Factory Production Control (FPC)

The FPC is about implementing checks and balances at every stage of the manufacturing and production process. This is designed to ensure that the specification is not changed from the specific scope relating to the fire door assembly/doorset and its individual certification, and that every component, manufacturing, or production procedure is suitably controlled throughout the process.

These checks and balances and the overall FPC system must be designed in order to identify and remove any defective components or quality issues from the supply chain and carry out remedial action and continuous improvement (including adapting the QMS and FPC system) to ensure that is not able to happen again.

FPC is also about keeping robust records and documentation of product, quality checks and manufacturing processes, in order to be able to perform traceability checks for specific product and demonstrate compliance at FPC audit.

Record keeping and documentation should include competency or specific training activities that have been undertaken by employees involved in the manufacture of fire doors to ensure that they can achieve the compliance requirement specific to their certification scheme.

Checklist

To give an example of the type of information that the FPC surveillance audits will include, this checklist has been developed from information contained within Annex G of the CERTIFIRE Technical Schedule TS10. The list is not exhaustive and audit requirements may differ for other third-party certification schemes.

What are Technical Schedules?

There are specific requirements for different third-party certification schemes regarding FPC and audit criteria and they are available directly from the third-party certification bodies. As an example, for the CERTIFIRE scheme, Technical Schedule 00 (TS 00) and Technical Schedule 10 (TS10) should be referenced. Technical Schedule 00 details general requirements of the CERTIFIRE scheme and Technical Schedule 10 (TS10) includes the FPC checklist. To be a Licensed Door Processor you must ensure that your own QMS and FPC system considers all of the factors listed within Annex G of TS10.