What to expect during an ISO 9001 audit

GreatNate said:

share with my team in preparation of the our stage 2 audit

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• Straighten-up your work area. Before the audit, dispose of post-it notes, handwritten instructions, and other temporary-looking job aids. If loose tidbits of information are vital, they would be better captured in official documents.
• Reflect on your role in the QMS. The auditor may ask your understanding of the Quality Management System or the Quality Standard, or what is our company’s Quality Policy. Not necessary to memorize it, but you should know roughly what is says and what it means in terms of your work. The auditor may ask how your work contributes to product quality, or what is the consequence if your work is not performed properly.
• Remind yourself not to be nervous. You know your job better than the auditor does. The Quality Management Rep will be present during an interview and can provide coaching if you are stuck, or may guide the auditor to another employee better qualified to answer a question which lies outside your responsibility.
• Pause before you answer. Make sure you understand the question. You are allowed to ask the question be rephrased if you don’t understand.
• This test is Open Book. It is allowable to respond you don’t know, but then explain how you would get the answer. You are allowed to consult work instructions or your supervisor to answer a question, if that is what you would do if you didn't know. You should be familiar with records you access, where documents are kept, and proper operation of your equipment/ tools.
• Don’t volunteer more information than asked for, which opens a door for more scrutiny. Auditors are trained to ask open-ended questions, which invite you to spill the beans. Don’t hand over the entire folder if a single piece of paper answers the question. Loose lips sink ships.
• Be patient with the process. The auditor will have an agenda to follow, and may only speak to you for a few minutes. The auditor will take notes, including your name, your title, and details you spoke about.
• Silence runs down the clock. Silence is your friend. The auditor will likely pause in the conversation to ponder your answer or consider his next question. Resist the urge to keep talking to fill the silence.
• There are no trick questions. Be truthful. Be respectful. Be cooperative. A certified auditor follows an ethical code of conduct.
• Smile. Smiling makes you appear confident, and makes you feel more confident. Keep calm and carry on.

John Predmore said:

I met with factory personnel a few days ahead of the audit date and gave them these tips, verbally, and then posted this list on the bulletin board.
I call it Top Ten List - Be Prepared for an Audit (with thanks to David Letterman for the format idea).

• Straighten-up your work area. Before the audit, dispose of post-it notes, handwritten instructions, and other temporary-looking job aids. If loose tidbits of information are vital, they would be better captured in official documents.
• Reflect on your role in the QMS. The auditor may ask your understanding of the Quality Management System or the Quality Standard, or what is our company’s Quality Policy. Not necessary to memorize it, but you should know roughly what is says and what it means in terms of your work. The auditor may ask how your work contributes to product quality, or what is the consequence if your work is not performed properly.
• Remind yourself not to be nervous. You know your job better than the auditor does. The Quality Management Rep will be present during an interview and can provide coaching if you are stuck, or may guide the auditor to another employee better qualified to answer a question which lies outside your responsibility.
• Pause before you answer. Make sure you understand the question. You are allowed to ask the question be rephrased if you don’t understand.
• This test is Open Book. It is allowable to respond you don’t know, but then explain how you would get the answer. You are allowed to consult work instructions or your supervisor to answer a question, if that is what you would do if you didn't know. You should be familiar with records you access, where documents are kept, and proper operation of your equipment/ tools.
• Don’t volunteer more information than asked for, which opens a door for more scrutiny. Auditors are trained to ask open-ended questions, which invite you to spill the beans. Don’t hand over the entire folder if a single piece of paper answers the question. Loose lips sink ships.
• Be patient with the process. The auditor will have an agenda to follow, and may only speak to you for a few minutes. The auditor will take notes, including your name, your title, and details you spoke about.
• Silence runs down the clock. Silence is your friend. The auditor will likely pause in the conversation to ponder your answer or consider his next question. Resist the urge to keep talking to fill the silence.
• There are no trick questions. Be truthful. Be respectful. Be cooperative. A certified auditor follows an ethical code of conduct.
• Smile. Smiling makes you appear confident, and makes you feel more confident. Keep calm and carry on.

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Ooi Yew Jin said:

For me, NC and OFI are expected in the audit and sometime we spending a lot of times to argue for reducing the number of NC and OFI in the audit. Audit from either first, second or third party should help to further improve the system, process or product/service. However, sometime management may think too many NC and OFI is not good as we are not control well.
Be open minder, we should accept the comments, findings, recommendations..... and think positive to keep improve. I believed everyone desires act for the good to the company for this.

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Ed Panek said:

When I audit suppliers I always try to find some things to improve.

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Ed Panek said:

An auditor who finds no areas for improvement may feel they have not done their job. When I audit suppliers I always try to ffind some things to improve.

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Marc said:

Things may have changed, but I do not remember any requirement in any standard (AS9100 may now - I don't have a copy to check) which required any employee to recite the quality policy verbatim. As I stated above, and even attached an example of, I also printed out the company quality policy, like you on standard business card stock and gave them to employees. See post #6 in this thread. In many companies they put up banners. In some every bulletin board had a copy.

What I remember being acceptable was for an auditor to ask "What does your company Quality Policy mean to you?" (this was in the TS 16949 days). I remember this because (caution - war story ahead...) I was working with what was a Borg-Warner facility which was way out in the boonies. I knew most of the employees, including most of their personalities. The auditor came to one guy who was a "griper". He always had a "bad" attitude. The auditor came around to the "What does your company Quality Policy mean to you?" question. The guy answered "It doesn't mean sh!t to me". The auditor was a bit taken aback, but due to the nature of the question he couldn't write a nonconformance. And no - The guy wasn't fired or anything. He was a known malcontent, but he really was a nice guy and he did his job well.


Never saw that. IF they know their job and how to do it, their responsibilities, documentation which affects them, they know the answer unless the auditor asks a question which is outside the employee's job and responsibilities. I have seen asshat auditors do stupid thins like ask "OK, you do this and then you do this and you give it to Joe (or Sally or - well you get the idea). What does Joe do with it?" I taught that the correct answer was the auditor would have to as Joe, that what Joe did wasn't his/her job. This also is where an "escort" comes into play, as well. Many times an employee freezes up. It is acceptable for an escort to tell the auditor that they will have to go and ask Joe.

Just some more thoughts...

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