ISO 9001 Lead Auditor Training

Module 6 Conducting On-site Activities

6.1.5.3  Control of the Audit
At all times, the team leader is responsible for maintaining control of the audit. Experience helps auditors to develop their own way of working in an area and then adapting various techniques as each situation demands.

ISO 9001 Auditor Training - On entering an area and being introduced to the departmental representative by the guide, the team leader should go over the audit plan for that area with the departmental representative and the guide. Their advice as to the best sequence to follow can usually be taken. The items on the checklist are then worked through in a systematic manner.

The amount of time the auditor has to spend talking to management in each area about their system will vary according to how much information was originally made available to the auditors. Where there was very little detail, then more time may have to be spent determining some of the basic controls. In order to understand some of these controls, the auditor will not only speak to management, but also to the people doing the work.

If the auditors find no evidence of nonconformities, they can and should proceed quickly. Having covered their sample, they should move on. Auditors should never continue the investigation in one area until something wrong is found. Doing that is adding bias to the sample; it is making a sample less representative than the one that was chosen during the planning stage.

ISO 9000 Training - However, a word of warning: the checklist outlines what the auditors want to look at and what they are looking for. The auditors have an audit objective in mind. As the audit proceeds, situations arise where the auditor has to decide whether to continue the investigation or whether to leave it there.

If the team leader thinks continuing the investigation will be useful as far as achieving objectives is concerned, then the checklist can be ignored and the desired audit trail followed. In doing that, a longer period may be spent than was originally planned to examine a particular aspect. This means the rest of the audit must be compressed or parts removed, otherwise the auditors will not finish within the allocated time. If there are problems, the auditors must examine the evidence to the depth necessary to gain objective evidence.

In the context of audits, the concept of objective evidence is very similar to the concept of the expert witness in a court of law. When a witness is called as an expert in a given technology or skill, their evidence in that specific area is taken as being objective. On an audit, people are not being put on a “witness stand”. However, when people are talking about their area of responsibility for action or decision, then their evidence is admissible. Statements made outside their areas of responsibility are viewed as hearsay.

ISO 9001 Auditor Training - As mentioned previously, it is good auditing practice to seek out documented support where possible, for all stated evidence. Objective evidence is also that which is seen.

It is possible to observe the lack of status, signature, protection, or a label. It is possible to see records, or lack of them, and to examine items or material. The senses of sight and sound are probably the ones most used in audits.

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