There are many benefits of supplier audits. It needs the right supplier audit preparation by the retailers. There are many supplier audit examples you can find online. However, the audit plans and preparation differs with industry type. There are many third-party audit agencies, which you can hire. This is the best practice to do before you deal with a supplier in trading. This will avoid many types of financial losses. However, the retailer can plan and chart the right way to do it. They can discuss with the audit team and do as per their audit plan.
Why supplier audits are important?
Every retailer must plan and prepare an audit of their supplier. A supplier will take this as an external audit. However, you will be sending a third-party audit company to check them as per your supplier audit preparation chart. This will ensure the below mentioned features.
- Take up quality standards
- Ensure for proper documentation.
- You can identify for the potential risks any with your supplier.
- Recover the cost for any defects.
- Improve better communication with your supplier.
- Ultimately benefits your customers with better quality and customer satisfaction.
The supplier audit report will give you how your supplier is with production capacity, their labor, industrial safety, and they follow the compliance or not. You can only deal with a supplier, who is not having any labor issues, did not renew their business license and not following the best in industrial practice. For this, a retailer must prepare a proper audit plan as per their needs.
Pre Audit Research
Before preparing a supplier audit, you must do pre-audit research of your supplier. This can be with the previous audit reports and by a discussion with the main staffs. By this, you can add more points to add with your checklist.
Check Online Reputation
Today, one can find many consumer forums online. You can check the reputation of your supplier online too. This will include good and bad comments. You must deal with a supplier who has more good comments than bad comments. The bad comments are with the poor quality of a product and their services.
Prepare a Checklist
After identifying the potential risks, you must prepare a checklist. This must be clear to focus on either issue with or questions.
Find a Trusted Audit Firm
You must send a third-party auditing company to do various audits with your supplier. You must hire the service from a trusted audit agency. They will do as per your audit plans. Finally, they will give you the audit report.
A retailer can analyze the report and see they are eligible to produce bulk quantities of goods. They must also deliver on time. You can proceed further with sending work order. The supplier auditing is not a one-time service. You need them for a long-term to improve quality. This will make you do better business and with your supplier too. These are the best practices a retailer must follow in the present world.