Planning a supplier audit (tips and general advice)

My facility makes Ni alloy bars for remelting and casting. In a couple of weeks will be going to visit a couple of suppliers which we have been using for subcontract analysis. Lab A is a big multinational we use for mechanical testing and chemistry over check when requested by customer or when we don't have the right approvals. Lab B is a smaller independent lab we use for trace element analysis of our product when we are busy and which we direct our raw materials (Ni, Cr, Ti etc...) suppliers to use for their CoC.

Both labs have ISO 17025 and various other accreditations and approvals and they have never been audited by us before.
I don't want to go in and start going though the standards clause by clause, I just think that it would be a waste of time since CBs and OEMs/primes will be doing that for their particular standards each year anyway.

I think what would be helpful would be to
1. check the documents and records relating to some of our historical jobs
2. check their controls of subcontractors
3. perhaps ask what CB NCRs they have had and see if we may have been impacted
4. I am interested to know how they calibrate their equipment for very unusual elements (either as matrix or measurand)
5. we do sometimes get mistakes on their certificates so I think I need to look at how they generate them

I would like advice on how to approach that lot and also anything else I should consider for planning a worthwhile audit visit

 

A good question, there are a couple of factors:

1. the volume of work we are sending has gone up quite significantly in the last few months and I have considered it a gap for a while
   
2. we are working on an approval for an OEM and when we are audited by them I believe they will expect to see supplier audits for critical suppliers, these two labs are a critical part of the traceability chain as their results are used in our certification and Lab B is involved in the traceability of our raw materials
3. plus points 4/5 above

I also want to take a couple of my staff out to broaden their horizons and develop some experience of auditing

 

Agree absolutely with Bev. Don't waste time auditing their QMS - focus on what makes them an important (critical) supplier to you, and what things have gone 'wrong' in the past that you would like them to improve on. Auditing should be a valuable activity, not just a check-mark in a box to satisfy someones list of requirements.

 

Thank you all for your replies

 

Carried out the audits last week. Below is a summary of what we did and what we learned, in-case someone may find it interesting or helpful one day:

I sat for a while and thought about what was most likely to go wrong with these suppliers or where we had issues before. Greatest risk was in the areas of contract review, getting the instructions into their lab, managing subcontract labs, generating the cert, sample prep, heat treatment and managing lead time. The areas could be split into contract review and subcontracting, Chem lab and Mech test. Handy because I was taking a quality engineer, a chemist and a metallurgist.

I had a 1-2-1 meeting with each of the junior engineers who were coming along and we discussed their areas and where the risks were and came up with a couple of questions. I then sent them away and told them to come up with about 5 - 10 questions for their areas of responsibility. focused not on standards but on our needs.

We got together in the afternoon and patched all the questions into one checklist, checked for duplication and for questions which were too specific or based too much on minor ASTM/ISO details.
I also gave a brief along the lines of don't be too aggressive, and if you see something different to what you expect or what we do try to understand it and then decide if it's sufficient. There was a tendency to default to the questions they had themselves been asked in audits by CBs and internal auditors, particularly the chemist, we deleted most of that stuff

The audit of Lab A went well, initially we lost track of time but managed to get focus back and review all areas as planned - Don't try to squeeze too much in
It was apparent that a few corners had been cut with daily equipment checks, nothing serious. My assistant worked out what was going on very quickly but their chemist got a bit bolshie and defensive. - a bit of coaching to avoid rubbing people up the wrong way is required
Lab B went more smoothly, the team were a little more confident and relaxed - practice/experience is important