ISO 9001 Lead Auditor Training

Module 3   ISO 9001 Quality Management System Audits  

3.12 Audit Perspectives

3.12.1 Second Party (External)
A second party system of auditing can be planned on a long-term basis if the company auditing knows what suppliers it is likely to use over that period. This may be the case, but again, there are various forces at work that may upset those plans.

Organizations are constantly seeking new markets and new customers. Suppliers are bombarding potential customers, and if it appears there is a commercial benefit in opening up a new source of supply, the company may want to audit that potential new supplier. In the competitive bidding situation, a company may wish to audit all bidders as an input to the ultimate purchasing decision.

ISO 9000 Auditor Training - Having made that decision, the company may wish to carry out surveillance type visits to ensure contract requirements are fully understood and are being complied with. But not all suppliers have a formal documented system. In this case, the auditor would have to decide the scope of the audit, and as mentioned, the company already has some customers. 

Therefore, some form of contract would be in place; this would help the ISO 9001 auditor to show if the company meets contract requirements, for example, on time delivery. Usually a supplier will have some procedures, instructions, or a quality plan. If possible, a pre-audit visit would be an advantage. From all this information, the auditor would prepare an audit checklist to be used on the actual audit.

ISO Auditor Training -The results of all these audits combine to form a grading and perhaps also a performance rating into which are combined other quality features of the supplier   delivery, results of inspection of received lots, service, etc. Those suppliers who gain a high or the best rating deserve some commercial advantage if it is considered that audits and inspections of them can be minimized.

3.12.2 Third party (external)
Third party ISO 9001 audits can be planned on a fairly exact basis and the number of likely audits in a given time can be predetermined. Over a year, for example, essential visits to the auditee will have included a preliminary visit, an initial assessment, and a predetermined number of continuing audits.

ISO 9000 Training - These visits are of varying duration and demand different levels of staffing, but can be predetermined. This assumes that the auditee gains registration on the initial assessment and that is not as unusual as one might think. However, the staffing levels necessary can be pre-planned much more easily than those for a flexible first or second party audit.

"Understanding ISO 9001" provides a detailed explanation of each ISO 9001 clause (requirements).

ISO 9001 FAQ provides answers to commonly asked questions about the ISO 9000 family of quality management standards.