Hello all,
I have been spending a lot of time traveling through this great forum and it has been a real help in my new job. However, I am now re-creating the 14001/18001 internal audit program. Person before me had a 42 page plantwide get it all checklist but... Auditor did not like it.:confused: It was too vague. Anyway, I was wondering if I could get some advise on how to incorporate these two standards into a checklist?

My suggestion would to audit each area for these two standards. Take items that you may have had problems with and add them to the checklist under the correct element. This way your auditing the areas that has the most concern.

I'm curious as to what you mean, Casey, by "It was too vague." Granted, if this is the opinion of your external auditor, you may want more clarification from him/her before continuing any further. :)

That being said, you could always develop a checklist that repeats the shalls from the standard and then select the appropriate clauses for the process being audited. If I was auditing our furnace process, for example, I wouldn't audit on management review, but I would talk about emergency preparedness (and other stuff, too).

Or you create a checklist template and develop a customized checklist each time you audit. Base it upon the standards and the processes so that each audit is specific to the process being audited.

But first, the "It was too vague" statement is to vague. :D

Vague...well, the old way of doing these was to do multible areas, summed together in one checklist. The auditor saw one checklist that was made specificly for our plating / wastewater treatment, due to complexity. (only 14001) He liked that idea and wanted to see each area to have it's own, specific checklist, since there are so many different operations in our facility. (stamping, heat treat, plating, staking, 800 ton press, brazing, bending, etc, etc..) Is a checklist even the way to go?

not necessarily. If you can audit without a checklist and still meet the intent of the standard, you'll be ok. Alway remember when being audited, it is only the auditor's perception. So if you do not agree with an issue, question motives for the issue. The standards are vague as well. This gives you the advantage. I always worked without a checklist and still got it done by the standards.

I could do it but I have other auditors who need the guidance to ensure a complete audit. I was hoping someone might have a good example I could use to help get me started in the right direction.

Casey the checklist is just the beginning and not "The Audit". You use it to get to where you need to start. Also conduct your audit the way the work flows..we call this process auditing. Once you've done an audit to the "shalls" you need to get deeper into how the "shalls" are actually being met.

Internal audit checklists tend to repeat the standard and focus on implementation issues - questions like "does the company have have a procedure" , "is the procedure documented" , "does the company have a policy" , "is the policy available to the public", etc. Implementation issues and making sure that all shalls in the standard are met is important for a new system/internal audit program. This makes perfect sence when the system is new - you want to make sure all the bases are covered. However, if your internal audit program continues to ask only these types of questions it will become very repetitive and eventually useless.

The challenge for an internal audit program is to evolve and become more sophisticated as the system matures. The program should place less emphasis on implementation questions and spend more time assessing the effectivness of the area / element being audited. Questions that test effectiveness are much harder to develop and can't be taken directly from the standard. Examples such as "was an EMP conducted/completed as planned" , "what results were achieved by the EMP" , "were the achieved results as expected" , "have policy commitments been achieved" , "how were policy committments achieved" , "has the overall intent of the policy been achieved" are ones that attempt to determine if the company is effective in the areas being audited.

So my advice is to not overly rely on checklists which just test the shalls in the standard. You need to examine/analyze each area/process/element being audited and develop specific questions which will help your auditors make a judgement as to whether or not the system continues to be effective in that particular area/process/element.

Does anyone have an editable version of an ISO 14001:2004 Internal Audit Checklist? If so, can you please post. "Need Desperately" Thanks!

Does anyone have an editable version of an ISO 14001:2004 Internal Audit Checklist? If so, can you please post. "Need Desperately" Thanks!

Welcome to the Cove, Charlie :bigwave: . I removed your post in the other forum; duplicate posting is frowned upon; you'll most likely get a directed response (like this one) in this forum. Have a look in this thread: Internal Auditor Check List for ISO 14001 (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=1540), and also use the Search function to see what other nuggets you might be able to come up with.

Thanks Jim for your help! I really appreciate it! Did not know that duplicating postings was a bad thing, I will not do this again! I'm a newbie and still trying to get a feel for the site.

Unfortunately, I clicked on the link that you provided and I still did not find an ISO 14001:2004 Internal Audit Checklist. Could it be somewhere else?

Love your quote!

Thanks Jim for your help! I really appreciate it! Did not know that duplicating postings was a bad thing, I will not do this again! I'm a newbie and still trying to get a feel for the site.

Not a major transgression, by any means. You should explore the site and see all that's available here.

Unfortunately, I clicked on the link that you provided and I still did not find an ISO 14001:2004 Internal Audit Checklist. Could it be somewhere else?


Read the posts in the linked thread and look for links, and look for posts with a little paperclip symbol next to them, which means that there's an attachment.

I did this: "Read the posts in the linked thread and look for links, and look for posts with a little paperclip symbol next to them, which means that there's an attachment."

But, I still did not find a "2004" version of an Internal Audit Checklist for ISO 14001. Are you saying that there is one at the link that you provided? I have spent approximately 6 hours looking. If there is one here, it is hidden.

I did this: "Read the posts in the linked thread and look for links, and look for posts with a little paperclip symbol next to them, which means that there's an attachment."

But, I still did not find a "2004" version of an Internal Audit Checklist for ISO 14001. Are you saying that there is one at the link that you provided? I have spent approximately 6 hours looking. If there is one here, it is hidden.

Wow--6 hours! You get an "A" for persistence:agree1: . I didn't look at all of it myself; I was just trying to point you in the right direction. I see that there's info there for the '96 version, but not 2004. I did a brief search myself but didn't come up with anything, but I'm sure there's a Cover out there who has something--stay tuned!

Ok I guess 6 hours is long enough to look. Here is one. Although most companies are going to process audits. It is not required though.

Thanks Jim for your help! I really appreciate it! Did not know that duplicating postings was a bad thing, I will not do this again! I'm a newbie and still trying to get a feel for the site.

Unfortunately, I clicked on the link that you provided and I still did not find an ISO 14001:2004 Internal Audit Checklist. Could it be somewhere else?

Love your quote!

There's something here:http://www.xlp.com/iso-14001-checklist-free-download (registration is required).

Ok I guess 6 hours is long enough to look. Here is one. Although most companies are going to process audits. It is not required though.

Thanks, Tarheels!

If you are looking for a GENERIC ISO 14001 checklist, the easiest way to find one is to "google it": http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ISO+14001+checklist There are many hits. I have also attached the DNV GENERIC ISO 14001 checklist to this post. These GENERIC checklists have limited value. But you mention an INTERNAL checklist. An internal checklist has to be DEVELOPED based on your impacts/aspects, processes, products, by-products, regulatory issues, etc...To use another organization's internal audit checklist as your own does not make much sense, imo.

:thanx: You all have helped tremendously! Thank you all so much! I think that I have something to work with now. My 8 hour quest has come to an end. Aaaahhhhhhh! I can breath now!

Just wondering if anyone has an example of how thier company does "process based" ISO 14001 audits. We do a similar internal audit to those posted but I want to transition to process based, and would appreciate a sample if anyone has one they can post.

Thanks!

Just wondering if anyone has an example of how thier company does "process based" ISO 14001 audits. We do a similar internal audit to those posted but I want to transition to process based, and would appreciate a sample if anyone has one they can post.

Thanks!
Here is an example audit schedule/plan. Use your TS based process audit sheets and adapt for use with ISO 14001.