Factory auditing services comprise different features and functionalities. Some of the features and functionalities include:
Factory risk assessment
The advanced assessment and risk management tools of the solution, including risk calculators, risk heat maps and scorecards, provide an effective means to assess, detect, and manage critical risks associated with operations, policies, and practices of the supplier factory. These tools allow the key processes of identification and prioritization of risks using different color codes and establish solid controls to mitigate the risks. Graphical boards and analytical tools and techniques help monitor and analyse risks, and eliminate the possibility of problems and incidents by acting quickly on red flags.
Planning and scheduling a factory audit
Based on the country, the supplier and the risk rating of the factory, as well as relevant regulations and standards, auditors can create detailed audit plans with a well-defined scope, objectives, approval / rejection criteria, desired result and Target dates. The solution presents resource management and scheduling tools that can be leveraged to create an efficient audit team, assign projects to internal and external auditors, and notify relevant personnel of their audit tasks and responsibilities. The solution helps retailers and brands conduct scheduled and unscheduled audits. It also facilitates the activities prior to the audit and helps initiate visits and audits to the factories.
It allows organizations to examine the audit costs involved and, consequently, plan their audit budgets. The solution also provides the ability to thoroughly review the factory profile and historical audit data, such as summary reports of previous factory audits, complete documents related to factory operations and compliance processes, worker training documents and factory management and workflow records. The collaboration engine provides an efficient means to connect with suppliers, communicate performance and quality expectations and exchange key information related to the audit.
Execution of a factory audit
A good factory auditing company is equipped with full reports, built-in checklists and templates, and predefined rules that allow retailers and brands to automate and optimize their factory audit services. It is compatible with organizations in the collection of critical data, comparing them in predefined formats and designs and using a central repository to store and easily access data and records at anytime from anywhere in the world. Therefore, the solution allows a unified and simple approach to the management of audit data, and also provides a well-documented monitoring of all audit activities.
The offline and mobile audit kit provides the additional advantage to perform audits in factories of distant suppliers that are not connected to the corporate network of the organization or that do not have Internet access. The solution offers the possibility of later synchronizing this data with the central database.
Scoring, evaluation and analysis
A good factory auditing company offers multiple quantitative and qualitative questions to evaluate factory controls for quality and efficiency. Auditors can assign scores to factories based on the responses to each factor assessed through the audit. Unique score tables help measure and attribute points to each factory control area. Areas with zero control failures get the most points, while controls that were not tested do not get points. The solution finally calculates the “Percentage of efficiency and quality” of the factory as a percentage of the total points. These scores can be transferred to an easily printable and manageable document.
The workflow and collaboration engine of the solution supports smooth coordination and communication between external auditors, testing laboratories, the supplier factory and the organization. It offers a closed cycle process that helps auditors to accurately study the answers given by factories, detect inconsistencies and gaps, and approve or reject responses, as well as assess the need for new audits.
Issue monitoring and remediation
The solution has integrated incident management and remediation tools that help organizations detect, manage and track factory problems. They can be used to detect problems that point to several critical defects in the factory. Auditors can transmit this information to the provider to receive feedback and remediation.
The solution provides the flexibility to design and implement robust proactive corrective and corrective activities to help ensure that the required improvements are carried out in factories. It also helps to adopt a timely and effective follow-up of the planned remediation processes. The end result is that organizations gain sufficient over quality control services, production and safety risks, as well as factory performance.
Reports
The solution has reporting and monitoring tools to generate summaries and audit reports that provide a precise means to measure the findings and reflections of factory audits. Its tool and advanced capabilities help auditors obtain an in-depth and real-time view of the audit report.
The comprehensive database of the solution to previous audit results provides auditors and supplier factory managers with a comprehensive 360-degree understanding of the full history of factory audit processes. This paves the way for identifying consistent and frequent problem areas, as well as for understanding the steps taken by the factories to rectify previous problems.
Organizations can also precisely analyse volumes of audit data collected throughout the exercise. Illustrative boards help track each factory audit from start to finish, with added visibility and transparency in real time. Brands and retailers can monitor the infrastructure of suppliers’ factories, evaluate their spending and study the effectiveness of their investments.
