Two photographs from our reception area show a wall of plaques and a cabinet displaying framed items. Visitors often photograph this wall on a first visit. We then take them to a meeting room and open the actual documents.
A display wall is a record of company history. It is not a specification, a scope statement or a current validity date. For those, the paper has to be read.
Three things a photograph cannot show
The small print on a framed item is rarely legible in a wide shot. A validity period is not visible at all. And the scope of a document, meaning exactly which products and which site it covers, is a matter of reading the text rather than looking at a frame.
Our foreign trade team says this plainly during a visit. A buyer is welcome to photograph the wall. We would rather they also take a copy of the specific document they need, with its dates and scope, than rely on the image.
What a document review actually covers
Four checks: the name of the holding company, the site address, the scope, and the validity period. Any one of the four can make a document irrelevant to a given order, even when the frame looks impressive.
This is also why we do not list certification names on a blog page. A general statement about a wall of plaques is honest. A claim about a specific standard, made without reading the current document against the buyer's market, is not.
A practical suggestion for a first audit
Ask for the document list before the visit, then bring the list to the wall. Photographs make a good souvenir of a trip. The four checks above are what belong in the supplier file.
