internal-auditor.com

Page 1 of 2

September, 2000

This Month's Feature:

Corrective Actions

The goal of internal auditing is to ensure that quality related activities comply with planned arrangements and are effective. One of the keys to a good audit is to enable corrective actions for items discovered during the audit to be effective. But how can an internal auditor assist in making sure the corrective action is effective? Isn't the corrective action the responsibility of management?

The auditor(s) play two separate roles in corrective actions, in some cases three.

Auditor:
 As auditor, we are duty bound to make our findings clear and precise. The auditee needs to know the true nature of the finding. We dealt with this is previous issues. Findings really need to have two components to be of any benefit. First, the auditee needs to know what the requirement is. I recommend actually quoting the requirement. 4.1.2.3 Management representative: "The supplier's management with executive responsibility shall appoint a member of the supplier's own management who,…" The second component is that the auditee needs to know exactly what documentation or activity is not compliant. The document controller is identified as the Management Representative. This individual is not a member of management.

The more clearly the defined noncompliance, the greater chance of having an effective corrective action.

(Continued on next page)

Featured Book:
Title: How to Plan an Audit : 
Author: ASQ Quality Audit Technical Committee
Publisher: American Society for Quality
Notes: This book contains everything required for a timely, accurate and meaningful quality audit.

You can order this book from internal-auditor.com at: http://www.internal-
auditor.com/books.htm

Tips/Tricks/Laughter:

Some auditing software allows the checklists and notes to be made on a PDA (such as Palm Pilot). Using an electronic format for auditing could be one method to increase audit effectiveness. Not only can you download the audit on a PC, but also electronically generate NCRs and Corrective Action Requests. Follow-up is also easier.

Another advantage is auditors seem to like the idea of using PDAs and it could become an incentive to gain more (or keep existing) auditors.

Observations from the field:

The true essence of problem solving lies in asking the tough questions. Digging deeper to understand what really did happen and why did it. Then we hit the fork in the road. Was it the result of lacking knowledge, or tools (a management controllable issue), or was it a lack of attention or application of that knowledge or tools (an operator controllable issue). Pay now (by investing the time and resources to answer the tough questions) or pay much more later (on a continuous basis by facing repeat occurrences). This same logic is being used successfully with our supplier who, if they aren't leaned on as well, also default to answering corrective action requests with "symptoms" and band aids rather than root causes and actual problem elimination. Not rocket science, just persistence, with bulldog tenacity. 

Ted Russell
Quality Engineer
Master Metal Engineering
http://www.mastermetal.net/