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Audit Checklist Development

Discussion in 'ISO 9001:2015 - Quality Management Systems' started by Nitish Bhatia, Sep 10, 2019.

  1. Nitish Bhatia

    Nitish Bhatia Member

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    I have prepared an internal audit checklist but i am unable to split it department wise.
    Example:My list includes all 10 clauses. Departments I have are Hr, Office services, Procurement, Finanace, Project Operations, Engineering, Construction.
    Can u help me out
     
  2. John C. Abnet

    John C. Abnet Well-Known Member

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    Good day @Nitish Bhatia and welcome to the site;
    I assume one of the moderators will move your post to a different thread which is more specific to internal auditing .

    In the meantime, allow me to offer some opinion based on the information you have provided...
    1- When approaching the internal audits, be careful not to overly "commit" to following the clauses of the standard.
    2- Allow me to point out, that only 7 of the clauses (4-5-6-7-8-9-10) are auditable by the 3rd party auditors. I would see very little value in comparing your organization to clause 1-3 as they are primarily about the standard...i.e preamble.
    3- Internal audits should serve your organization. What PROCESSES of your organization struggle to perform as intended? Those should be your area of focus.
    4- As hinted by my comment "3", I would suggest you consider organizing your audits by your organization's PROCESSES instead of the clauses of the standard. This will assist in focusing on what is actually performed by your organization.

    The standard gives great flexibility in regards to internal audits. There is no specific manner or schedule. The requirements include considering areas of greatest risk/importance and adjusting your audits to focus on those areas, as well as ensuring a "process based" approach.

    Hope this helps.
    Be well
     
  3. Nitish Bhatia

    Nitish Bhatia Member

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    Thanks for the valuable suggestion.
    But when i have to audit any departmental function I must have checksheet, so as per your view point checklist must be made as per the working processes??
     
  4. RoxaneB

    RoxaneB Moderator Staff Member

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    Hello, Nitish.

    Firstly, welcome. Your post has been moved into its own thread, so hopefully it will gain more attention

    My instinct says that your organization treats processes and departments as being fairly similar - e.g. Procurement is a department but can also be a process.

    What may help your organization out is developing a matrix that lists all your processes along one axis and all clauses/sub-clauses along the other. Then you determine what the relationship is between the (sub)clauses and the processes.

    For example - Document Control may be OWNED by Quality but all other processes are USERS. You'll want the Doc Control questions for Quality to determine if a process was developed, but you'll also want to audit how the Users are applying the doc control processes.

    In another example, Purchasing related requirements may be OWNED by Procurement, but Receiving could be a USER when it comes to the inspection and communication of requirement fulfillment.

    Going through this exercise may help you determine the relationship between processes and (sub)clauses.
     
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  5. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    Before we can help you, it'll help us to understand what you are preparing a checklist for?

    Also, have you had any kind of training in being an internal auditor?
     
  6. Golfman25

    Golfman25 Well-Known Member

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    Change your "checklist" to work by process, not clause. So for example, purchasing is your process. There are several clauses that may be applicable to it. This where a cross reference document comes in handy. Highlight the applicable clauses and make sure they are covered in the purchasing process. Good luck.
     
  7. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    The OP may not fully understand "process" or how to audit it. If they attended training, who knows what they were instructed to do... Some are still auditing to the ISO 9001:2015 requirements, once a year. Useless...
     
  8. tony s

    tony s Well-Known Member

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    ISO 9001 internal audits should be planned, prepared, conducted and reported as per the processes within the organization's quality management system. The primary objective of the audit should be to obtain information on whether the processes are effective (i.e. planned results are achieved and planned activities are realized). Your checklist main items should include the "planned results" (e.g. expected outputs, objectives, performance indicators, intended results) and the "planned activities" (e.g. operational criteria, methods, procedure, controls, actions to address risks/opportunities).

    Keeping the above in mind, it is valuable that the assigned auditor is familiar with the relevant requirements (i.e. company's own and ISO 9001 requirements). While gathering information about the effectiveness of the processes, it is very likely that there are relevant requirements that must be satisfied. These relevant requirements should also be included in the checklist.
     
  9. Nitish Bhatia

    Nitish Bhatia Member

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    Actually oyr company EPC based. and we ere going for three certification ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14K, ISO 45K
    So inetrnal audit is also a manadatory requirement as per the standard , so for the same i am preparing chlist.
    Initially I am going only for QMS
     
  10. Nitish Bhatia

    Nitish Bhatia Member

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    Is comptence and skill matrix are mandatory requirements from HR?
     
  11. tony s

    tony s Well-Known Member

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    Competence is a requirement, not the matrix. The requirements are specified in the standards. There are approaches or tools that organizations can use to effectively control their processes but if they're not specifically required/mentioned by the standard or a regulatory document - they are not requirements.
     
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  12. Nitish Bhatia

    Nitish Bhatia Member

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    Thanks sir,.
     
  13. Nitish Bhatia

    Nitish Bhatia Member

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    Can u just help me out what will be general points of audit for finanace department as per ISO 9001:2015?
     
  14. tony s

    tony s Well-Known Member

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    Finance department is usually the owner of accounting, bookkeeping, collection, budget preparation and disbursement processes. So, if you will need to develop a checklist for the following processes, you should:
    • establish the expected outputs of each process;
    • check whether objectives, including performance indicators, are established to measure the performance of the processes in producing the expected outputs;
    • check for timelines and other planned commitments that must be fulfilled;
    • look for criteria or parameters that must be met;
    • check whether controls on risks/opportunities are incorporated into the processes;
    • check if there are relevant requirements from internal (e.g. top management) or external (e.g. customer, regulatory body) interested parties that must be met;
    • if there are documented procedures or operations manual, check the statements that must be met;
    • check whether verification at appropriate stages are established and being implemented;
    • check traceability of the records (who, when, where);
    • check interaction with other processes like purchasing and sales (are the other process owners happy?)
    You can add more while you are auditing the process owners. If you're familiar with the standard (i.e. ISO 9001), you can easily connect the bulleted items above to the relevant clauses.
     
  15. Nitish Bhatia

    Nitish Bhatia Member

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    Thanku so much sir,
    Please let me know one more thing , Is there any standard format/colour to document the quality policy, mission-vision statements??
     
  16. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    Do you have access to a copy of ISO 9001?
     
  17. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    Did you go through any auditor training? Did they explain the purpose of checklists?
     
  18. Nitish Bhatia

    Nitish Bhatia Member

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    No i didnt got any internal auditor training, just my experience is helping me out.
    I assisted my manager in audits , filling up audit reports, only that thing is helping me
     
  19. Nitish Bhatia

    Nitish Bhatia Member

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    Yes i Have the standard copy of all three standards QMS, EMS and 45K
     
  20. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    That may not be sufficient. Auditing isn't about making a checklist and checking off that you do/do not meet the standard. If you got that from following someone else's lead, then they were wrong too. You'll be perpetuating a lie. When doing internal audits of any type of management system, you don't (always) use the requirements (ISO 9001, 14001, 45001) to prepare a checklist. The standard doesn't change. You'll miss important things. The audit is already unannounced, which is bad practice in Management Systems Auditing, and you will, because of your behaviours, become a pariah.

    If that's what your organization think is the right way to go about their business, you can stick with it and keep your head down or find a better management culture to work under (or you could lead the change, but becoming the model for how to do audits correctly)