amfori QMI
Bureau Veritas is now an Accredited Auditing Company

What is amfori QMI?

As global supply chains have expanded and become more intricate, the demand for factory audits has surged. Many brands and retailers often have their own unique audit criteria and methodologies, leading to a fragmented audit standard. It presents significant challenges in quality management audits, such as duplicated efforts, inconsistent assessments, waste of resources.

amfori Quality Management Initiative (QMI) is designed to provide a unified approach to quality management system audits, eliminating the hassles of navigating through multiple audit checklists and inconsistent evaluations.
The amfori QMI offers an integrated strategic approach that addresses these challenges head-on for the non-food sector. Its audit encompasses different aspects of quality management, from infrastructure and systems to product design and production control. It also provides a set of standardized quick scan tools to empower companies to drive quality improvements efficiently.

Bureau Veritas is now accredited to conduct amfori QMI audits, further strengthening our partnership with amfori. We have a team of qualified auditors in China and India, ready to offer auditing services to amfori members and producers. This assists our clients in addressing the escalating challenges of quality management and responsible supply chain.

The benefits of amfori QMI

for amfori members and buyers

• Reduce overall resources towards producers’ or suppliers’ qualification, assessment, and avoid duplication of factory audits
• Integrated approach of managing sustainable buyer-supplier relationship in a holistic manner –amfori’s Sustainability Platform
• Use this common standard to benchmark and screen in new sustainable producers
• Strategic and multi-dimensional monitoring of multiple producers’ quality management capability to further engage producers in long-term sustainability performance improvement via amfori

for producers and factories

• Avoid audit fatigue and reduce audit costs
• Effective management of multiple audits with one common auditing tool via amfori that links to visible return-on-investment (ROI)
• Continuous improvement in quality management capability for sustainable production
• Build and maintain customer retention, trust, and satisfaction

What are the Core Aspects in amfori QMI:

Part A covers 4 core aspects:

The overall rating of an amfori QMI audit is based only on the result of Part A. This part covers core and critical questions:

1. Infrastructure, System & Environment – accounted for 20% of the total score
   Measured by building, facility, inventory management, system document control and more.
2. Incoming Materials Quality Control (IQC) – accounted for 20% of the total score
   Measured by IQC inspection and non-conforming incoming material control
3. Product Design – accounted for 20% of the total score
   Measured by product design responsibility and procedure, laboratory testing, technical documentation of the product and more.
4. Production Control – accounted for 40% of the total score
   Measured by factory’s production planning and control, workmanship, equipment maintenance and more.

Part B Bonus section:

It contains all bonus questions covering 4 areas to demonstrate factory performance. The result of the bonus section will NOT affect the overall amfori QMI rating but serves as an additional good practice reference:

1. Workforce & system, e.g. workforce stability, continuity and crisis management of the factory
2. Laboratory testing
3. Ongoing monitoring of finished products
4. Client Portfolio, including written commendation from their customers

The scoring principal, rating, and validity

The overall rating is based only on Part A, i.e., Aspect 1 – 4, the result of the core and critical questions.

To score grade A, B, and C, production site needs to be full compliance in answering the critical questions.

In addition, to score grade A, production site needs to obtain least 90% of the total score, the result will be valid for 3 years, no follow-up audit is required, and continuous improvement is optional.

To score grade B, production site needs to reach obtain at least 75% of the total score, the result will be valid for 2 years, both follow-up audit, and continuous improvement is optional.

To score grade C, production site obtains at least 60% of the total score, the result will be valid for 1 years, follow-up audit is optional. But continuous improvement is mandatory.

For production site that cannot 100% of the critical questions, or less than 60% of the total score, grade D will be assigned. The result is unacceptable, factory requires follow-up audit within 6 months and continuous improvement is mandatory.

Amfori QMI Audit Process

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As a third-party auditing body, our commitment is to uphold the standards and principles of amfori QMI. We pride ourselves on offering global support through our competent and fully accredited local auditors. The amfori QMI audit is now available to amfori members. To get started with the audit process with us you can assign the audit to BV in the amfori sustainability platform.