A supplier audit should answer one question: can this specific facility repeatedly produce, control, document, and deliver the required product? A generic tour or certificate review cannot answer it. The audit must follow the proposed product through the real operating system.
Corporate identity and facility
- Legal name, registration, ownership, tax identity, and physical address
- Lease or ownership status and length of operation
- Organization chart and accountable commercial, engineering, quality, and operations leaders
- Customer concentration, relevant references, insurance, and material litigation or disruption disclosures
Process and equipment capability
Compare the RFQ to machines, ranges, tolerances, materials, tooling, fixtures, software, and operator qualifications. Verify calibration and preventive maintenance. Identify every external process and the controls applied to subcontractors.
Quality management
- Current certificates verified with their registrars
- Document and engineering-change control
- Incoming, in-process, final, and pre-shipment inspection
- Measurement-system control and calibration
- Nonconforming-material segregation and disposition
- Corrective-action methods and effectiveness checks
- Traceability, retention, and customer-complaint handling
Capacity and planning
Review demonstrated output, utilization, bottlenecks, staffing, shifts, changeover, scrap, planned maintenance, and committed customer demand. Capacity should be calculated at the proposed product mix and yield—not stated as a round percentage.
Supply-chain controls
Identify critical materials, approved sources, lead times, minimum orders, safety stocks, country of origin, and single-source dependencies. Review supplier qualification and change-notification procedures. Confirm how shortages and obsolete material are managed.
People, safety, and compliance
Review training records, turnover, safety programs, incident management, environmental obligations, labor practices, security, data protection, and any customer-specific code of conduct. Engage qualified specialists where legal or regulatory conclusions are required.
Export and delivery readiness
Inspect packaging validation, labels, pallet requirements, commercial invoices, packing lists, export records, broker coordination, Incoterms, transport lanes, and shipment tracking. Determine whether the team has exported comparable goods to the intended destination.
Business continuity
- Backup power, water, data, equipment, tooling, and critical personnel
- Fire, weather, security, and cyber incident response
- Alternate material and logistics routes
- Recovery-time expectations and customer communication
- Tooling access and transition support
Close with evidence and actions
Classify findings by risk, identify owners and due dates, and require objective closure evidence. Tie approval to the specific facility, process, product family, and conditions reviewed. Reaudit based on risk, change, and performance—not a calendar alone.
