Organizations with an existing internal audit programme should review their results to ensure audit objectives are being met and to identify opportunities for improvement.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Are our internal audit plans and schedules being met?
- Do our plans focus on customer satisfaction?
- How well are departments meeting their requirements?
- Are we identifying the root cause of the problem?
- Are our internal auditors writing good audit reports?
- Are non-conformities written clearly and simply to be easily understood?
- Are we giving compliments for good practices?
- Are we identifying opportunities for improvement?
- How long is it taking to close audit corrective actions?
- What feedback are we receiving about our audits?
- Are we looking at the whole organization as one entity?
Use the update of your internal audit process as an opportunity to take corrective and preventive actions and find the root cause of the problem. It’s a good idea to have training sessions with your auditors to go over previously written non-conformity statements and identify what clause references have been used.
Top tip: Follow these 6 C’s for well written statements:
- Complete – include the specified requirement and objective evidence
- Correct – take care to accurately and correctly convey the information
- Concise – express the statement as briefly and succinctly as possible
- Clear – use easy to understand words and terminology
- Categorized – if used, identify its severity (major, minor, or concern)
- Confirmed – verify the information needed for corrective action is stated
This content (Part1 and Part 2) can be found here: BSI Blog
The full BSI 9001 Auditing Tips PDF brochure can be downloaded here: BSI Brochure
