Strict Field Audits Ensure Quality Products
Before raw ingredients even reach our manufacturing facility they’ve
already been tested many times to confirm their quality, purity, and
potency. Several times a year, our Quality Assurance (QA) team travels
to destinations around the world to visit Synergy WorldWide/Nature’s
Sunshine ingredient vendors for routine audits. This is, of course,
after the vendor has undergone a meticulous selection process to
evaluate their processes and procedures. The fact that our QA team
conducts regular vendor audits, physically visiting the sites where our
ingredients are harvested or produced, sets us apart.
Vendor Audits
The vendor selection process begins in Purchasing. If a new Synergy
product calls for never-before-used ingredients, experts from our
Purchasing department search for vendor candidates around the world.
Once a vendor passes an initial round of screening, the QA team then
works with Research and Development to perform an on-site audit of the
new vendor. New vendors must be audited before Synergy uses any of their
materials, while existing vendors are audited every 2-3 years. Today,
many of the company’s preferred vendors have been supplying raw
materials to Nature’s Sunshine since the 1970s. Risk assessments based
on country, material, and supplier, are conducted every year and play a
part in deciding which existing vendors are due to be audited.
When we begin inspecting a vendor’s facility (or farm, orchard,
plantation, etc.) we make sure that they follow Good Manufacturing
Practices (GMP) — a system that was created to minimize the risk of any
pharmaceutical production that cannot be eliminated through testing the
final product. Synergy products are also tested and manufactured
following GMP requirements.
On-Site Inspections
A typical inspection begins with Synergy QA experts overseeing every
step through which a particular raw material will undergo. During this
process, all of the on-site facilities are meticulously evaluated,
including the bathrooms where sanitation items like soap and hot water
is confirmed to be available. Vendors without access to hot water for
proper employee hygiene immediately fail. This is just one example of
our strict standards against which a vendor is evaluated.
The vendor’s on-site quality control areas and practices are evaluated
next. This way, Synergy is able to ensure that the vendor’s quality
processes match our own. Following this evaluation comes the most
time-consuming part of vendor audits: documentation assessment. Our QA
team asks for random sanitation, quality control, specification,
stability, pest control, GMP training, employee training, calibration,
validation, environmental micro monitoring, change control, and recall
procedure documents, all to ensure that the vendor is maintaining
consistent, clean, and safe processes.
In addition to information about the raw materials, our team speaks to
the vendor about their green initiatives. What are they doing to be
eco-friendly? What do they do with hazardous waste? How do they maximize
their energy efficiency? How do they recycle? Are they involved in any
sustainability projects? Synergy prefers to partner with and support
suppliers who are passionate about doing their part in preserving the
earth.
The investment into field audits and all of our QA procedures is made
year after year to solidify our reputation as the premier provider of
dependable, effective products that synergistically combine science and
nature. Nothing but excellence will do when it comes to the products you
trust from Synergy.
Take a look at our videos that illustrate our commitment to quality, purity, and potency:
