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CHARACTERISTICS
OF AUDITS
Part three of a three
part series.
The following is
an excerpt from The
Complete Guide to the CQA by Steve
Baysinger, © Quality Publishing.
The Complete Guide
to the CQA may be ordered from the Quality
Publishing Order Form.
Qualitative
and Quantitative Audit Methods
As a quality auditor you
might be asked "how many findings did you discoverduring the course
of the audit?" For some unexplained reason, some people sometimes
equate a large number of findings with a "good" audit; never
mind the fact that these findings have little, if any, effect upon the
system, process or product that was the subject of the audit. The true
test of an audit’s worth is not in the quantity of findings discovered
but their quality, i.e., how significant were they? Did the audit
findings adversely affect (or have the potential to affect) product quality,
reliability, safety, etc.? If the answer is yes, and the auditee’s
proposed corrective action to the audit-identified discrepancy is sound,
you can feel satisfied that you helped to affect change— positive
change for improvement. Solid, fact-laden findings, accompanied by helpful,
innovative auditor recommendations to help correct those findings, not
only help by identifying significant shortfalls within the auditee’s
quality system, process or product but launch the corrective action process
even before the audit report is written and distributed!
Objective
Evidence
Objective evidence
can be defined as information which is based on facts obtained
through observation, measurement, test or other means. (ISO/DIS 8402 (1992))
It is qualitative or quantitative information, i.e., records
or statements of fact pertaining to the quality of an item or service
or to the existence and implementation of a quality system element, which
is based on observation, measurement or test and can be verified.
(ISO 10011-1 (1990)) Objective evidence can be found in many different
forms such as internal audit report findings and observations, test lab
reports, measurement and test equipment calibration records, receiving
inspections reports, etc. In short, objective evidence will generally
be verifiable in the sense of tangible, physical evidence. On occasion,
however, there may occur a situation in which a finding or observation
is based on verbal testimony provided by the auditee to the auditor. This
type of evidence, while acceptable, is not preferable. In the case
of verbal testimony, always attempt to corroborate it with physical, objective
evi-dence.
There are two basic "types"
of objective evidence:
- Physical objective
evidence that can be seen, touched or witnessed by several people
simultaneously.
- Testimony given
to you by the auditee’s management as being company policy, procedure,
etc.
The Complete Guide
to the CQA
By Steve Baysinger
Copyright © 1997
by Quality Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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