Our workflow, showing the inspections and audits done at each stage of the purchasing process for buyers and traders:
To help you select a high-quality supplier, we offer three varieties of supplier selection:
- Extensive Quality Audit (EQA): Checks a supplier’s complete quality management system per ISO 9001.
- Simple Quality Audit (SQA): Checks the most important aspects of a supplier’s quality management system per ISO 9001.
- Social Audit (SA): Checks if a supplier is treating its employees in an ethical manner.
- Environmental Audit (EA): Checks if a supplier is conforming to required environmental regulations and international environmental standards.
Why get a Supplier Selection Audit?
- See that your the supplier is professional
- Ensure that your supplier is capable of producing the product(s) you need with adequate quality standards
- Prevent scams
- Learn that you are truly dealing with a factory and not a middle trader
Which Supplier Selection Audit is right for me?
To give you maximum quality assurance, we recommend getting an Extensive Quality Audit, as this audit checks the conformance of quality criteria in great depth (per the ISO 9001 standard).
If you are a smaller company, but still want to invest in a Supplier Selection Audit, than the Simple Quality Audit, our most economical Supplier Selection Audit, is likely the best choice for you. This audit is not as in-depth nor as long as our Extensive Quality Audit, however, it still covers important quality criteria that can greatly help in ensuring that you choose a supplier that is right for you.
If environmental factors are important to the selection of your supplier, then we also recommend an Environmental Audit, which checks that a supplier is conforming to required environmental regulations and international environmental standards (e.g. ISO 14001, etc.).
If the social practices of your supplier, those which can affect your company’s image, are important to the selection of your supplier, then we also recommend a Social Audit, which checks that a supplier is worthy of your trust and operates as a good corporate citizen via various standards (i.e. SA 8000, etc.).
If you are unsure about which Supplier Selection Audit(s) may be best for you, contact us and we can provide you with a free no-obligation consultation.
Where are inspections performed?
We perform Supplier Selection Audits at supplier factories throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Asian Pacific.
Why choose NORTHCERT to help you select your supplier?
Choosing a supplier can be a very difficult process if you cannot visit the supplier yourself or if you do not have the knowledge needed to make a proper assessment of the supplier. NORTHCERT can put people at your potential supplier’s location (see locations below) with the competence needed to perform a proper assessment of that supplier.