4 Tips on Quality Management to Eliminate Audit Phobia

Are quality management audits creating phobia in your mind? This article has listed four tips that will help you perform the ISO 9001internal audits without any fear.

Is the arrival of internal auditing program is a nightmare to you? Internal audits are an effective tool to ensure that your organization is on the right track. This auditing will help you prepare your organization well so that you can leave a good impression on the auditors during the certification audit. If you follow an organized plan and give your employees enough time to prepare, auditing will become easier and a quick process. In this article, we will share four most-effective tips with you so that you can get rid of your “Audit Phobia”.

While planning for your quality management audit, make sure your plan is based on ISO 9001:2015 Standard. You need to keep ISO 9001:2015 requirements in mind while creating a checklist for your ISO 9001 internal audits. Listed below are some vital facts that you may include in your checklist:

•  Management commitment

•  Organizational Context

•  Risk and opportunities

•  Quality policy

•  Customer focus

•  Objectives and action plans

•  Responsibility and authority

•  Internal communication

•  Product, process, and service performance

•  Management review

Experienced auditors prefer asking the top management about the organizational context so that they can compare the answer with all the internal and external facts relevant to ISO 9001that they have garnered before starting the interviewing phase.

Hiring professional auditors for internal audit is a good decision. Experienced auditors can help you set up the right objectives. Moreover, it is important to deploy a fact-based approach. ISO 9001:2015 has attached great importance to the fact-based approach. In order to get compliant with the Standard, you should follow a fact-based approach to perform an internal auditing program successfully. 

When your approach is based on facts and evidence and devoid of any emotion and feelings, then it can be called a fact-based approach. First, it is important to focus on the audit objectives and collecting the facts that will help you complete your task.

When it comes to ISO internal auditing, we all should remember that audits are more about listening. Most auditors believe it to be more about questioning than listening. This is not the right idea. Internal audits should be started with open-ended questions to let the top management talk about that organization, what they do, how they manage ongoing improvement, and what the outcomes are. Internal auditors should prepare a list of these questions and do homework before the audit starts. Once the questions are answered, the auditors should analyze the answers to find out which acceptable evidence they should ask to determine the truth. These days, the fact-based approach is preferable for ISO 13485 internal audits as well.

It is imperative to consider that the auditors are most likely to know the ISO 9001 standard better than top management. Therefore, the audit report should always be written in a simple language; reporting in ISO language (where most technical terms are somehow unknown to the management) is not preferable. If your management fails to understand the report, they will fail to follow up. Without following up, your internal audits will not be able to benefit you. While creating the report, all you need is to translate ISO 9001:2015 Requirements into plain English without any business bias.

If your Quality Management Audits find out any nonconformity, the audit report should clearly define the detected issues. Even, it should contain possible ways through which you can resolve the issues. Sometimes, the obscurity of the internal auditing makes the op management consumed. However, the internal audit report should lead your management in the right direction. For doing this, you may compare the present performance of the Quality Management System (QMS) with what was expected. You should also compare your QMS against the ISO 9001:2015 requirements.

By following these four tips, you can make your internal auditing program easier. Don’t start preparation when the audit is breathing on your neck. Take ample time for preparation.

Damon Anderson is a first-rate ISO internal auditor having a clear insight into Quality Management Audit, ISO 17025 internal audit, ISO 13485 internal audit, and ISO 27001 internal audit. He provides internal auditing training and writes relevant blogs on ISO internal auditing. 

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