An Intro - Internal Auditor

 

Let’s understand why we must perform an internal quality audit clause 9.2.2 of the standard shows exactly what must be done for the management system to be effective as well as look for improvement opportunities.

Let us define first what is an audit:

There are three classifications of audit the first party the audience this is conducted within the company by a qualified employee in which the independence of the area of being audited is taken into consideration.

This is also known as the internal quality audit.

The second party audit is an audit conducted by an employee of a company in their subcontractor, supplier, mother company to check the conformance and customer requirements.

And lastly, the third-party audit is conducted by an independent organization or person hired by the company to check the conformity to a specific standard usually refers to the external independent auditor certifying body.

The purpose of audit and why internal auditors exist is mainly the verify the adequacy compliance and effective as of the management system remember that the aim of the audit is fact-finding and not fault-finding.

Other principals related to auditors are the following integrity it is a foundation of professionalism such as honesty diligence responsibility and demonstration of competence. The re-presentation means the obligation to report truthfully and accurately substantial difficulties and end resolve diverging opinions between auditor and audit are reported and disclosed.

Professional care refers to diligence in judgment in auditing. As an auditor, you exercise due care in accordance with the importance of tasks performed confidentiality for the security of information.

Information should not be used for personal gain or in a manner harmful to the legitimate interests of the auditee. Independence is the impartiality and objectivity of being the conclusions free from bias and conflict of interest. An evidence-based approach to reaching a reliable audit conclusion in a systematic audit process your audit evidence should be verifiable based on appropriate samples of information available that is closely related to the confidence of audit conclusions.

Who are the people behind the internal quality audit the lead auditor an auditor with the extra responsibility of managing the audit, the auditor the person qualified to perform audits? The auditee is the organization or process owner being audited and finally, the audit client is the organization or person requesting an audit.

Each role and responsibilities will be discussed further, but first, let us talk about the activities in performing In an audit there are five bases of auditing these are initiated, preparation, execution reporting, and follow up the First initiation, the first thing is to appoint the lead auditor usually establish initial contact with the auditee and check the possibility of the audit the exact schedule plan or request the audit must be a planned interval thus it makes use of the annual internal audit plan.

Second preparation, once the annual audit plan is approved by the management representative you need to define the objectives of what is to be accomplished in the audit criteria and scope or boundaries of the audit literary contains details such as exact date time duration of the audit per area location of the audience auditor and auditee representatives and other resources needed for the audit.

Next, the lead auditor shall appoint the auditors and activities to be done a selection of the audit shall conform to the following requirements as they are to be evaluated after the audit. Competence or training it is important that an auditor's knowledge of the standards in skills in the management system discipline to be audited is up to date an auditor should undergo training is required others even go through assessments such as IQA exam for questioning and workshops. Education it is suggested that an auditor show holds at least a secondary school certificate experience it is also recommended that an auditor should be in a position where the activities are undertaken to help develop skills and knowledge in the management system.

After the selection of the audit team, it's time to prepare the working documents for the auditors to look at it. The auditors to feed into the following them on the checklist, clipboard, and pen audit itinerary, audit report forms ISO 9001 standard ISO 14001 standard ISO 18001 standard whichever is applicable.

The third is the execution; once everything is set auditors may proceed with the conduct of the actual audit which is called the execution. First activities to conduct an opening meeting with the lead auditor with the auditee opening meeting discussion shall include the agreement of all parties to the audit itinerary introduced the audit team methods or procedures of the audit, including the grading of non-conformity, is relevant safety procedures and other conditions needed to be discussed.

Obtaining information comes in four methods these are observations see if the audit these work matches with the company procedures asking questions or interview, check if the audit knows exactly what he's doing these are some tips during the interview.

Introduce yourself and explain why you have developed a rapport with small talk eye contacts and smile when appropriate, ask open questions usually starts with the what, why and how to be assertive, but avoid arguments check facts and make notes and be remain objective and calm and acknowledge the auditee.

Verify records kept if records maintain there's completeness, selecting records examination of records is evidence-based could be positive or negative and because there is no time to check everything, so you may select examples like purchase order incident records recent changes in the organization.

Next is the reporting: After an on-site audit identified non-conformance is finalized the audit team and write it formally in the non-conformance report consolidated the findings, summarized by the lead auditor subsequently, the lead audit shall initiate to conduct close meetings with the auditee. Meeting with the auditee and ISO core team to discuss audit results resolve any errors or misunderstanding and agree on possible action plans to address the race findings if applicable.

How do you classify an audit finding non-conformance can be a major or minor finding when can you say it's a major non-conformance?

Major in conformance is the absence or total breakdown of a system to meet the requirements of a clause of ISO 9001 or other standard requirements it can be raised major and the number of lapses against a the specific requirement to the extent of the effects on the customer satisfaction and quality of product or service.

Observation a single observes laps for failure to comply with one guideline our company procedure for word the destruction which does not jeopardize product or service quality this may not require corrective action, but always remember the non-conformance report must be fact full specific and concise.

Completeness of the audit report shall observe the following:

Objective, Scope, audit team and auditee, date and location of the audit, audit criteria, findings, and relevant evidence and audit conclusion, and lastly the follow-up as agreed, during the closing meeting corrective actions, are usually decided and undertaken periodically within the agreed time frame. 

The auditor shall evaluate the action items to suitability and follow up with is specified time. This may require this is the very tight closure of findings on the site. Organizational success is one life is a long process. Especially in the business such a glorious improvement as new meaning without the decision to try.

The quality management system has no time limit you just must work for it and maintain.