Of Factory Audit You Should Know

Factory audit is a routine, if you have been a professional importer for a while now. You need to make sure your products are good enough for the suppliers, and you really don’t want to mess with the end customers of your products. To make sure you supply quality and to ensure minimum risk for your supplies, you need to be aware of the various audits conducted in the factor, and how they help improve the different core areas of the products for a company.

·         The social compliance audit: Otherwise known as the social/ethical audit, ethical as well as social accountability audits, this audit involves keeping an eye on the supply chain and monitoring its effectiveness. The idea is to understand the requirements for the particular working condition, and how it helps. The areas where this audit is conducted involves the fire exits, protective gear in case there are field workers involved, the insurance of the factory workers as well as the hazardous materials used or produced by the factory. You will also need to include the compliance risks, manage negative publicity, take into account poor working conditions as well as unethical labor practices when you are indulging in the pre shipment inspection for your factory. This is an important audit if you want to improve your processes

·         The quality system audit: This is yet another common audit conducted in the factories. You will conduct this audit to understand the systems and production processes at the factory side of the supplier. This will help you know whether the processes will help improve the quality of the product, and ensure timeliness of the delivery. This audit should be conducted at regular intervals, and will help evaluate the various quality systems, management techniques as well as the maintenance of the machinery. The companies involved in this audit have defined monitoring procedures that help them take the right actions. Some of the regulations and standards involved in this audit include ISO 9000, AS9100, ISO 13485 and FDA QSR.

·         The security audit: You wont find this audit conducted on a regular basis. This is not an audit that most retailers would conduct. However, you will find that there are retailers and brands that do conduct this audit when they need to maintain the compliance with the C-TPAT (Customs- Trade Partnership Against Terrorism). You need to figure out whether the place where the products are being manufactured are secure and there is minimal risk involved, which is why the security factory audit is important. This audit also helps protect and preserve the supply chain as you have managed and maintained it. It will also help you manage the processes in a better way. At the end of the audit, you will be able to identify better security measures that can help you improve your processes and products.

The pre shipment inspection is basically an understanding of whether or not you adhere to the import laws, the labour laws as well as the security guidelines prescribed for the products you are producing. You need to understand the requirements posed by your retailers, before you figure out the processes and the audit types you need to implement.