ASQ CQA – 4. Audit Program Management and Business Applications Part 2

3. 4A3 Auditor Training and Development

In the topic of audit program management so far we have talked about senior management support and we have talked about staffing and resource management. In the previous lecture we talked about the budgeting for staffing and resource management. Now coming to this third topic which is auditor training and development. Auditing is a skill and knowledge which needs to be learned and mastered. So rather than talking about auditor training, let’s talk about auditor competence, what makes an auditor competent and this competence will be based on the training as well as work experience. So this is a combination of both. So here we will talk about what all skills an auditor need to learn and what all skills the auditor need to practice or gain the work experience.

The first basic thing is generic training related to auditing concepts which is something which you are doing by taking this training. In addition to auditing skills, what you need to learn about is the management system and sector specific training. So here you will be learning about the specific management system, for example 9001, for example 14,001 or any other management system. In this particular course we will be talking very briefly about 9001 which is the quality management system. But then if you really need to be a good auditor in quality management system, you need to learn more about ISO 9001 requirements.

So there are different courses for that as well. So consider taking the management system or sector specific training. And if you remember earlier we talked about number of standards related to sectors as well. There are standards for automobiles, there are standards for aerospace industry and so on. So whatever industry, whatever sector, whatever management system you are working on, you need to get trained in that as well to be a competent auditor. Then in addition to that as an auditor you need to learn about the codes and standards related to specific product. Let’s say if you are in the oil and gas industry or if you are in valve manufacturing industry, or if you are in a welding sector. Whatever area you are working on, you need to learn about the product standards related to that sector as well. The regulations, the legal requirements, and in addition to that, things such as cultural diversity, facilitation training, et cetera. So there are a number of things which you need to master as you go into this profession. Then you need to have experience. So whatever we talked earlier were related to training, then you need to have experience related to decision making, problem solving and communicating. These are something which you learn as you do.

And then another important aspect in auditor competence is that as a fresh auditor you need to work under an experienced auditor, under the guidance of experienced auditor so that you can gain more skills related to auditing and learn where are the gap, what all you need to learn more? So these are a few things which will make an auditor competent. But then this is not one time thing that you do these and then you are a competent auditor, you need to keep on updating your knowledge and there we will talk about the development. So, here are some considerations related to auditor professional development. The first one is changes in the need of individual and the organization.

The individual might want to grow from one standard to another standard. Let’s say if you have been doing audit of 9001 and now you want to move to 14,001 or you want to expand your role from auditor, you want to become the audit team leader. So these are individual needs and similar things could happen in case of organization as well. So organization might want to promote you to the audit team leader. So whatever changes are happening, that needs to be considered for professional development. So auditor needs to be developed for changes in the needs, there are technological changes as well. So based on technological changes, there might be a need to retrain auditors and then there could be change in management system. So if the company was earlier 9001 certified, now the company wants to go for integrated management system including 14,001 as well in the certification. So for that as well, you need to retrain or develop your auditors. And then there could be some changes in sector, whatever sector you are working, there could be change in the law, there could be change in the regulations, whatever those are, the audit team or the auditors need to be trained on those as well.

4. 4A4 Audit Program Evaluation

In the topic of audit program management. Previously we talked about auditor training and development. Now coming to the next topic which is audit program evaluation. So here we want to evaluate our audit program. But before you evaluate any anything, forget about audit program. If you want to evaluate anything, you need to know what was the objective. Against that, only you can evaluate something. So same thing is with audit program as well. When you want to evaluate audit program then you need to know what was the objective of the audit program. So here on this slide we will talk about the audit program objective. First and foremost thing is that audit program objective needs to be aligned with the strategic direction of the client or the organization. So what the organization wants to achieve that is the strategic direction of the organization. And the audit program needs to be aligned with that. To understand this, let’s take some examples of audit program objectives. So here I have listed four examples of audit program objectives.

The audit program objective of an organization could be identifying opportunities for improvement. This organization just wants to improve the processes. They are looking for the opportunities where things could be improved. This organization is not interested in ISO 9001 certification. This organization is not interested in anything else. They are just interested in improving the performance. The second example of audit program objective is evaluate audit’s capability and the example of that is suppliers capability. So let’s say the objective of your organization’s audit program will be to evaluate your suppliers capability, how capable your suppliers are. You might have this objective because whatever you are producing, that would depend on the capability of suppliers. If your suppliers failed you, they give you poor quality product. So this will harm your reputation as an organization if suppliers are not performing well. So in that case, the audit program which you set up will be focused on looking at the suppliers capability. The third example of audit program objective is compliance to statutory and regulatory requirements.

So let’s say your organization is working in an industry where there are a lot of statutory and regulatory requirements. So let’s say medicine. If you are in that particular sector, then your organization might be focused on meeting statutory and regulatory requirements and your audit program is set up for that to check whether the organization meets or doesn’t meet the statutory and regulatory requirements. The fourth example here is determine the continuing suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of audit’s management system. Here the auditing could be the organization itself or this could be supplier.

So here what you are looking at is the continuing suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the management system, how things are working. So this will be an ongoing program where you will be seeing whether the performance, whether the effectiveness of the quality management system is good or not. So these are some of the objectives which your organization could have in regards to audit program. Now once you have objective, then you can compare where you are against that objective. So the audit program manager who is managing the audit program and the audit client who is requesting the audit, they should review the audit program and see whether the objectives are being met or not. In case of internal audits, the client could be the management of the organization. The audit program manager could be the quality manager or the quality director. So they will review and see whether the audit program is meeting its objective or not. During the process of auditing, you would have learned a lot of things which you would have recorded as lessons learned for improvement, whether those lessons are being implemented or not. So here you are focusing on your audit program, whether your audit program is improving or not, based on the lessons which your auditors or you as an audit program manager have learned over a period of time.

So whether those are implemented or not, whether your program is improving or not. So this is something you will be evaluating as the audit program manager. Most of the companies have annual or quarterly or whatever period they have. They analyze all the audit findings. The analysis of audit findings will tell how the audit program is working. So if you are getting the same problem again and again, that means your audit program is not working. So even though you find a non conformity, you take action on that. But then in the next period also the same thing gets repeated time after time. Then that means whatever program you are running is not effective. So for that purpose, you evaluate and look at all the audit findings, let’s say every year for example, and look at things such as, let’s say top five findings. What are the five findings which are repeated again and again, whether these have changed from the previous period or not, whether we are seeing any improvement in these or not.

What are the high risk audit findings? Audit findings which could damage the reputation of the organization, which could put organization in big loss. So you look at those findings as well and compare them with the previous year or the previous period. Then you look at the areas which have the greatest number of findings. So let’s say the production has the most number of findings, or let’s say the design has repeated problems. So you look at those as well, because what you want to do here is evaluate your program and see whether your program is achieving its objective or not. And then you are looking at improvement from last year, what have changed from last year and what is your focus for the next year. And then you look at number of trends, trends related to repair rate, whether your repair rate is going down or going up.

Because what is the purpose of the audit program? If things are getting bad day by day. If your repair rate is increasing year after year, quarter after quarter, then what’s the point of having this audit program? So you want to see whether your repair rate is going down, whether your customer complaints are going down, whether the delays or the cost which you are incurring, whether that is going down or not. So you want to look at all those trends. And then in regards to audits, you want to see how much time you are taking to complete the audit, how much time you are taking to close the non conformities, take corrective actions. Whether people are taking timely corrective action or not, or is it the case that the audit is done and nobody is taking any action on the findings, you need to see that in the audit program evaluation.