Need Advice for Unannounced Audit Planning

Hii all...

 

I wanna ask you, what if the auditors came to our company while it was a night shift..

Is that possible they come when it was the night shift?

 

When the night shift, there is only a production team that would stand by in the company, so if the auditors wanna audit other departments, that will be difficult for us..

 

Please any advice or any experience when you guys face the unannounced audit?

 

Thanks

As far as I know, the auditor may visit company only when there is a QA personnel: it's common sense as the auditor will need to inquire QA documentation, records, etc. for FSMS assessment. How would they do it without QA? However, let's see what other experts say.

It would be interesting to know what standard you are being audited against. I don't think any of the major GFSI auditors would come by at night. They want to see your processes in operation and night shifts may be less than fully staffed.
Generally, GFSI groups send an agenda that lists a start time window.

Thank you olenazh and Setanta.

FYI. we are currently FSSC 22000 certified

There's a lot of companies that only run sanitation overnight, so wouldn't do a ton of good for an auditor to show up middle of the night in those cases.  That said, I've had auditors come in early to see the end of a night shift production run and stay late in the afternoon to observe a shift change from morning to swing.  Those cases were on second and third days of known audits, so not helpful to the unannounced question.

 

I think it would be very unlikely for an auditor to want to wake up before dawn to drop in unannounced.  Not to mention that many plants don't staff their front offices at night, so no one would be there to receive them.  If that's the case for your plant, you could arguably keep your night shift trained in food defense to deny entry to visitors and request they return during office hours.  Hard to see an auditor fight that if somehow they did decide to show up at midnight.

They are humans, I don't think they want to go in the middle of the night.  The auditor wants to have the audit go smooth as far as getting the cooperation from the site to review everything.  They generally know that would not be likely in the middle of the night.  They may come to observe either later in the evening or early in the morning, but generally they like to work regular day time hours. If you have pre-op they may want to come and see that of course.

Unannounced audits are a little scary. But if you have the following ready, you should not be worried at all: 

 

1. All management /leadership team is on the same page and committed for food safety. 
2. All documents (policies, procedures, forms, SOPs) are reviewed for this year
3. All records are kept up to date
4. All CARs are closed, documented and accessible.
5. GMP inspection are conducted, documented and accessible
6. Sanitation is regularly done, records are kept and Master sanitation plan available 
7. All employees are trained on food safety/GMP (refresher and annually) - records available 
8. Pest control program exist, documented and records are available 
9. Overall building inside and outside looks in good repair and trash free
10. Recall records area available and complete. If no recall, you should have at least 1 mock recall record in a year. You should be able to have a system in place to track/find a product if chosen by the auditor. 

 

If you have the above 10 items, you might pass. 

 

Unannounced audits are a little scary. But if you have the following ready, you should not be worried at all: 

 

1. All management /leadership team is on the same page and committed for food safety. 
2. All documents (policies, procedures, forms, SOPs) are reviewed for this year
3. All records are kept up to date
4. All CARs are closed, documented and accessible.
5. GMP inspection are conducted, documented and accessible
6. Sanitation is regularly done, records are kept and Master sanitation plan available 
7. All employees are trained on food safety/GMP (refresher and annually) - records available 
8. Pest control program exist, documented and records are available 
9. Overall building inside and outside looks in good repair and trash free
10. Recall records area available and complete. If no recall, you should have at least 1 mock recall record in a year. You should be able to have a system in place to track/find a product if chosen by the auditor. 

 

If you have the above 10 items, you might pass. 

 

Hi Mr. Sayed,

 

After reading the list above, I feel quite calm because we have done these 10 items. We really hope, we could pass this unannounced audit hahahaha

 

Thanks for your sharing

In all the time I've worked in the food industry, I've never seen any auditor show up at night (announced or unannounced).

I think it's save to assume they'll come during the day.