Introduction to factory inspection

Factory inspection is to audit or evaluate the factory according to certain standards. For the brand side, factory inspection is to strengthen supply chain management, ensure product quality stability, avoid public opinion, product recall and other risks, screen new high-quality suppliers, improve the quality control level of existing suppliers, and support the company's business strategic decisions.
 
Review process
The audit process is similar, generally including initiating the application, developing the audit system, confirming the audit, paying the fees, scheduling the audit, implementing the audit, and delivering the audit results.
1. Initiate the application, so the factory inspection is generally initiated by the customer, or the middleman applies to the customer for the factory inspection when applying for the new factory. As Party B, in order to meet the needs of customers, the factory often acts as a passive party to receive orders for factory inspection. In fact, it is not. We can take factory inspection as an opportunity to improve the management level of the factory. Moreover, if an enterprise wants to show its strength, gain customer trust, and settle in some e-commerce platforms, it also needs to take the initiative to find a third party to do factory inspection. This can be done as a demonstration factory inspection. The enterprise wants to show what the audit agency is doing, similar to the enterprise qualification verification, rather than evaluation and scoring.
2. Develop audit system
According to the audit standard, the inspection factory can also be divided into standard inspection factory or customized test factory.
Standards, such as the ISO series, have a unified set of audit checklist. No matter what organization is audited, they all use the same set of standards. Of course, they are all ISO certificates. However, due to the qualifications of auditors and industry reputation of different organizations, the content of gold is naturally different. It is recommended that you do not choose small organizations for the sake of greed, which is easy to lose more than gain.
If it is a customized two-party audit, it is the inspection report that the client informs the audit agency of its own requirements and demand points, and the agency formulates a checklist, auditor's instruction manual, etc. suitable for the client according to the customer's requirements and audit system standards, laws and regulations As well as the factory inspection required by the customer, all belong to the two-party audit.
 
3. Confirmation review
The customer agrees to audit and appoint an audit organization.
4. Payment
The customer or factory shall pay relevant expenses (such as audit fees and travel expenses) to the audit institution. The cost shall be paid by the factory or the customer, subject to the specific negotiation between the two parties.
5. Audit scheduling
After receiving the audit fee, the audit organization will contact the factory to collect the pre-audit questionnaire and make an appointment for the audit date. Inform the details of the appointment by email, including the auditors, the arrangement of the audit date, the name of the factory, the site address, the audit list/plan, etc.
6. Implementation audit
On the specified audit date or audit notification period, the auditors of the audit institution will carry out the audit at the site of the audited factory.
 
The audit process includes:
1. First meeting: After arriving at the site, the auditors will convene the enterprise representatives to hold the first meeting, briefly introduce the purpose of the audit, schedule, employee interview requirements, and answer the questions of the factory representatives.
2. On-site inspection: if it is a QMS audit, the auditors will carry out a series of inspections on the on-site fire-fighting facilities, maintenance of machinery and equipment, production quality control, raw materials and storage, etc; If it is a CRS audit, it will focus on social responsibility, human rights, child labor, occupational health, wages and hours, etc.
3. Document check: The auditors check the documents of the factory according to the requirements, mainly including the process flow, production records, warehouse entry and exit records, inspection records, employee wage and working hours records, employee information, etc.
4. Employee interview: not all factory inspection projects require employee interview. If yes, the employee interview is conducted independently, and the factory representative shall not intervene.
5. Final meeting: The auditors will issue a temporary audit report to summarize the problems in the factory and the areas to be improved. 6. Delivery of audit results
The auditor will issue a report. After the review, the client will receive a complete factory inspection report.
7. Rectification
According to the severity of the missing points in the audit report, the customer requires the factory to carry out a report on corrective and preventive measures, which may need to be reviewed again, depending on the seriousness of the problem and the requirements of the entrusting party.

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