I’ve recently returned from a visit to our offices in China where I was able to attend a C-TPAT audit with our Supplier Development Manager, Jean Champlain.<\/p>\n
A C-TPAT audit isn’t quite as common as a general QMS or ISO 9001 evaluation, but the information generated has significant value when you understand the scope.<\/p>\n
“C\u2010TPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) seeks to safeguard the world’s vibrant trade industry from terrorists, maintaining the economic health of the U.S. and its neighbors. The partnership develops and adopts measures that add security but do not have a chilling effect on trade, a difficult balancing act.”<\/em><\/p>\n When we go on-site for a security audit, here’s the agenda:<\/p>\n The factory is notified in advance and requested to have all written procedures and examples of supporting documentation readily available for each question. We ask that individual questions be assigned to various departments\/individuals within the company. \u00a0All elements are evaluated based on what is done for the client’s parts\/products regardless of what is done for other customers. \u00a0The score for each question is assessed according to the following:<\/p>\n Complies with requirements<\/strong>: <\/em>Has objective evidence to support the question, and has a written procedure (when required).<\/p>\n Improvement needed:<\/strong> <\/em>Has objective evidence but procedure needs improvement, or maybe no written procedure or lacking objective evidence to support the question.<\/p>\n Non-conformance<\/strong>:<\/em> No objective evidence to support the question (regardless of procedure) or lacking some objective evidence and no written procedure.<\/p>\n The score is based on the percent of questions that conform to requirements, the percent that need improvement, and the percent that have a major non-conformance.<\/p>\n The factory I visited with Champlain was quite organized, and our auditor carefully went through everything and completed a detailed checklist that relates to each item. \u00a0Several representatives from the factory presented evidence and answered questions throughout the day. \u00a0During the closing meeting, we reviewed the findings and discussed a few points for corrective action.<\/p>\n\n
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Scoring includes:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Improvement plans include:<\/strong><\/h3>\n