The Growing Importance Of Regular Audits For Small Factories
Brands usually outsource manufacturing processes and need to ensure that factories are up to scratch in their conditions and practices. Small factories, in particular, need to make sure their practices are up to standard and reassurances aren’t enough. A factory audit is a standardized practice that determines if a supplier conforms to the standards required by the brand.
The insights gained from factory audits are essential to help with an understanding of any weaknesses related to requirements and prevent potential supply chain delays. While audits have an upfront cost, they provide long-term value by verifying the reliability, trustworthiness and competence of suppliers to limit risk in the supply chain.
Improve product quality
Product quality issues can quickly turn into public relations nightmares and put off customers. Quality audits offer the intelligence needed to keep improving all aspects of product quality.
Audits can help to track major and minor non-conformances and the data can provide insights into weaknesses that may not have been visible before. This enables corrective action to be taken. Audit management software is available from https://www.etq.com/audit-management/ that helps businesses to manage the whole audit process from planning to approval.
Improve processes
If all the processes are working effectively, your company can produce products more efficiently and minimize overall operating costs. Manufacturing audits examine all the workflows of production and assess the efficiency of equipment and machines, tracking how much time it takes to produce a finished product.
A reliable supplier must deliver products on time and meet order quantities. Audits can track order entry accuracy, correct invoicing, warehouse pick accuracy, on-time deliveries and orders shipped without damage.
Most third-party auditing companies will prepare a corrective action plan (CAP) to outline where a supplier can make improvements. Conducting a follow-up audit can verify that improvements have been implemented. Continually improving processes can help to drive up customer trust and the opportunity to sell to them again.
Protect brand reputation
The quality of a product a company sells is heavily dependent on the auditing running in the background. Audits can help to ensure that products are non-hazardous and safe for customers to use.
A social compliance audit can help a brand to manage social compliance risks like unethical labor practices or factory disasters that could impact its reputation. There are so many factors that can ruin the reputation of a brand today and regular audits can help to identify risks and provide suggestions on how to minimize them.
Meet environmental requirements
An environmental audit examines factory practices and procedures to determine whether they meet local and international environmental laws and regulations. It involves investigating and documenting issues like waste management, water and sewage, air pollution and soil contamination.
An audit can identify areas for improvement and help brands to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability which will strengthen their reputation in the market. Consumers are pressing suppliers to minimize their environmental impact with regard to issues like resource consumption and prevention of pollution.
Comply with ethical requirements
An ethical audit will look at factors like working conditions in the factory, work hours, pay rates and more. It will establish whether the factory complies with statutory requirements related to the company and to international standards. Many companies today impose codes of conduct such as stipulating minimally acceptable working conditions.
An audit can establish that people who made products were not exploited and that the products do not present any risks to the health and safety of consumers. Audits tend to spark greater improvements when they are performed by trained auditors who not only detect problems but suggest solutions.