Buyer resources
Come and walk the plant that would make your parts.
We do not keep a showcase factory, and we do not schedule visits for the day after a deep clean. Pick the shift, pick the line, and bring whoever you like — your own engineers or an agency you appoint.
Types of visit
Choose the depth that suits where you are.
A buyer evaluating us for the first time needs something different from a quality engineer closing out a corrective action. All four are available at any plant we operate.
Introductory visit
Half a day
A walk through the production hall and the laboratory with the plant manager and the process engineer who would run your part. No formal report, no scoring.
Notice: five working days
Supplier qualification audit
One to two days
Your standard checklist, worked through with our quality manager. Quality system, calibration, traceability, change control, subcontractor management and stores.
Notice: ten working days
Process audit
One day per part family
Your part followed through the route during a live run: setup, first-off, in-process checks, operator instructions, gauge study and the packing operation.
Notice: ten working days
Unannounced re-audit
At your discretion
Once a programme is in serial production you may arrive without notice, in writing at the gate. Access is contractual, not a favour, and covers the line running your part.
Notice: none required
Scope
What you can see, and the one thing you cannot.
Everything relevant to your parts is open. The only closed doors are the cells running another customer’s confidential process, which is the same protection we give you.
Production floor
The machines and lines that would run your part, during a live shift. Photography allowed on the areas covered by your programme.
Metrology and laboratory
Measuring room, calibration records, gauge studies, and for the bio-based plants the microbiology and HPLC laboratories.
Records and systems
Control plans, work instructions, training records, non-conformance and corrective action files, change control and supplier scorecards.
Stores and dispatch
Incoming inspection, segregation of held stock, first-in-first-out control, packing area and the finished goods hold.
People and conditions
Working hours and wage records, canteen and accommodation where provided, effluent treatment and the emergency systems.
Closed to visitors
Dedicated cells operating another customer’s confidential process, and their document stores. You get the same treatment when yours is the cell.
Before you arrive
We send the file in advance so the day is spent on the floor.
An audit spent reading documents in a meeting room tells you very little. Everything readable goes to you a week ahead, so the visit itself can be spent watching work happen.
- Plant profile: floor plan, headcount, shift pattern, equipment list
- Certificate set with numbers, scopes and expiry dates
- Organisation chart naming the people you will meet
- Previous audit findings and their closure evidence
- Production schedule so you can pick the shift your part runs on
How a qualification audit usually runs
- 1 Opening meeting, thirty minutes. Scope confirmed, safety briefing, and the plant manager and quality manager introduced. No presentation.
- 2 Floor walk, most of the morning. Material flow followed from goods-in to dispatch, stopping wherever you want to talk to an operator.
- 3 Records against a live part. You pick a shipped lot; we retrieve every record behind it while you watch, which is the fastest test of a traceability system.
- 4 System review. Calibration, training, change control, non-conformance handling and subcontractor management against your checklist.
- 5 Closing meeting. Findings agreed and signed on the day. We do not negotiate a finding out of existence; we agree a date and an owner for it.
Closing findings out
A corrective action plan reaches you within ten working days of the closing meeting, with an owner and a date against each finding. Major findings are verified on a production lot and evidenced with records, not with a photograph of a tidied bench. You may re-audit to verify closure at our cost where the finding was ours.
Agencies we host
If you would rather send an agency than travel, we work regularly with the major inspection houses and will accept any competent body you nominate.
- SGS
- TÜV Rheinland and SÜD
- Bureau Veritas
- Intertek
- DNV
- SMETA social audit bodies
Pre-shipment inspection can be made a standing condition of your purchase order, with release of the container conditional on the agency’s report.
Practical arrangements
- Cost
- No charge from us for the visit itself. You cover your own travel; a third-party agency invoices you directly.
- Language
- The audit is conducted in English, Mandarin, Vietnamese or Spanish. The people answering are the people doing the work, not interpreters.
- Safety
- Safety shoes, glasses and hearing protection provided at the gate. Fermentation and chemical areas require a short site induction first.
- Confidentiality
- Visitors sign a mutual NDA covering what they see. Photography is agreed area by area in the opening meeting.
- Getting there
- Every plant is within roughly ninety minutes of an international airport. We arrange the transfer and can hold rooms nearby.
Name a plant and a week.
Choose “Factory audit or supplier qualification” on the enquiry form and tell us which plant and which week suits you. We confirm a slot within two working days and send the plant profile, certificate set and audit history straight away.