Quality assurance actions after complaint notification

By using a detailed complaint management procedure all complaints concerning IFS audits, reports, certificates or other circumstances in which the integrity of the IFS brand is in question are collected and analyzed at the IFS offices. Retailers, certification bodies, employees of IFS-certified companies or any person can use the complaint form on the IFS website www.ifs-certification.com or can send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to get in contact with IFS in this respect. In addition to any received complaint all data uploaded into IFS database are investigated and analyzed by using automatic procedures regarding possible deficiencies. If IFS Quality Assurance Management is informed of significant discrepancies between results of an IFS audit and subsequent retailer audit, this will be investigated within the complaint management process as described as follows. The IFS offices will gather all necessary information in order to investigate the cause of the complaint and to establish if there are deficiencies by certified companies, accredited certification bodies or IFS-approved auditors in meeting IFS requirements. Appropriate steps are taken to fully investigate a complaint, which may include a request to a certification body to carry out internal investigations and to provide a statement on the outcome of their investigations to IFS. In the event that a complaint cannot be successfully resolved by the investigation carried out by the certification body, an on-site investigation audit will be undertaken at the certified company (s). In general, investigation audits are announced 48 hours before the audit date. In special cases unannounced audits are carried out as well. Witness audits can also be performed. In this case, Integrity auditors assess an IFS auditor during a regular IFS audit. All audits within the Integrity Program are carried out by independent auditors directly commissioned by IFS. 

 

Sanctions

If, following a complaint or preventive quality assurance actions, the cause of a deficiency has been found and detected to be the fault of a certification body and/ or an auditor, IFS will forward all necessary information anonymously to an independent Sanction Committee. The Sanction Committee, which consists of a lawyer and participants from industry, retailers and certification bodies, shall make a decision on whether a breach exists and on its severity. Topics concerning administrative faults of certification bodies based on database investigations can be directly assessed by the IFS Quality Assurance Management, but have to be confirmed by the chairman (lawyer) of the sanction committee. Sanctions will be issued to the certification body and/ or its auditors if the Sanction Committee concludes that a breach has been committed. The type of sanction depends on the number of breaches previously committed by the auditor and/ or the certification body as well as the level of severity of such breaches. IFS Management informs the appropriate accreditation body if a breach for a certification body and/ or for an auditor has been established.

 

Preventive quality assurance actions

Regardless of a possible complaint quality assurance measures in order to control the IFS system are conducted regularly in the form of surveillance audits at the certification bodies (CB Office Audit) and at suppliers (on-site Supplier Audit). The selection process of certification bodies and companies for these surveillance audits takes place according to objective criteria. These criteria are both economic criteria (e.g. number of issued certificates) and quality criteria (e.g. the review and analyses of IFS certification processes and corresponding reports). During a CB Office Audit, taking place at the accredited certification body´s premises, the quality of selected certification procedures is verified by documentary check. During an on-site Supplier Audit at a certified company the present situation is compared with the existing information in the IFS database. An IFS auditor can also be accompanied by an auditor of the IFS Integrity Program during a regular IFS audit (Witness Audit).