Editor's note: KR Karu will be presenting a free webinar "Increase Supply Chain Integrity By Maximizing Supplier Audits" Thurs., Dec. 12, 2013 at 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific.

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tatistics from the “Recall Execution Effectiveness Report” (Deloitte, GMA, FMI, and GS1, May 2010) show that 52 percent of product recalls across all industries are due to supplier and contract-manufacturer issues. The percentage may be even higher in the pharmaceutical industry.

Even when there are quality agreements between manufacturers and their suppliers, it’s the manufacturer that is held liable for mistakes. Therefore, ideally, manufacturers should evaluate suppliers to ensure they are receiving quality materials to build their end product. This can be done through external auditing of these suppliers. 

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