Autumn Harp Strengthens Valuable Quality Guidelines for its Cosmetics Products

Autumn Harp is a specialized R&D and manufacturing partner for natural cosmetics and personal care products Essex Junction, Vermont. They collaborate with major brands and retailers and share their expertise and resources to produce innovative, high-quality products. Established in 1978 by naturalists peddling lip balm and herbal remedies out of their van, Autumn Harp has since diversified and grown to a staff of more than 250 people. Their state-of-the-art facility, with over 225,000 square feet of manufacturing space, features energy efficiencies and smart building design throughout. Autumn Harp is uniquely positioned to merge high-tech manufacturing practices with principles of natural and sustainable production and is  proud to be a certified Vermont Green Business.

Autumn Harp was seeking to train up to 12 of their key personnel in auditing. Having worked with VMEC, part of the MEP National Network™, on several successful projects in the past, including health officer training, lean initiatives, value stream mapping and SoftSelect, Autumn Harp felt the VMEC-provided training would prepare internal auditors to perform audits to Autumn Harp’s quality standards.

At the start of the training, staff experience in auditing was varied. VMEC recommended and implemented their two-day Internal Auditor workshop at the company facility under the ISO 22716 standard, Cosmetics Good Manufacturing Practices. Material covered included discussions on: preparing for an audit - planning, scheduling, audit team, preparation, checklists, etc.; the audit itself – execution, checklists and audit techniques; after the audit – closing meeting and reporting nonconformances (including CAPA’s); report writing and reporting nonconformances; and follow-up on non-conformances for closure and exercises to reinforce material covered.