Factory audit

Introduction to Amazon Factory Inspection

  With the gradual decline of physical store business and the increasing development of e-commerce, Amazon's cross-border e-commerce business has become increasingly influential in China. For the suppliers of self-owned brand products on the platform, Amazon requires them to undergo an inspection in accordance with the Amazon Social Responsibility Audit Standards. Recently, more and more export enterprises have sought consultation on Amazon factory inspections. Many export enterprises are very concerned about what special requirements are there for Amazon's social responsibility inspections? How can they pass the Amazon social responsibility inspections? 

In fact, the Amazon factory inspection mainly covers two aspects: Amazon Social Responsibility Standards Audit (Amazon Social Responsibility Standards, abbreviated as Amazon Social Responsibility Inspection or Amazon Human Rights Inspection) and Amazon Factory Quality Audit (FQA Inspection). Today, we will focus on analyzing the relevant requirements and difficulties of the Amazon Social Responsibility Inspection. 

The Amazon factory inspection is conducted by entrusting a third-party foreign auditing institution. The quality and technical factory inspection includes: TUV Rheinland, ITS SGS, BV Buret; the social responsibility auditing institutions include: ELEVATE (Hong Kong Da'an), BV Buret International Inspection Group, etc. The auditing by the third party for social responsibility is semi-notified. The surprise inspection period is half a month and can be conducted at any time. The quality and technical auditing has a one-week surprise window period. However, Amazon requires the auditing company to call the enterprise one day in advance to inform the enterprise that an audit is coming. 

Amazon is committed to conducting business in a legal and ethical manner, including collaborating with suppliers who share the same principles. To ensure that the facilities of suppliers (including but not limited to company offices, manufacturing plants, external logistics and distribution facilities, external customer service sites, and distribution centers; collectively referred to as "sites") have fair and safe working conditions, we require suppliers to comply with Amazon's "Supplier Code of Conduct", which sets minimum standards for our suppliers and requires them to adhere to the requirements of any relevant laws. We encourage suppliers to implement their own standards, as long as these standards can provide equal or greater protection for employees. 

Whether the suppliers comply with the guidelines will be verified by Amazon, including conducting third-party audits of the on-site sites and independent interviews with the employees. During the audit process, the suppliers must promptly allow the auditors to inspect the sites and interview the employees. If any problems are identified during the audit, Amazon will require the suppliers to provide a detailed remediation plan shortly after the audit is completed and take corrective and preventive measures promptly. Amazon will track and supervise the remediation work, and relevant business personnel will also regularly review the implementation of the improvement efforts. To clarify the requirements of the guidelines and to facilitate your compliance, we have provided these social responsibility standards for you. Amazon expects you to adopt these standards when developing and implementing your own management system. 

Seven key issues in Amazon's factory inspection

1. Company legality: The customer verifies the legality and safety of the company by reviewing documents such as the business license, tax registration certificate, and fire safety diagram. 

2. Child labor and underage workers: The company strictly prohibits the employment of children under the age of 16. We can accept the employment of underage workers aged between 16 and 18, but it is necessary to have the approval from government departments and take practical actions to ensure the physical and mental health of the underage workers. 

3. Discrimination: The company is not allowed to exhibit any form of discrimination in the recruitment and promotion of employees based on factors such as gender, race, age, or religion. The inspection team will typically review the personnel files of all current employees, as well as the personnel files and labor contracts of those who have left the company in the past six months. 

4. Working hours: The company must ensure that workers have rest time in accordance with local laws and regulations. Workers should have at least one day of rest per week, and the total working hours per week should not exceed 60 hours. 

5. Labor remuneration: For overtime work during regular hours and on statutory holidays, the wages of employees should be paid at the rates stipulated by local laws. Moreover, the monthly salary must not be lower than the local minimum wage standard. Guests usually review the attendance records and salary payment records of the employees for the past 3 months or 12 months. 

6. Punitive measures: Guests do not accept any form of fines, physical abuse or other measures taken by the company against its employees. They also do not tolerate any acts of forced labor by the company. 

7. Health and Safety: The company must provide a healthy and safe working environment, as well as necessary environmental protection measures and relevant licenses. Specialized employees must hold the corresponding operation certificates. 

  Amazon Amazon Factory Audit CAP Plan

  How to write a good CAP (Improvement Action Plan) for Amazon factory audits? Today, the factory audit coaching expert Henan BVI will teach you together. An improvement action plan (CAP) refers to a document that records any issues found during an audit and the results of the root cause analysis conducted by the factory. We will discuss this process in the following training session: 

1. CAP is a tool that enables factories to communicate with Amazon about how to improve certain issues. 

2. Amazon commits to working with the factories to establish a management system for social responsibility. The Amazon Social Responsibility team will assist in answering questions and providing guidance. 

3. An effective CAP should include an improvement plan for addressing immediate problems, as well as measures to prevent their recurrence. The CAP should be as detailed as possible, and clear completion times and corresponding responsible persons should be set for each improvement action. 

A brief summary of the CAP management process: 

1. When conducting a social responsibility audit, the auditor uses the CAP template to record the issues identified during the audit. A preliminary CAP will be shared with the factory during the summary meeting of the audit. 

2. The review team will conduct a quality assessment of the CAP to ensure that the identified issues and proposed solutions are clear and accurate, and are in line with Amazon's social responsibility standards. 

3. After the quality assessment, Amazon will send the CAP to the factory in the form of an Excel table, usually within ten days after the review. The factory needs to conduct a root cause analysis for the issues listed in the CAP and formulate an action plan. Once the CAP response is completed, the factory will send the CAP to Amazon via email for review. 

4. If the content of CAP requires more information from Amazon, then CAP will be sent back to the factory for further clarification. 

5. Once CAP is completed, Amazon believes that the factory already has a practical and sustainable plan to address the social responsibility issues. Then CAP will be accepted. Amazon will send an email to the factory informing them that CAP has been accepted. The relevant business personnel of Amazon can discuss the next steps with the factory (such as training or the next audit date) 

6. In order to quickly and effectively address the issues identified during the audit, we require the factory to submit a complete and acceptable CAP within two weeks of receiving it. Therefore, we suggest that the factory submit the CAP as soon as possible for discussion and explanation. 

A high-quality improvement action plan should contain five key elements: 

1: Conduct root cause analysis (RCA) for the problem 

2: Provide a detailed explanation of how to solve the problem at its root. 

3: Set and implement a plan to prevent the recurrence of problems 

4: Set the time for improvement and the relevant person in charge 

5: Provide corresponding evidence of the completion of the improvement.