As per Deepak Kharbanda, a factory audit is a crucial step in determining how effectively your firm complies with the required standards, especially when working with other businesses.
External auditing appears to be a bad move to take in a company. Many people and corporations dislike being audited, particularly by a third party. However, ensuring that you have standard quality products, processes, and services is a critical element of running a firm.
A factory audit does not have to be a difficult process, whether it is conducted by an external organization or by you on your own. A quality audit will be exactly like any other quality control in your organization if you perform properly and prepare the audit checklist thoroughly.
Organization of a quality management system
A successful factory audit should also evaluate the organization’s quality management system. These auditing criteria will assist your partner in determining whether or not your factory complies with its quality requirements.
Maintenance of basic facilities, the environment, and equipment
According to Deepak kharbanda, a basic and essential aspect of the overall quality audit process is a tour of the whole facility. A walkthrough reveals the facility’s current operations and environment. The auditor records their findings in a relevant section of the checklist covering general production facilities, environment, and equipment during the tour. Check for the following items in this area of your quality audit checklist:
- Cleaning and maintenance of equipment regularly, as well as a dedicated maintenance crew
- For dies and molds, proper storage conditions and methods are required
- Calibration of testing equipment regularly
Quality Controls For Materials and Components on the way in
Raw material quality concerns frequently influence the bulk of orders and are difficult and expensive to rework. You can’t revise a garment produced with the improper density cloth, for example, because the fabric isn’t up to snuff. You must restart manufacturing using the appropriate cloth.
To validate material and component controls at the manufacturing, your quality audit checklist should include the following:
- Inspections of incoming materials.
- Materials should be clearly labeled.
- Storage of goods properly to avoid contamination, especially if chemicals are involved.
- Clear, established procedures for choosing, maintaining, and assessing the quality performance of any sub-supplier.
Practices in HR recruiting and training
Factory turnover is high, which predicts production delays and quality difficulties in the future. Poor production performance can also be caused by the usage of temporary workers who have no formal training or contracts. As a result, this element becomes critical in an audit checklist to guarantee that all employees are properly trained and qualified.
Processes of Engineering and Design
The engineering, conception, and design procedures for the items must be at the top of your checklist. Your product research, design, and development talents should be mentioned. As a result, it entails going over your company’s patents, engineering documents, design equipment and tools, and work instructions that your employees faithfully follow to make the items.
Your auditors could also look through some product samples once they’ve been designed to see if they meet the needs of the customers.
Make a plan and organize it
Make sure you have a clear plan of what you want to accomplish before you start inspecting a supplier’s plant. It will aid in ensuring that the audit is thorough and beneficial.
Similarly, preparing your ideas and papers ahead of time can assist guarantee that nothing is overlooked during the audit.
Behavior in business development and management
A factory audit also necessitates a review of business development and management practices. This factor aids in determining how successfully the organization communicates with customers and conducts itself with business partners.
Quality Control
Meant to detect faults in individual processes as they develop during production and solve them before they influence the rest of the order. If your firm has insufficient quality controls throughout manufacturing, you’re likely to find a larger number of quality flaws in the completed items. A good quality audit checklist should include the following items:
- Ensure that all manufacturing units are fully functional and safe
- Separate acceptable and rejected items, usually in clearly labeled containers or crates
- For in-process quality control inspection, use a proper sample plan.
Follow up with the supplier after the audit is completed
It’s critical to follow up with the supplier after the audit is conducted to ensure that any concerns found have been remedied.
Inspection of the state of completed goods
The final item on the checklist is product inspection, which refers to the state of the finished goods after they have been manufactured and before they are delivered for distribution. As a result, this section of the audit entails finding any manufacturing flaws or quality faults in the items that may have gone unnoticed. Before the packing process can begin, they must be recognized. For more precise findings, the final goods inspection can be performed by a third party.
Conclusion:
It is critical to utilize the right instrument and technology to execute the audit properly between each auditor. Deepak Kharbanda has several tips that can assist auditors with their external audits, including a digital checklist and an issue tracker.