CPG Operator Guide
Co-Packer Evaluation Process Guide
Use this guide to understand a staged co-packer review process: define requirements and ownership, assemble current records, separate specialist workstreams, document gaps, route qualified questions, and preserve the human decision rationale.
Define requirements and decision ownership
State the product, process, packaging, volume, location, relationship stage, decision question, accountable decision owner, and explicit out-of-scope items.
What to include
- defined scope
- decision question
- accountable owner
Assemble the current source packet
Identify proposal, facility, capability, trial, specification, quote, contract, quality, food-safety, regulatory, certification, insurance, service, and performance records as applicable without implying a universal checklist.
What to include
- current records
- source dates and owners
- missing documents
Separate review workstreams
Separate commercial, operational, technical, quality, food-safety, regulatory, certification, legal, insurance, finance, and supply-chain questions rather than collapsing them into one score.
What to include
- workstream owner
- source record
- qualified-review need
Use the owner and Artifact records
Use the Direct Cost Planner for entered direct-cost arithmetic, the Facility Review Worksheet for review questions, the Review Evidence Record for one event, the Quote Line Review Worksheet for one line, the Proposal Assumptions Worksheet for one proposal, and the Organic Records and Handoff Worksheet for qualified organic review preparation.
What to include
- distinct page roles
- owner link
- no duplicate controls
Record gaps, exceptions, and dependencies
Preserve missing documents, conflicting statements, assumptions, conditions, unresolved questions, accountable owners, and next-review context without assigning severity or corrective action.
What to include
- open item
- source or dependency
- accountable owner
Route qualified review
Identify which questions require qualified specialists, a certifier, legal counsel, insurers, technical reviewers, or other accountable parties before the business owner acts.
What to include
- question and scope
- qualified reviewer
- required source
Document the human decision and conditions
The accountable organization records its decision, rationale, conditions, approvals, monitoring plan, and change triggers in its governed process. This page does not make or validate the decision.
What to include
- decision owner
- rationale and conditions
- change triggers
How this page fits the Tools system
The Co-Packer Direct Cost Planner and live Artifact worksheets own arithmetic and editable records; this guide owns staged-process explanation and handoff boundaries only.
The guide ends with a staged review and named handoffs, not a complete questionnaire, audit, score, risk grade, qualification, compliance result, approval, cadence, contract conclusion, or partner recommendation.
What this page does—and does not—show
This guide explains a staged human review process. It does not conduct an audit, generate a complete questionnaire, score or rank a co-packer, determine qualification or compliance, approve a facility, interpret a contract, prescribe a cadence, or recommend a partner.
The owner calculates direct cost and the five live Artifact worksheets prepare distinct editable records; this guide explains process and handoffs without reproducing those controls or outcomes.
Evidence and review boundary
Tier C. This guide explains a staged human review process. It does not conduct an audit, generate a complete questionnaire, score or rank a co-packer, determine qualification or compliance, approve a facility, interpret a contract, prescribe a cadence, or recommend a partner.
Accountable business owner plus operations, procurement, finance, technical, quality, food-safety, regulatory, legal, insurance, certifier, and other reviewers appropriate to the defined scope.
No external rate or rule is embedded; values and assumptions come from the user.
Related tools and next steps
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Guidance is being rebuilt with CPG design partners to connect these planning steps to a shared operating model. That connected product workflow is not available for live product demonstrations today. This standalone browser page does not connect to a Guidance account, product data, or a live operating workflow.
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