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Customers asking to see audit report from CB

Discussion in 'ISO 9001:2015 - Quality Management Systems' started by Anna Wagstaffe, May 24, 2018.

  1. Anna Wagstaffe

    Anna Wagstaffe Member

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    Hi,

    I put this in the 2008 forum by mistake, hence why I have posted this twice.

    Does anyone have any experience with their customers asking to see the actual audit report from your Competent Body?

    Did anyone show them and what was your logic behind agreeing or not?

    Thanks, Anna
     
  2. hogheavenfarm

    hogheavenfarm Well-Known Member

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    No past experience on this, however if we were asked to do it I probably would refuse. The idea is that certification is a "pass/fail" condition, your internal workings and shortcomings, if any, are irrelevant. Either you are certified or you are not. This was the whole point behind certification anyway, to reduce customer/supplier audits and provide a reliable third party certification. If they really want this, they can send their own audit team out, the very thing the standard was supposed to render unnecessary. Just my opinion.
     
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  3. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    "Competent Body" - is that "Notified Body"?

    Your reports are yours to share as you wish. Down to your management to decide who shares what and how. I wouldn't transmit anything. I'd invite the customer over to review and discuss. They might "read between the lines"...
     
  4. BradM

    BradM Moderator Staff Member

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    I would also refuse. I believe strongly in transparency and developing long-term relationships with customers/vendors. However, I can't see anything good coming from that; and all kinds of bad. The report is written to summarize the audit; not necessarily designed to be shared with the world.

    If your customer is that concerned with your system and processes, they should come in and do their own inspection audits.
     
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  5. David Sheaffe

    David Sheaffe Member

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    From personal experience, customers who have asked for a copy of our certification report are generally doing it just as a "tick the box" exercise - and don't really read them and question their content (although others may have had a different experience). When asked we will normally either supply a redacted copy of the report that doesn't contain the auditors comments, etc - but just that the when the audit summary, when it occurred, the areas covered and any non-conformances, etc - or invite the customer to come on-site and they can view the complete the report.

    We don't have any contractual obligation one-way or the other to share the reports - and we know that they are our reports, etc, etc and we don't have to share them - but we have never had an issue with sharing it with a customer. Perhaps that may be down to our relationship with them - or the fact that our reports have never had anything in there that we think would be an issue if it was read by a customer.
     
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  6. Anna Wagstaffe

    Anna Wagstaffe Member

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    Hi Andy, yes I did mean notified body
     
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  7. Anna Wagstaffe

    Anna Wagstaffe Member

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    Thanks for your replies, I just wanted to get a community view on this. We have a customer from a large organisation who comes in demanding to see that and other documents which are out of what we understood the scope of the audit to be, then going through them with a fine tooth comb.
    Last year I was new to the job and as a rookie quality compliance officer he very much intimidated me. We said no this time on principal despite there being no major problems in the report and were told that we were the first company in many years who had refused him.
     
  8. Golfman25

    Golfman25 Well-Known Member

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    So. There's a first time for everything. After 20 plus years in manufacturing I am finally realizing most requests are BS. I have a colleague who refuses to do anything that doesn't add value. Sounds to me like you have a lazy person who just wants to piggyback on your auditor.
     
  9. Patts

    Patts Member

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    We do not provide our full audit reports outside our company. We consider them confidential in that they include names of our associates, customers and suppliers and possibly other proprietary info. Recently a customer strongly objected to my push-back, saying they required a full report including corrective actions. I sent them our most recent ISO audit schedule which showed how extensive the audit was, and pointed out our cert. was from an ANAB-accredited certifying body which demonstrates we meet the requirements for ISO 9001. It's been a month and I have not heard back.
     
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  10. Jennifer Kirley

    Jennifer Kirley Moderator Staff Member

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    I agree with the above, and for more than one reason. Since the depth and extent of audit reports tends to vary with auditors, even within the same CB, the value of that report would be questionable to the customer. Further, a CB's system audits are usually too broad (a mile wide and inch deep, as the saying goes) to practically represent the client's specific production control interests, again the report would add limited value. Third, the report is your property to share, or not as you wish. The certificate can be obtained from the CB or you.

    The entire point of certification audits is to provide some assurance that management systems conform to requirements. If they don't feel assured, then let them come and do their own audits. Though beware, as supplier audits can be at least as painful as certification audits.
    My 2 cents
     
  11. Nikki

    Nikki Well-Known Member

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    I am not familiar with how your reports are - but what I do, is only show the page that says we passed. I never provide the whole report.