How To Conduct An Internal Audit According To Iso 9001 Quality Management System?

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Organization sees the essential process for Internal Audit as a form of necessary evil that they want to endure in order to maintain ISO 9001 registration. They think it is a duplicate effort of the registrar, not realizing that the Internal Audit can be much more effective because it looks at the processes more often and more carefully than the registrar has time for. At worst, the Internal Auditors are seen as some sort of internal police force that it is best to guard yourself against by hiding important data or outright misleading with false information.
In fact, as a process owner, the ISO 9001 Internal Audit process can be the finest way to have an outside set of eyes take a close look at procedure. They can help identify areas for improvement, or possibly complacency, which can benefit process to run better, quicker or more efficiently. Below are main steps that explain how to conduct an internal audit according to ISO 9001, and how they can finest be used to focus the internal process owners on enhancement of those procedures.
Planning the ISO 9001 Audit Schedule: A significant part of a good process is having ...
... an overall ISO 9001 Audit Schedule that is readily available to let everybody know when each process will be audited over the upcoming cycle. By publishing the audit intentions, the message is that this is meant as a support to the process owners and the ISO 9001 auditors are there to help. This can permit the process owners to time the finish of any enhancement projects that they are working on to be before the audit, so that they can collect valued information on the implementation, or to request the ISO 9001 auditors to focus on helping to collect information for other planned enhancements.
Planning the Process Audit: The first step in planning the individual process audits is to approve with the process owners when the audit will take place. The complete plan above is more of a guideline as to how often procedures will be audited, and roughly when, but the confirmation permits the ISO 9001 auditor and process owner to cooperate to determine the best time to review the process. This is when the auditor can review previous audits to see if any follow-up is essential on concerns previously found, and when the process owner can classify any areas that the ISO 9001 auditor can look at to assist the process owner to identify information. A good audit plan can assure that the process owner will get value out of the audit process.
Conducting the ISO 9001 Audit: An ISO 9001 audit should start with a meeting of the process owner to assure that the audit plan is ready. Then there are many paths for the auditor to collect information during the ISO 9001 audit: studying records, talking to employees, analyzing key process data. The focus of this activity is to collect evidence that the process is functioning as planned in the QMS, and is effective in creating the essential results. One of the most important things that an auditor can do for a process owner is not only to classify areas that do not have evidence that they are functioning appropriately, but also to point out areas of a process that may function improved if changes are made.
Reporting on the Audit: A closing meeting with the process owner is a necessity to confirm that the flow of information is not delayed. The process owner will want to know if there are any areas of weakness that want to be addressed, but it will also be interested in knowing if any areas occur that might be enhanced. This must be followed with a written record as soon as possible to deliver the information in a more permanent format to allow follow-up of the information. By classifying not only the non-conforming areas of the process, but also the positive areas and potential development areas, the process owner will get a better value from the ISO 9001 Internal Audit, which will permit for process enhancements.
Follow-up on Issues: As with many areas of the ISO 9001 standard, follow-up is a critical step. If problems have been found and corrective actions taken, assure that the problem is actually fixed is a key part of fixing it. If development projects have been accomplished from opportunities recognized in the audit, then seeing how much the process has enhanced is a great motivator for upcoming improvements.
By using the ISO 9001 Internal Auditor training to focus on helping to better the processes, and not just to maintain compliance, the organization can see more value out of the ISO 9001 audits. Process improvement is one of the key elements of an ISO 9001 Quality Management System, and should be one of the chief motivators of an organization that wants to implement and maintain a good QMS. Process improvement not only helps with efficacy, but also saves time and money in the process. If used correctly, the ISO 9001 Internal Audit, instead of being a “necessary evil,” can be one of the biggest contributors toward process improvement in the Quality Management System.
Source:
https://punyam.wordpress.com/2022/05/25/how-to-conduct-an-internal-audit-according-to-iso-9001-quality-management-system/