Custom app for inspection rounds on the production floor
The evidence your certificate rests on is created on the floor: a glass round, an allergen changeover, a hygiene check after cleaning. It gets written down on a list hanging from a clipboard, and it only reaches the file once someone retypes it. The gap between those two moments is what an auditor finds.
Why paper is the problem here
IFS and BRCGS require you to demonstrate that checks were carried out, not that you scheduled them. The evidence is therefore the action itself: who looked where, when, and what they found. With IFS, a limited number of knock-out requirements can cost you the certificate, and nearly all of them relate to what happens on the floor.
In almost every production environment this is kept on paper. That works until someone retypes it. During that transfer the time disappears, a signature becomes a name and a note turns into a tick. What sits in the system is then a summary rather than a record.
On top of that, every third-party certification audit is unannounced. The week in which lists get tidied up does not exist, and on an ordinary Tuesday the clipboard is the only source. Whoever records the registration at the point of action does not have that problem.
Alongside the inspection rounds, the same floor carries a second record: which batch ends up in which batch. Without that link, nothing can be traced later. This is covered by the batch linking app for the production line.
How we build this
The round is the unit here. If what someone sees is recorded there, the file builds itself without anyone retyping.
We walk the glass round and the hygiene check with you to see how much time there is, what people are wearing and where the clipboard hangs. That shapes the design more than any standard does.
Fixed choices, a tag at the control point, room for a note. Anything that demands more than what happens on paper today gets left out.
In a production hall, a cold store or behind steel, there is no signal. The app keeps working and synchronises later, using the actual time.
What is recorded on the floor feeds into the requirement the evidence serves. Without that link, you have records but no file.
What the app does in practice
The app does little, and that little has to be operable with gloves on. Which components you need depends on which rounds you run.
Rounds with fixed control points
For each round, which points are due and what to look for. Glass and hard plastic, allergen changeover, cleaning, pest control: each with its own points and its own frequency.
Verifiable presence at the point
A tag on the machine or window proves that someone was there. A ticked list without that proof is, in an audit, just an assertion.
Deviation straight to a hold where needed
Broken glass above a line, a missing guard. The report is assigned an owner on the spot and can, if necessary, block a batch or line, because carrying on producing is the risk here.
Photo with time and place
Both at the point of deviation and at the point of correction. That is the evidence which, in an audit, makes the difference between a recorded deviation and a resolved one.
Fully offline operation
Rounds and reports continue without a connection and sync later, with the actual time of each entry rather than the time of synchronisation.
Passing it on to the certification file
What is recorded reaches the requirement via integrations. The records side sits on IFS software.
Who we build for
Rounds differ greatly by type of production. Four situations.
Production with allergens
Switching between products is the risk moment, and recording it is the core. Under IFS, what is missing here is a knock-out risk, not a minor shortcoming.
Lines with glass and hard plastic
The glass round is a classic control point with a fixed frequency. Proving it was walked takes more than a checklist with an initial.
Storage and transshipment
Temperature, segregation and damage on receipt. The number of moments is large, and the evidence attaches to a consignment rather than to a point in time.
Private label with customer audits
Alongside the standard, your customer visits in person with their own points. One app with two sets of control points stops your team walking two rounds.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
The app is the shop-floor side of your certification file, not a second quality system. What it records reaches the requirement the evidence is meant to support.
Why Appfront
Evidence is created at the action, or not at all
We record on the floor rather than retyping afterwards. Everything in between is lost, and that loss is exactly what an auditor finds.
No signal in a hall
Offline is the starting point. An app that stops working there gets replaced by the clipboard, and then nothing has changed.
Unannounced means any Tuesday
We design on the assumption that there is no tidy-up week. That is a different design from a system that is brought up to date before the audit.
Fewer fields mean more records
We design around the number of actions. A full form that goes unfilled provides less evidence than a short form that does get completed.
Security and privacy
A device on the production floor is shared between shifts, goes through a washdown and is sometimes left unattended for an entire shift. We therefore tie permissions to the user rather than the device, keep offline storage limited to open rounds, and make sure a lost device can be unlinked remotely without the team grinding to a halt.
On the evidence side applies the requirement that makes this topic special. A record that can be altered afterwards is not evidence, and an auditor who finds that checks were completed retrospectively has found a bigger problem than the missing check itself. We therefore record time, person and observation unalterably, and make any correction a visible correction alongside the original value. How we handle security ourselves is set out in our information security policy; reports from outside come through our CVD policy.
Frequently asked questions about the control round app
Paper works fine on the floor; the problem lies in transferring it to the file. That is where the time disappears, an initial becomes a name and a note becomes a tick. In an unannounced audit that exact gap is what gets examined, and then the clipboard list is your only source.
That is determined more by the hardware than the software. Some devices have to withstand washing and cold, and the design has to account for gloves and for bright or poor lighting. That is why we choose large touchpoints and fixed options rather than free text.
Technically it can, and in the case of glass breakage or an allergen error it is a sensible thing to do. Whether it is wise depends on your process and on who is allowed to lift the block. That is an organisational decision you make in advance; we build it out.
With a good design, less than with paper, because the app fills in what it already knows: the time, the location, the employee and which point is up next. If it takes more time, that is a design flaw and not a property of the tool.
They feed into the requirement they evidence, in the certification file. Without that integration, you have a collection of records and still no file in which an auditor can follow a line.
The monitoring of critical control points has its own frequencies, its own limits and its own corrective actions, which we keep separate. See the CCP app. Both still supply evidence to the same file.
Yes, and that is often the extra gain. A retailer applies its own control points on top of the standard. One app with two sets of points stops your staff walking two rounds and stops the two sets of records drifting apart.
That depends on the number of rounds and checkpoints, whether blocks are needed and which system it has to integrate with. Rounds with recording are usually quick to get working; blocks and integrations cost more. We give a reasoned estimate after the discovery phase.
Record evidence where it arises?
Pick up the clipboard from the last glass round and check whether the time is on it. That is what an auditor asks for, and it disappears once it has been retyped. We build this as a standalone app and as part of a wider bespoke app or custom software project.