Customer Audits Require Fine-Toothed Focus

Large food or beverage companies – such as Sara Lee Bakery or Coca-Cola – do not normally conduct business with just any supplier. That’s why before a food manufacturer begins purchasing bulk quantities of any ingredient, a supplier must undergo a rigorous audit to win customer approval – and ultimately, the business.

Major customers Sara Lee Bakery and Coca-Cola, parent company to Minute Maid, recently conducted two such site audits at Imperial Sugar Company’s Port Wentworth refinery, where they were met by Tom Wilson, technical services manager.

Tom Wilson, technical services manager, listens carefully to customer questions during an audit.

Because the refinery was essentially shuttered for more than a year, Wilson explains, big customers view it now as a new facility.

“A lot of people, including Coke and Sara Lee, want to see the changes,” says Wilson. “We’ve changed dramatically what our facility looks like, how we do things and the equipment we do it on.”

The audit process began with a 20- to 30-page questionnaire, in which the manufacturer first explains what he’ll be looking at and then asks about a supplier’s HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) program. “It’s one of the programs that most customers are interested in,” Wilson says. “It’s one way we can show we’re not posing a health hazard.”

Provides a Roadmap

The document provides a roadmap for Wilson, who serves as a liaison for all audits. He involves managers from shipping, human resources, operations and production to look through the document and prepare for what comes next – the site visit by the customer.

Now, smaller customers may be satisfied once a supplier successfully completes a detailed audit questionnaire. Larger ones, however, will ask to send an auditor to tour and inspect the site. Since the reopening of the Port Wentworth refinery, says Wilson, he has walked roughly 60 different customers through their audits.

What exactly do customers look for during an audit, which typically lasts a day or two?

They start by reviewing documentation – what safety programs are in place, who does what and when. Then, the touring group – Wilson, an ISC sales representative and the customer – walk the refinery to observe associates on production lines performing their jobs.

“Customers will either say, ‘It’s supposed to happen like this. I saw it happen, it matched the description, so I’m OK.’ Or, ‘It didn’t match, so explain to me why,’” Wilson says.

To get a complete picture of a facility’s operation, an auditor will view a process at various times. “If we say a process happens every two hours, an auditor will check his watch so he can go back and see whether it happens again two hours from now.”

Operators Must Know

An auditor also may engage directly with the operators in the refinery, asking, “Where is your critical control point? What does HACCP stand? What are you monitoring?”

Says Wilson, “If an operator can’t answer the questions, the auditor knows right away that here’s an issue.”

Anyone in the role of auditor typically has a sharp eye and a background in food science, chemistry or engineering. And, he typically wants to see more than a snapshot of a single day. He wants to get an historical perspective of the operations. .

“He may thumb through the past six months of documentation and single out a particular day when the operator wrote down a note about something unusual. That means we should have created a corresponding corrective action plan,” Wilson says. That’s a strand for the auditor to follow to the end.

In one case, an ISC operator noted that a metal detector wasn’t working correctly. The “corrective action” was calling someone in the electrical department, who determined the power supply was faulty. To fix the problem, an engineer installed a new power supply, then restarted the equipment and verified the detector was working by running tests.

“We had documented that process, so the auditor was satisfied,” says Wilson.

The rigor is important, he explains. As one major customer told him, “If we’re buying from you, and you do something wrong, by default, we’re an accomplice.”

After much documentation and many hours of work, the Port Wentworth refinery has passed its Sara Lee and Coca-Cola audits with flying colors, meaning “let’s start talking about what we can provide you, delivery schedules and pricing,” says Wilson.

“It means we can now get back to the normal course of business and supply two of our major customers.”