On-Site Factory Audit in Turkey for TR CU 017
A one-day audit and sampling visit to an Istanbul t-shirt factory: the five steps, what to confirm before travelling, and why ISO 9001 shortens it.
The site
Factory audit and training
For an audit, the first reply says which scheme audits the factory, how many days it takes and what the auditor opens first.
How it works
Five steps from an inquiry to a registered certificate
You send the request
Product name, HS code and technical data, enough for us to scope the route.
Your part
We confirm the route
A specialist confirms the regulations that apply and the document type your product needs.
Our part
Documents and contract
You send the supporting documents; we sign a contract with fixed scope and timeline.
Both sides
Testing and inspection
Laboratory testing, factory inspection and customs clearance, coordinated by us.
Our partYou receive the certificate
Issued, registered, and delivered. We close the project.
Your part
- One named specialist One person owns your file from the first email to the registered certificate.
- Route fixed before testing Scheme, standard and laboratory are settled before a sample is tested, which is where most re-testing starts.
- Registered documents Certificates and declarations issued by accredited bodies and entered in the official register, where customs can look them up.
- Measured by the document The engagement ends when the certificate is issued and registered, whatever the hours took.
The short answer
The audit date sets the whole schedule
Several certification schemes assess the factory as well as the product. Several certification schemes assess the factory as well as the product: an initial audit of the production site before the certificate issues, and periodic surveillance afterwards to keep it valid. An audit is the item that most often turns a project measured in weeks into one measured in months, and unlike testing it cannot be accelerated by paying more — the constraint is auditor availability and the site’s own readiness. We identify whether a scheme requires one, prepare the site and its records against what the auditor will look for, attend, and train the people who have to answer.
- Initial audit, then surveillance An initial audit of the production site comes before the certificate issues, and periodic surveillance afterwards keeps it valid.
- Weeks become months An audit is the item that most often turns a project measured in weeks into one measured in months.
- Paying more does not help Unlike testing, an audit cannot be accelerated by paying more. The constraint is auditor availability and the site’s own readiness.
- Preparation and training We identify whether a scheme requires an audit, prepare the site and its records for what the auditor will look for, attend, and train the people who have to answer.
Which schemes audit
EAC certificates under the higher schemes, the Emirates Quality Mark, the Saudi Quality Mark, halal and management-system certification all audit the site. An EAC declaration and most self-declared CE routes do not.
Settle this at the route assessment, before anyone commits to a launch date.
Show me the record
Auditors check that the documented process is the one running: incoming inspection against specification, calibration of measuring instruments, traceability from a finished unit to its component batches, and what happened to failed product.
Walk one finished unit's traceability end to end before the auditor arrives.
Minor or major findings
Most first audits produce findings. Minor ones close on a corrective action plan. Major ones need a follow-up visit, and a site whose staff cannot produce the records in the room gets one.
Train the roles that will be in the room, on this scheme specifically.
Already started elsewhere
Factory audit findings still open after the first visit?
Audit projects stall at recognisable points. The scheme required a site audit and the project plan never had one, so the launch date was wrong before anyone noticed. The records existed but nobody could produce them in the room, and findings that could have closed on paper turned into a second visit. Or a component supplier was substituted without a conformity assessment, and the technical file never caught up with the production change.
What happens next depends on how the auditor classified the findings. Minor findings are normally closed on documented evidence under a corrective action plan. Major ones mean a follow-up visit and another slot in the queue, and paying more does not bring an audit forward. Either way the work is a root cause, a corrective action and the evidence for it, and it moves faster when it starts close to the audit.
What we handle
- Requirement scoping
- Pre-audit gap review
- Records preparation
- Attendance
- Corrective action support
- Training
What to send us
Everything here is something to find before the project starts. The first reply says which of it can go into the file as it is.
- The audit report, with each finding and whether it was classed minor or major
- Any corrective action plan already submitted, and the evidence sent with it
- The scheme name, and any closure deadline the certification body gave you
- Quality records and process documentation
- Calibration status and traceability records for the product line that was audited
- Site access, and the availability of your staff
- 2010 Year of foundation
- 1300+ Certification projects
- 40+ Countries served
- 15+ Types of certificates
The people on your file
Meet the teamYou will know the person who handles your certificate.
One specialist owns your file from the first email to the registered certificate. Every one of them has recorded a briefing on their field.
Services
What we do on this route
Each stage is a service of its own, with a page that says what it produces and what it needs from you.
Route assessment
The cheapest stage decides the cost of every stage after it. What a route assessment names, and the four decisions it locks down.
Read the pageProduct testing
Accreditation is per standard and per laboratory, never general. How to choose one the destination accepts, and test once for several markets.
Read the pageTechnical documentation
The file is the certificate’s foundation and it is the manufacturer’s to produce. What it has to contain, and what cannot be written retrospectively.
Read the pageAuthorised representative
Four major markets refuse to certify a foreign manufacturer directly. What the appointment obliges, and why a distributor is the wrong holder.
Read the pageMarking & labelling
A correct certificate and a wrong label still stops at the border. What each market demands on the artwork, and when to check it.
Read the page
Which schemes audit the site, and why it matters early
Product certification and site certification are different things and several schemes require both. Certificate schemes under the Eurasian Economic Union technical regulations include production-site assessment for the higher schemes. The Emirates Quality Mark and the Saudi Quality Mark are both product marks backed by a factory audit and ongoing surveillance. Halal certification audits the plant as a matter of course, because the scope is the process. Management-system certification is entirely an audit.
The reason to know this in week one rather than month three is scheduling. An audit needs the site ready, an auditor available and, for a foreign site, travel arranged. Where the scheme requires it and the project plan does not, the launch date is already wrong and nobody has noticed.
What an auditor is actually checking
Less about the equipment than manufacturers expect, and much more about whether the process described on paper is the process running on the floor. The recurring question in every scheme is the same: show me the record. Incoming material inspection against a specification. Calibration of the instruments that verify the product. Traceability from a finished unit back to its batch of components. Control of nonconforming product — what happened to the units that failed, and can you show it.
Change control is the second theme, and the one most often weak. A supplier substituted for a component that affects conformity, without an assessment of whether it still conforms, is a finding in every scheme that looks for it. So is a production change that the technical file does not reflect.
The third is the people. Auditors ask operators to describe the procedure they are following, and a site where the documented procedure and the described procedure differ has a real gap rather than a paperwork one. This is where training earns its cost — not in teaching the standard, but in making sure the people on the line can explain what they do and why.
Preparation, and the difference between a finding and a delay
Most first audits produce findings. What decides the schedule is whether they are minor findings closed with a corrective action plan, or major ones that require a follow-up visit — and the difference is usually preparation rather than capability. A site with the right records in the right place and staff who can find them typically closes on paper. A site where the records exist but nobody can produce them in the room gets a second visit.
The preparation is unglamorous: assemble the records the scheme names, check the calibration status of everything that matters, walk the traceability of one finished unit end to end, and rehearse the questions. Doing that once before the auditor arrives is the difference between a certificate this quarter and a certificate next quarter.
Training is the other half. Where a site is being audited for the first time, or against a scheme it has not met before, the useful training is specific to the scheme and to the roles that will be in the room, rather than a general course on the standard.
When a site audit applies
| Scheme | Site audit | Afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| EAC certificate, higher schemes | Production-site assessment before issue | Periodic inspection during validity |
| EQM — Emirates Quality Mark | Factory audit | Surveillance during the term |
| SQM — Saudi Quality Mark | Factory audit | Surveillance during the term |
| Halal certification | Plant audit, because the scope is the process | Renewal audit |
| Management systems, ISO 22000 and similar | The audit is the certification | Annual surveillance, three-year recertification |
| EAC declaration | None | None |
| Most self-declared CE routes | None | Market surveillance, unannounced |
The rows with no audit are not the rows with no obligation. A self-declared route replaces the scheduled audit with unannounced market surveillance, which asks the same questions of the same records with less notice.
Frequently asked questions
How do we know whether our scheme needs a factory audit?
It follows from the certification scheme rather than from the product, and it is settled at the route assessment stage. As a rule of thumb: certificate schemes with a production-site element, quality marks such as EQM and SQM, halal, and any management-system certification all audit the site. Declarations generally do not. Getting this wrong is not a cost error, it is a schedule error, and it usually surfaces after the launch date has been committed.
Can an audit be brought forward if the schedule slips?
Rarely. Unlike testing, where paying more can sometimes buy a slot, an audit needs an auditor with the right scope available and, for a foreign site, travel arranged. Treat the audit date as the fixed point in the plan and work backwards from it rather than assuming it can absorb a delay elsewhere.
What do auditors ask for most often?
Records, and specifically the records that show the documented process is the running process: incoming inspection against specification, calibration of anything used to verify conformity, traceability from a finished unit back to its component batches, and what happened to product that failed. Change control is the second theme — a substituted component with no conformity assessment behind it is a finding in every scheme that looks.
Our staff do not speak the auditor’s language. Is that a problem?
It is manageable and it has to be planned for. Auditors routinely ask operators to describe what they are doing, and that conversation is part of the evidence, so interpretation has to be arranged rather than improvised. What does not work is having a manager answer on the operator’s behalf, which reads as exactly what it is.
We failed an audit. What now?
Most first audits produce findings, and the question is whether they close on a corrective action plan or need a follow-up visit. Minor findings are normally closed on documented evidence. Major ones mean another visit and another slot in the queue. The work is the same either way — root cause, corrective action, evidence — and it is faster when it starts the week of the audit rather than the week of the deadline.
Keep reading
On audits, inspections and factory visits
Strength Calculation: Why TR CU 032 Will Not Move Without It
The strength calculation is a named document in TR CU 032. Which GOST standards govern it, why a foreign calculation is not accepted, and the language rule.
Certifying a Chainsaw for the EAEU: One Document or Two
Why a petrol chainsaw falls under TR CU 010 and TR CU 020 but not TR CU 004, and why splitting the approval into two documents saved a round of testing.
Tell us what you are exporting
Send the product name, HS code and technical data. You get back the applicable route, the document list and a timeline, before any commitment.