Vendor Compliance

Vendor Compliance (Audit)

At Pro QC, vendor compliance encompasses all the services required to ensure suppliers and sub-suppliers pass a certifying audit for each required retail compliance standard.

Selling to big retailers

When your company decides to sell products to big retail stores, there’s is an exhaustive application process and criteria that must be fulfilled before your products land on the retailer’s shelves.

One of the most important criteria is to ensure the supply chain of your products comply to that specific retailer’s own vendor compliance criteria. The standards can be called Standard Of Supplier, Supplier Code of Conduct, Responsible Sourcing and many other names. We will call it the vendor compliance program.

If the top tier supplier or sub-suppliers in your supply chain fail to comply with the retailer’s vendor compliance program, you run the risk of your suppliers being penalized. This normally means a refusal to sell to this retailer for between 6 months and 2 years. In some cases, if your suppliers fail to sustain the needed performance or receive multiple violations, it will result in a permanent ban. The figure below details some of the points in your supply chain in which violations can occur.

These vendor compliance or supplier code of conduct requirements are often a mix of Quality Management System (QMS) and/or Social, Environmental and Supply Chain Security as described under our Factory & Supplier Audit service page. Here are a few examples:

• Financial integrity
• Verification of insurance, as applicable
• Wages & benefits
• Child & voluntary labor & hours
• Safety & health
• Fire safety & prevention

• Bribery & ethics
• Environmental stewardship & sustainability
• Global security criteria
• Compliance with laws & regulations
• Training and documentation
• Quality assurance & control

Pro QC’s Vendor Compliance Solution

We understand that simply sourcing from foreign suppliers is difficult. To ensure these suppliers adhere to extensive vendor compliance measures adds even more workload to your team and are often out of your control.

Pro QC’s Vendor Compliance program helps you regularly manage the compliance level of your supplier portfolio and ensure each supplier and sub-supplier meets all compliance requirements as requested by the retailer, in a cost-effective manner. This is accomplished with a series of targeted factory compliance audits, which are structured according the retailers’ specific vendor compliance requirements. In the figure below, we use Walmart as an example and demonstrate what is required to ensure vendor compliance.

Our clients often request support ahead of the formal certification or vendor compliance audit by the retailer. This preparatory vendor compliance audit support ensures that your company’s suppliers adhere/conform to all necessary requirements and can pass the formal certification or factory compliance audit. Our team can:

• Perform a vendor compliance audit to assess the supplier’s conformance level
• Develop a corrective action plan according to the result of the supplier audit
• Provide supplier quality assurance consulting and training as required
• Include corrective action management and monitor implementation progress

It is important to understand that an accredited certifying company can only offer a pass/fail result. The certifying company must avoid a conflict of interest by providing both a pass/fail assessment and supplier or factory improvement services on behalf of retailers. Therefore, it is important for you to look for a non-conflicting quality assurance partner like Pro QC when managing your supply chain compliance and any follow-up supplier audit corrective action period.

Pro QC’s vendor compliance solutions include the following retailers

Results you can expect

Why Pro QC ?

Experts in Vendor Compliance and Supplier Quality Management – We have access to the latest retail store factory compliance audit standards and have worked with all the top retailers for decades. We have successfully helped our clients pass big retailer supplier qualification program compliance audits and prominently place their products on the shelves of their preferred retailer.

Facilitating Implementation – We provide more than a Pass/Fail vendor audit. We intend to work with you and your partner supplier every step of the way to achieve vendor compliance.

Corrective Action Supplier Audits – We deliver comprehensive reports leading to a corrective action plan and progress report that clearly explains the required areas of improvement to achieve vendor compliance. We show activities conducted on the day of each factory audit with clear photo evidence as required.

Daily Communication – We maintain a daily communication with our clients and suppliers via your preferred medium of communication (e.g. WeChat, WhatsApp, Skype, Slack, etc.) for a more effective collaboration, and act as your QA consulting partner, so you can quickly achieve vendor compliance, throughout your supplier quality management program.

Sample Reports

Get in touch with us for a sample report. Our team will be happy to give you more information on the retail store you are working with.