A brand client asks for the paperwork
A brand you manufacture for is preparing their product file and asks for the specification, safety data sheet and allergen statement for every ingredient in their three products. That is thirty-odd raw materials. Some documents are in the shared drive, some in the buyer's inbox, some only as a printout in a lever arch file. Several are years old, and one supplier has since changed the product name.
It takes the best part of a week to gather, and the brand client notices the gaps.
Documents arrive; nobody files them
Every raw material comes with paperwork, and more is requested over time. None of it is complicated. It is just scattered, because the job of filing it belongs to nobody.
- Specifications, safety data sheets and statements arrive attached to supplier emails.
- Certificates of analysis come with each delivery and are kept with the goods-in paperwork, if at all.
- Nobody has a list of which documents you require for each ingredient.
- Suppliers update documents without telling you, and old versions stay in use.
- Documents are filed by supplier in some places and by ingredient in others.
What scattered paperwork costs
Requests from brand clients, retailers and your own safety assessor come in regularly and each one becomes a search. Gaps discovered under deadline are hard to close, because suppliers take time to respond. Out-of-date documents can go into a product file unnoticed. Which documents you need, and how current they must be, is for you and your adviser to decide. We keep track of the ones you decide on.
The buyer usually carries this in their head, along with prices and lead times. When they change suppliers for a raw material, which happens whenever a supplier discontinues a grade or raises a price, a whole new set of documents is needed, and the old supplier's papers stay in the folder looking current.
A supplier document register
- You tell us which document types you require for raw materials, such as specification, safety data sheet, certificate of analysis per lot, and any statements your clients ask for.
- Each raw material has a record listing those document types, with the current file, its date and the version in use.
- Supplier emails are read from the purchasing inbox, and attachments that look like documents for a known material are filed against it for a person to confirm.
- Certificates of analysis are attached to the lot they relate to at goods in, by scanning the container label.
- Missing documents, and documents older than the review period you set, appear on a list, with a draft request to the supplier ready to send.
- When a client or assessor asks for documents for a product, the register assembles them for every ingredient in the current formula, with gaps listed.
| Request | Answered today by | With the register |
|---|---|---|
| All documents for one product | Days of searching | Assembled from the formula, gaps listed |
| CoA for a particular lot | Goods-in paperwork | Attached to the lot |
| Is this SDS current? | Unknown | Date and review status shown |
| What are we missing? | Found under deadline | Gap list kept up to date |
Paperwork that is ready when asked
Requests from brand clients become a download with a short list of gaps, which you chase in your own time rather than under pressure. Old documents are replaced before anyone else notices. The buyer does not have to be the only person who knows where things are.
Is this you?
- Supplier documents are spread across inboxes, drives and folders.
- Brand clients' document requests take days to answer.
- You are not sure some documents are the current version.
- CoAs are not linked to the lots they belong to.
- Nobody has a list of which documents each ingredient needs.