What do auditors audit – Part 1

This is a brief overview of the 4 stages of certification and what the auditors will audit.

Documentation review; just the documentation you supply them.  Normally a desk top review scenario.  The auditors are looking for a policy, a quality manual (or similar), the six mandatory procedures, your own procedures, associated forms, records, an interrelationship document explaining the processes of the company.

Pre-certification review; assessing the implementation of the quality management system.  They will focus on management review meetings / minutes, records of internal audits, corrective actions, nonconformance, document management, records management, training / competency records, the level of understanding by employees and the overall assessment of operational procedures and how they interrelate.

Certification review; they will audit everything.  However, their sample plan is quite shallow and if they can find conformance quickly, they will tick the box and move on.

Surveillance reviews; every time they visit, they will audit the following.  Previous findings from previous audit, management reviews, internal audits, corrective actions.  Once they are happy with that then they carve up the rest of the standard into roughly thirds and audit.  Easy.  More details next post.

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