number ISO audits
Jan Mobers
Hello,
Can some tell me how much Internal ISO audits each year were "normal" for a
already 3 year ISO 9001 certified company. At development and Production a
total of +/- 150 person working. We are a electronic company
Thanks in regards.
Guy C. Reynolds
The simple answer to your question is *NO*. The number of internal
audits you carry out within your organisation is dependant on a number
of variables.
1. Size.
The larger the organisation the more audits you need to be confident
that things opperating correctly.
2. Functional Areas.
You should aim to cover each functional area within your organisation at
least once within a year. Ideally this should be more often.
3. Critical functions.
Obviously those areas that are critical to your business need to be
audited more often than the rest to maintain performance.
4. Weak or failing areas.
See 3 above
5. New or altered processes
see 3 above.
As you can see there are a number of factors that come into play when
putting together your audit plans, and thus without an intimate
knowledge of your organisation and quality system history it is
virtually impossible to put a precise value on the number of audits you
should be carrying out.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Guy C. Reynolds LicIQA porte...@graviles.demon.co.uk
Porterhouse Associates Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)1462 490564
82 Page Close, Baldock, Fax: +44 (0)1462 490564
Hertfordshire, SG7 6PU, UK.
Adrian Brentnall
>
Hi Jan
>
> Hello,
> Can some tell me how much Internal ISO audits each year were
"normal" for a
> already 3 year ISO 9001 certified company. At development and
Production a
> total of +/- 150 person working. We are a electronic company
>
>
You have to convince the assessors (and yourself) that you have
completed enough audits to have confidence in your system. In the
initial year - 18 months you'll probably do more audits - because
things are settling down.
With my clients I suggest that auditing every aspect of the system once
a year is a good starting point - this may mean every procedure once -
or it may be process-based.
Remember that auditing is simply a sample inspection - which is only as
good as the sampling technique you operate. A useful trick (in
manufacturing) is to run a monthly 'product audit' - working to a
predetermined checklist (something along the lines of - pick up a
product in 'goods out', follow its life back though manufacturing, to
goods in on the component parts, then back to the sales department).
In this way you will sample 'across' departments and processes - and
get a good idea of how well the system is operating. I sometimes find
this more productive than the simple 'we're going to do Purchasing this
month' - approach.
Simple answer - cover all of the system at least once a year.....
Hope this helps
Regards
Adrian
Oxford UK
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Brian Charles Kohn
Jan Mobers <jmo...@iaehv.nl> wrote in article
<jmobers.14...@iaehv.nl>...
> Can some tell me how much Internal ISO audits each year were "normal"
for a
> already 3 year ISO 9001 certified company. At development and Production
a
> total of +/- 150 person working. We are a electronic company
Typically, a registered company should expend an order of magnitude more
auditing resources on their internal audit program every six months than
the registrar did for initial registration. (This is based on my personal
observations.)
So, for an ISO 9001 registered organization of about 250 people, the
registrar was supposed to spend no less than 8 assessor-days on the
registration assessment. I would expect internal audits to take about
75-250 assessor-days per year, initially. As time goes on, and the
organization demonstrates a mature quality system is in place, I'd expect
to see that number drop, but not much below 50.
--
--
Brian Charles Kohn ISO 9000 Registration, Client Service Manager
bic...@concentric.net RAB #Q01926, IRCA #A06644, QS-9000 #94-013
Speaking only for myself...
jdarr...@aol.com
FROM: JOHN DARRACOTT
Ref: JD/NG7022
Reference:
"Subject: number ISO audits
From: jmo...@iaehv.nl (Jan Mobers)
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 1997 09:57:12
Can some tell me how much Internal ISO audits each
year were "normal" for a already 3 year ISO 9001
certified company. At development and Production a
total of +/- 150 person working. We are a electronic company"
Response:
The key issue is that the reports and any "Corrective action
requests" should be considered to be useful by the in- line
management. Any which are not considered to be useful
when they are tabled at a management review meeting attended
by senior in-line management are probably the result of an
audit which should not have been carried out.
As you have 3 years of ISO certification I suggest that the
value of each of internal audit report which has been prepared
during the last 3 years should be assessed at the next
management review meeting, chaired by the chief executive,
and the plan for the coming year agreed.
It would be useful to post the result to this newsgroup.
Internal audits have a cost in man hours of both the auditor
and the auditees.
Regards
J M Darracott BSc, ACGI, DIC, MICE, MIQA, CEng.
Registered in the category of "Lead Auditor" in the
International Register of certificated Auditors,
Registration No A003982 (1993 to Jan 1997).
John Darracott Limited
"Jdarr...@aol.com",
SEVENOAKS,
ENGLAND.