Another FSC Thread

[printerpete]

Hi everyone, yep another Thread about FSC.

We are plannng on becoming Certified, and were wondering what Procedures you have to put in place in order to Track the COC from Deliver of paper into your works through Invoicing the Customer.
And how some of use have decided to track it, i.e. is one person from each department in charge or is one person in charge throughout all the departments?

Just lookin for as much info about this, as not quite 100% undertood about what actually goes on in the real world rather than what FSC Tell you

cheers

[Coolio]

Hi Printerpete,

The basic idea is to track, from order to invoice, any certified material coming into your plant.
The PO must specify certified material.
The vendor shipping documents specify the certified material.
The invoice must specify the certified material.

The goal is to track electronically (MIS System) or mechanically the amount of certified material coming into the plant. Marking the material so it doesn't get mixed/confused with uncertified material. Verification that the press operators used the correct material and how much was used (good) and recycled (wasted). And how much certified material was shipped out of the plant.

We came up with a checklist that accompanies the job jacket. All employees that interact with the job check off that they performed their portion of the process correctly. Special labels are printed to go on cartons when received, identifying the certified material. Two man control for the press. (This is one of the critical places where material may be mixed). The press operator and a second both verfy the correct material is loaded in the press.

Our MIS system electronically records material purchased, used (through data collection) and shipped.
We run reports monthly and summarize for the annual audit.

That should give you a rough idea of the flow.

Greg

[printerpete]

Thanks For that Greg. Just a question, when paper comes into the Plant does each Batch have a 'Serial no' that needs to be recorded as the paper used for a particular job, and ultimatly on the invoice to the client or not?

[Coolio]

No "serial number". The important thing they look for is the "Claim", as in FSC Mixed or FSC Recycled and amount.

When you estimate a certified project, you visit a website to determine the validity of the stock called for in the estimate. Along with that you also get the correct label, or claim, to use on your documents.
We utilize user defined fields in our MIS system to notate the Claim. This then prints on our PO, Job Jacket, Packing Slip and Invoice.

We also color coded our documents. So FSC certified jobs print on green paper and SFI documents print on Yellow paper. At a glance anyone in the shop can see certified material and jobs as they flow through the plant. Your shipping department just needs to verify that the stock ordered is the stock received. Pressman verifies the stock called for on the job ticket is the stock that was put in the press.
When you think about it, it's no different than what you do now. You wouldn't run 70# Gloss text when the job ticket calls for 100# Gloos Text. If you have procedures in place to keep stuff like that from happening you are half way there.

Shipping employees document (in Data Collection) the number of pieces shipped. We run reports showing certified jobs, Stock purchased by claim (sort on the user defined field) and product shipped. Then manually prepare a spreadsheet showing pounds in, out and waste.

It really isn't rocket science, just good documented procedures. I agree, the standard could be more clearly defined for printers. I was sweating bullets before our audit even though a few peers told me not to worry. In the end, it was getting the procedures documented and creating a few new documents that FSC requires. Everything went well. It comes down to your internal procedures and plugging in the parts that FSC wants to see.

Feel free to pm me and we can discuss in more detail if you like.

Greg

[printerpete]

Thanks alot Greg, me thinks ill be contacted you again