Just wondering if any of you has trouble keeping your internal auditors on schedule. I'm experiencing a bit of trouble in this area and seem to hear the same song "I haven't had time to do it yet" or "I'm swamped and can't free up any time to audit" from both of our auditors.

How do you handle these situations? I'm handling them, but maybe there are preventive measures you've taken that may help me manage the situation better in the future.

:thanx:

I copy the supervisor and manager on all scheduling notices. I usually get a response when they think that their manager knows we are depending on them.

Just wondering if any of you has trouble keeping your internal auditors on schedule. I'm experiencing a bit of trouble in this area and seem to hear the same song "I haven't had time to do it yet" or "I'm swamped and can't free up any time to audit" from both of our auditors.

How do you handle these situations? I'm handling them, but maybe there are preventive measures you've taken that may help me manage the situation better in the future.

:thanx:

Gidget,

First, who do the auditors report to?

I have had the same problem before, and the way I have handled it is to bring it up to their Direct Supervisor, if the don't report directly to me (QA Manager). If they do report to me, then I simply say "you are scheduled to perform this audit and I expect that you will accomplish it as scheduled. If there are any conflicts (production, so forth), then let me know, and I will handle it." (Meaning: otherwise I will take any heat that may come about.)

The internal audit system should be either the first or second priority for any company, since it is a tool to improve the overall business system. Talk to their Supervisor/Manager and even mention it to the Top Management.

I publish the schedule and as the audits come up I send reminders to all managment and auditors, even those managers whose functions are not likely to get hit.
I start the reminders two weeks prior and be sure to say in each reminder "The auditor(s) will be Jane Doe and John Smith".

I had a recent issue with this as well. I scheduled the audit to be within a month and allowed latitude within that month to perform the audit. Well, the month went by and the team did nothing. Coming close to our ISO13485 audit, I had to resort to using Outlook to block that time for the auditor and the primary auditee into their calenders. It actually worked and we got our internal audits completed just in time. Peace: e3

From my experience these problems occur when you are using a team who is not a dedicated resource, meaning they have other jobs than just auditing. The best way I find to correct this is to use motivated auditors.

If you are not using a volunteer group for auditing, try that out. If people were conscripted into auditing for whatever reason, they will always find an excuse not to audit. I find motivated volunteers looking to better their career work best as internal auditors. Usually some high level floor personnel or something, because unless there is financial motivation, why would you expect them to want to do extra work?

Being an internal auditor can be a reward from drudgery for a lot of people, or a way to finally get out of a job they may not entirely like. It is a useful skill which can get you more money, and I sell it to my team that way. I always have my audits done on time, and more people than I can handle trying to be part of the team, and it doesn't cost me an extra dime.

I start off the yearly schedule by marking to all the managers and cc the top boss and also mention in that email, that the schedule is following soon.

When the final schedule is done (with some flexibility in schedules), I use the same email and forward to the auditors alongwith their dept managers. There is no much resistance.

Another point is I always mark emails on FDA warning letters for everybody's information to highlight the importance of audits and thereby preventing surprises by external auditors.

Screaming, shouting and throwing fits might help also.

send them out two by two. That way if they find a trail one can stay but the other can begin the next audit on time. (of course you may wish to ensure that the auditee has the time to help find the "area for improvements" root cause. otherwise give them a monkey and a watch.

All good advice so far. However, if you really dive deep into this problem, the root cause of the problem must be the fact that the internal audits are not perceived as value added by management. Because, if they were, management would want more and timely internal audits. And they would provide resources for that to happen.

So, you can dangle carrots, you can crack the whip, you can discipline, threaten, beat them into submission, go through the motion, etc. but, if you really want to fix the root cause, you need to ensure that the results of the audits are perceived, by top management, as something worth paying attention to.

All good advice so far. However, if you really dive deep into this problem, the root cause of the problem must be the fact that the internal audits are not perceived as value added by management. Because, if they were, management would want more and timely internal audits. And they would provide resources for that to happen.

So, you can dangle carrots, you can crack the whip, you can discipline, threaten, beat them into submission, go through the motion, etc. but, if you really want to fix the root cause, you need to ensure that the results of the audits are perceived, by top management, as something worth paying attention to.

Sydney - U da man!

And all this starts with defining the schedule and objective for the audits addressing something that management have on their 'radar screen' - probably what they're being measured on...........

Andy

Just looked at an IA program that doesn't even mention PA's.

Deer-in-the-headlight stares.:frust:

Sidney raises an important point about all levels in the organization assigning "importance" to the audit assignment which should "trump" any other work assignment. Organizations still in the "firefighting" mode (when internal auditors are needed to fight the fire instead of auditing) rather than following normal processes probably are the ones most needing a comprehensive audit performed on schedule.

There are, of course, legitimate "force majeure" issues which can prevent or delay an audit (real fire, personal or medical issues of personnel, etc.) Large organizations may have "backup" alternates for the team while small organizations need "backup" plans for alternate dates.