By Michael Bournazian, Eng., Newsletter Editor, ASQ Senior Member, Quality Management Professional, CSSGB with Rolls-Royce
On October 2, 2024, I did something for the first time this decade: I visited a supplier to conduct an audit.
In pre-COVID times this was a normal occurence, however since March 2020 any supplier audit I conducted for my employer had to be conducted virtually. Even by 2022 when the world started fully “opening up” again, my immune-compromised being still continued to do these activities remotely; thanks to my understanding managers for agreeing to this.
So what made this audit different that made me decide to go onsite? Two reasons:
1) It’s not 2020, or even 2022, anymore. Even though COVID is still around, I have kept up-to-date on my booster shots. I have also decided that in certain not-so crowded environments, I can forego wearing a mask. So going to this supplier resulted in me not wearing a mask while in the conference room with their staff who were always a fair distance from me; that said, I would put a mask on when going into their shop, where the “employee density” was greater. It’s all about risk management.
2) This supplier is literally walking distance from my office! Seriously, I could have walked their in 20 minutes. So I can only imagine my manager’s reaction if had I said I was going to conduct this audit virtually as well.
In truth, it felt good to finally do a supplier audit onsite again. Yes, doing them virtually does work and plenty can be achieved; but there is something to be said for actually being there and talking to people in person and seeing the facility in the flesh.
**********************************************
Any feedback? Click on the link and let me know.
ALSO . . . Please contact me or any one else on the Leadership team if you would like to:
1) Write and submit an article to be published in the Newsletter.
2) Write a review of one of the upcoming monthly webinars for the “Had You Been There” section.
Thank you, all the best and none of the worst.