Approved Factory

An approved factory is not just a supplier name in the system. It is a specific production location that the buyer has accepted for defined work under its current standards and controls.

In practice, approval usually depends on disclosed location data, baseline documentation, review history, and rules for what happens when production moves or the site's status changes.

Approved-factory control is one of the clearest ways a company narrows visibility risk. It tells the supplier that production cannot happen wherever capacity happens to exist.

This matters because audit review, subcontracting control, country restrictions, and incident response all depend on knowing which site was actually authorized.

Approval is not permanent. A site may need reapproval after ownership change, serious findings, country-rule changes, or long periods of inactivity.

Teams should also avoid confusing approved supplier with approved factory. A supplier may be in the system while one of its factories is still not approved for production.