LWG defines a Commissioning Manufacturer as a company that:
- Buys and owns their own material.
- Subcontractors all manufacturing operations to external organisations (subcontractors) - meaning they do not complete any manufacturing operations themselves.
- Sells finished material to customers
- Is responsible for RSL compliance of the finished leather
- Uses subcontractors that have all been audited and certified by LWG
All LWG audits are site audits — it is not the leather nor the company that is audited.
A commissioning manufacturer audit relates to the site, most usually a warehouse, through which the commissioned manufactured product is processed (e.g., graded, measured, etc) prior to being despatched to a client.
The onsite audit activities should result in certainty, through physical confirmation and assessment of relevant documentation, that it is leather from LWG audited sources that is being despatched to clients. Operations that involve direct shipment from the final stage of manufacturing to client are not capable of being audited using the current commissioning manufacturer audit protocol.
Organisations that facilitate shipment but have no warehousing facility (i.e., organisations that are wholly office based) are not capable of being audited using the current commissioning manufacturer audit protocol.