I wanted to start a thread that was a little more on the light-hearted side. Call it a "sharing of your weirdest experiences" during an audit.

I believe, due to personal experiences, that these most likely occur when a customer comes in to assess your Quality System.

So... here is my offering, one of my personal favorites:

I was given a deviation under element 4.5 from a customer because, at the customer's request, I was unable to provide a "controlled signature sheet" so that he could verify that the signature on various documents was, in fact, THAT PERSON'S SIGNATURE! Yupper, he was looking for a sheet that had the person's typed name, with a signature next to it and initials as well.

I recall him asking me, "How do you know that this is so-and-so's signature?" I imagine he wasn't pleased with my response of, "I've worked with these people for years and I know who's signature is who's." He told me that "he didn't know." I told him that at any time, he was welcome to ask the appropriate person if that was their signature and that they would be happy to verify it for him.

Well, despite my obvious challenge to his "deviation" it still showed up in his report.

My response to him was that "no corrective action is required at this time" because "in no place in the ISO Standards is there a requirement for controlled signature and/or initial sheets" but that "documents must be approved by appropriate authority" blah, blah, blah.

It might be that you "had to be there" to appreciate the humor in our interaction that day, but, we continue to maintain the business in spite of my not "correcting" our lack of a "controlled signature sheet" as somehow, somewhere it is "required" by the Standards.

It was one of my funniest experiences... going back and forth in a serious, professional manner, all the while laughing inside at how funny his assertion was...

Hope you enjoyed my experience, do you have any "World's Funniest Audit Experiences?"

How about having an employee faint when approached by the registrar for a Q&A session, before even a word was spoken? Happened here.

ALM

ALM,

I had the same request, but for me it did not result in a deviation. It did make the report as a general comment (perhaps unwarranted as well). I believe that this auditor was asking for this "sheet" because of his background in auditing for the FDA. As an auditor akin to GMP guidelines, he was looking for similar items as part of our ISO surveillence audit. He made comments about the use of White Out as well. In the Medical world, seemingly ridiculous request actually have merit. Remember that these folks are acting against a Regulatory requirement, and there are many legal implications. Perhaps the similarity of the different standards can cloud an auditors mind and occasionally they ask for something that they needn't ask for. Still, it does cause folks some surprise to say the least.

Now to the funny part: as I stated earlier, the auditor had collected several bits of objective evidence where white out was used. He threw this down on the conference table in front of the President at the closing meeting. He mentioned that this was a deviation in his mind. My President looked at me with total bewilderment. Being from a background with a Medical Device company, I was aware of GMP guidelines. I queried the auditor, reminding him that in fact, he was applying the wrong standard here. He didn't back down at first, so I referred it to the Lead Auditor, who stated that I was right. The President breathed a sigh of relief. A little later, perhaps 10 minutes, I happened to notice that the audit report had an error in it. The Lead Auditor looked at my finding and went ahead to correct the mistake with his WhiteOut pen. I queried: "Is that a GMP approved WhiteOut pen?" I never saw the President swallow harder in my life. We all had a pretty good laugh though (perhaps not so funny to the auditor who brought the whole issue up). That was one for me!

Back to the group...

In May 1994 a client went thru their ISO9001 registration audit. I had written a document control database where document changes were recorded. All except 1. When I came to help the company the quality manual was a mess. I updated it. In the document control database I wrote "...the changes in the quality manul were so extensive that the reader will have to compare the old version to the revised version to determine the changes..." The point of this was that there were so many radical changes it would have taken 100 pages to describe every change to the original manual and to what effect? The original one wasn't used anyway.

The registrar AGA (American Gas Association) and the auditor was an ex-GM person. The auditor wrote the company up saying '...it is not easy for me to tell the changes in the two quality manuals..." I asked where it said it has to be 'easy' to tell all the changes. The auditor hemmed and hummed, etc, and finally said (as we thumbed thru ISO9000) "...well, it's implied..." Horse sh_t.

This was at the very beginning of the audit. The auditor kept the 'minor' on that but after I challanged him he did 'take it easy' the rest of the audit. This is when I learned much of this is opinion and interpretation. I now tell every client "Be ready to fight."

Lock her up, Marc...

It appears that this thread isn't generating as much interest as I hoped it would.

Seeing as I have had about a half-dozen experiences that I would call "funny" or "odd," (over the last 4 years or so) I hoped I could laugh at some others' experiences.

;-)

ALM

I think we can leave the thread open. You never know what will pop up. Through the years I have had this site up I have often been surprised by what does and what does not 'go'.

(Previously posted in one of the ISO forums)

Andy Bassett wrote:

They attach no value to the idea of controlling the input from their suppliers and dodge the issue by sending out bland questionnaires that are filed without even being reviewed and then thrown onto the Approved Vendor List.


My apologies for getting off-topic slightly, but I encountered the single most interesting questionnaire that I have ever received.

I am one of those who, as much as I hate it, reviews each and every bland questionnaire thrown my way.

Well, it is a good thing that I do because for the first time ever, I received a questionnaire that was designed to check and see if the person completing it... is READING IT!

A sample of the questions sprinkled throughout the survey...

a) All of you equipment is out of calibration and none of it is identified as being part of your non-existent calibration system. (YES NO)

b) Your documentation is approved for use by anybody in the company, even those not remotely responsible for said documentation. (YES NO)

c) The quality inspection procedures are available at all points of use and do not detail how inspection is to be carried out at all. (YES NO)

These are just a few examples. After doing a double-take, I burst out in a fit of laughter right there in my office.

I'd hate to be the Manager at a company who just ran down the list circling "yes" to all of the questions, stuffing it back into the envelope and into the mail!

Guess what? I have a feeling that I will be revising OUR questionnaire very, very soon.

I'm STILL laughing about it. I wrote in the final comments that it was the best questionnaire I have ever received.

ALM

Ah yes! The Jr High School "Read all instructions and questions before you start the test" and the last instruction/question is "The point of this test was to see if you would read the instructions and questions as directed before starting the test. You do not have to take this test. You can goof off for a while while the ones who didn't read ahead as directed take the test."

I once had an internal auditor asked me how I knew that a year was up. Had to do with the retention of records.

When I explained, he wanted to know where that was documented.

He had me.

Ben Royal

This is an expose on myself.

Early in my auditing life with an aerospace OEM, I was a team member on a second party audit at a major computer OEM. Wanting to establish myself, I asked for something as I expected to see it. Needless to say, I was properly challenged. I could not point to any requirement in any standard to defend my position. I could not point to any internal requirement at this supplier to defend my position. You can guess where they shoved this "finding".

My lead auditor was a blessing. He let all of this transpire, fully knowing what the results would be. What a teacher he proved to be. For, never again have I cited something just because I wanted to see it that way. And, I have always shared this with my auditor students to demonstrate the importance of knowing and adhering to a standard.

Want the kicker? After all that, this supplier did think that what I had pointed out was a good idea and they put "it" into practice.

Oh, to be humbled...

Didn't notice this thread until todays earlier post...I have lots of stories, but this is my favorite. Can any one top this?

Initial assessment -3000+ company, so there were 4 auditors. As management rep, I was on call with my guides to page me if NC's are sited. My boss stayed away except for a periodic walk by and "how we doing?"(which was fine with me, because he couldn't answer one question correctly in my opinion, but that's another story...)
Anyway, we were in a N/C material review area. One of my internal auditors noticed a rather small unidentfied box of material on the floor while the auditor was interviewing employees of the dept. She happened to be wearing a long skirt, and "straddled" the box. Along comes the boss - motions "come here" and she wouldn't budge. She just shook her head no. He kept insisting.. face turning red.. getting mad.. and she didn't move. Probably another one of those "you had to be there" - but we always told him, trust us, we know how to handle the audit! Not much arguing after that! http://www.qs9000.com/ubb/smile.gif

that one made me giggle...but i bet the auditor caught it, and did his own internal smile and let it ride.... You would be surprised what you see.....from that side

Barb,

The old slight of hand......

You're probably right about the auditor taking notice, but keeping it to him/herself. I have received a few "gifts" over the last few years.

Regards,

Kevin

Of the 4 auditors, the other 3 would have noticed. Not this guy....he didn't notice stuff that should have hit him between the eyes, and tried to find n/c that didn't exist.
Example. In a recent re-assessment he was looking through N/C material hold tag log verifying disposition. He sampled the current week, went back 1/week, then 1/month, then went page by page until he found one that didn't have disposition recorded - from 10 months prior (actually dated before his last assessment.) "AH HA" he says, "what about this one..." The internal auditor/guide pointed out that in an internal audit they already documented N/C disposition, and his task just verified that the dept. implemented C/A and the Internal audit system worked. "Gotcha back" Not that this is the right forum, but shouldn't he have sampled a few dates and moved on....verifying a system is working... and not gone page by page? I know some people may clean up stuff before an audit, so auditors should sample dates a few months earlier, but page by page for 10 months?

Here's a quote he said at initial assessment after 4 days of auditing..."I know there's a major in this place somewhere, I just can't find it."

Laura

Re: Your closing sentence, Laura:

Sounds to me like you need to complain to your registrar and find yourself a new lead auditor. That is totally unprofessional and I would have told him so right there at the closing meeting.

ALM

You're right, and I tried...I was told to bite my tongue (because we passed) and as far as fornal complaint - even tho I was mgmt. rep for our site, I had to get approval from my mgmt, then divisional mgmt who selected the registrar. Too much bureaucracy. They wouldn't even let my comments on the "satisfaction survey" provided by the registrar go through. Of course the people making those decisions only showed up at the closing meetings while I spent a week with the guy!!
Too late now, I'm no longer there (for lots of reasons..don't mean to sound like that's why)
Don't get me wrong, I loved the QS process, and personal satisfaction knowing we did a good job. I would just assume the auditor did a better job to lend more integrity to the process.

Laura,

I agree with ALM. A registrar with this view point is not interested in a working partnership. The 'gifts' given from time to time indicates to me that registrars realize that all systems produce some level of nonconformance, but in their view (risk assessment), an allowance was made. This gift often comes with the understanding that on the next visit, this won't be overlooked. In fact, working on these freebies indicates to them that you recognize this working partnership takes two. Your auditor seems to be on a mission of doom! I would consider ALM's suggestion.

Regards,

Kevin

Like barb, I'm compassionate. I'd ignore it once. Sometimes a person is in all good faith trying to protect someone or the company - whether right or wrong. If it happens again there's a problem.

[This message has been edited by Marc Smith (edited 22 October 1999).]

I won't go into the gory details but:

We went through our first surv. audit and got a minor N/C.

We implemented and submitted our corrective action.

During this time our auditor retired and the newly assigned auditor reviewed our C/A and closed it out.

At the next surv. audit our new auditor "attempted" to write us up for the same N/C. He said that there was no way the N/C should have been closed in the first place.

I went to my office and retrieved the copy of the closed N/C with his name as the approver.

We didn't receive the N/C and the auditor was alot easier to work with during the post audit activities.

Point: Keep good records and challange the auditor (gracefully) when required.

ASD...

------------------
Al Dyer
Mngt. Rep.
ullysses3@excite.com

Guess I'd overlooked this thread in the past. Back to "something funny happened on the way to cerification"--

During the registration audit, in one of my past lives, we had a lead auditor in who was very personable and you just couldn't help but like the guy. Employees just naturally warmed to him and he kept exclaiming about how knowledgeable our employees were.

We were walking through an area on our way to check the second shift of a line we had interviewed earlier. He saw a guy walking and said that he would like to ask him about our quality policy. Before I could stop him, he had the man cornered and was asking about the quality policy. As I vainly tried to interrupt, the man pulled a business card out of his wallet and reads our quality policy to the auditor. The auditor quickly asks (as I am doing everything but standing on my head to try to interrupt the conversation) if the employee can tell him what that means to him.

The guy answers and says that "it is important that we all do our job correctly so that the next guy on the line and the customer always get what they need when they need it." The auditor asks if the man feels that is what really happens, and the response is "Oh sure, this is a great bunch to work with, they are really great."

The auditor asked the man to sign the interview sheet and we walked away as he repeated once again how knowledgeable our employees were. I just did not have the heart to tell him he'd just interviewed one of our customers' truck drivers, in for his daily pick-up.

Well it has nothing to do with our registrar, but with one of our larger clients. The "Lead Auditor" of this company came to our site to audit us, and in my opinion made a fool of himself. Not only was he cocky but a real jacka$$ too. During the audit the "gentleman" had the nerve to make ethnic comments (one of which was directed at me), talk with a filthy mouth (I am no saint mind you but I do not use that language in the work place), and just act like a real jerk. He left by telling the President of our Company that the QA Dept. has no clue what they are doing. Then over the next week proceeded to call me at least once a day because he forgot to ask for the information while he was here or blamed it on the amount of time he had to do the audit. Then I hear a day or two later that the FDA had been into visit them before they came to see us, and pretty much told them their QA Dept was lacking (or as I would say sucked). But they are a big customer of ours so of course they are right and thats that.

Our first registration audit (after opting to forgo a pre-registration overview.)

It was our plan to have but 1 authorized set of documents - keep neatly controlled in a bullet proof free standing computer.

We issued Red stamped UNCONTROLLED copies through - the shop to make the information "readily" available. Of course we provided our external registrars with the same information.

They decided that our documents were not controlled because the paper was white & no red controlled stamp was on them.

We printed a single set that evening & then asked them to return the "uncontrolled" copies they were provided so they could be destroyed.

They spent the next two days running back & forth to the single controlled set. We would not allow it to be removed from the office. At the exit meeting they remarked with a broad smile that they should maybe have waited to make this point on the last day of the audit.

Regards
Jim

This one comes from a friend of mine......

He was going through a FDA audit, explaining to the auditor about the enzymes they were extracting from the ovaries of hamsters.....the auditor asked where his master (standard reference) hamster was.......

I had a middle aged lady pass out and hit the floor when I walked up and was introduced to her...Apparently the client had over emphasized how important the audit was..

Prior to our registration audit in 1999 we decided to order all of the guys in the warehouse and our drivers T-Shirts with the mission statement/quality policy printed on it. Now we have several company events that we order the same gray t-shirts for every year. Golf outings, picnics etc. Had a warehouse worker wake up with a hangover and dressed in an old T-Shirt. When the auditor asked him what our mission statement was, he proudly exclaimed Company picnic 1999. (Yes it is a true story)

We had a customer audit where the guy wrote us up because he noticed that some documents had the document control number on the top of the page, whereas some forms because of the layout of the form had the doc control number on the bottom of the page.

I'm still shaking my head about that one......

During our registration audit we had two auditors that apparently came in as friends. The one was our lead and the other was used to being lead. They had a disagreement and it became loud. The Quality Manager and I were asked to leave the room. The one said, " Well, what do you want them to do?" You had to be there!!!

Short Story #1

Just started the job and was preparing for a surveillance audit. During the opening meeting, the Lead Auditor asked us all to introduce ourselves (name, position, length of time with the company) as this was also a 'passing of the torch' audit to a new Auditor.

"John Doe, XXX Manager, 10 years."

"Jane Brown, YYY Manager, 13 years."

"Jason Smith, ZZZ Manager, 9 years."

"Roxane Beyette. Quality Assurance Coordinator. 10 days."

The Lead Auditor looked right at me (the horror stories I had heard about him prior to the visit had me shaking!) and said. "Ah.....you're the scapegoat. We'll blame everything we find on you." I just sat there and blinked.

FYI, four years have passed and I'm still here.....he's never come back. :)

Short Story #2

Auditor asking that useless question of "What's your Quality Policy?"

Responses included:

"Quality is job 1!"....sounds good, except we weren't Ford.

"Quality means I get to keep my job and that's important cuz I have stock in this company!"

"Quality means that if someone gets killed, it's my fault!" (he programmed the signs on the bus destination windows....you know the things that say 'Garage' or 'Out of Service'....not brakes or steering)

Needless to say, the Auditor thought that we could improve upon our knowledge and communication of the Policy.

Short Story #3

I had trained and trained and trained the guys on the floor to answer only what they were asked during an audit. Never expand. Never volunteer.

Auditor: Do you have a Quality Policy?

Employee: Yes.

A: Do you understand your Quality Policy?

E: Yes.

A: (getting a little annoyed) Can you tell me your Quality Policy?

E: Yes.

A: (very annoyed) What is your Quality Policy?

Employee successfully answered.

Short Story #4

Auditing on July 1 in the US...a Canadian statutory holiday.

Me: (to a former coworker who now works in the US) Hey! Happy Canada Day! I see your working the stat.

(a bit later)

A coworker nearby: What's Canada Day?

Me (smiling and looking at Auditor - we had discussed that this would happen earlier at breakfast in the hotel): It's like your 4th of July but for Canada.

Coworker: Cool! Do you have fireworks?

Me: No. We just sit in our basements with all of the lights turned off.

Coworker: Oh.

I wonder how many people she told that to.....

Short Story #5

Auditor: Have you had training to do your job?

Employee: Oh yes! I've had lots of training. In fact, I've had so much training, I forget what I've been trained on!

Auditor: Well, that's good...all that training will look good on your resume.

Employee: (sudden panic) Why? Am I going somewhere? Have I been fired?

Short Story #6

I never did figure this one out.....the auditor never questioned why Production's tape measures (those used to actually build the product) were inspected to +/- 1/8" but those of us in Engineering who took care of tooling and processes had to be inspected to +/- 1/16".

Short Story #7

Auditor: According to the sticker, the next calibration is due today.

QC Manager: It is. But I cancelled the guy coming in.

Auditor: Why?

QC Manager: Because you're here.

Auditor: So, do you stop making product just because I'm here?

QC Manager: No...but we make the stuff we know we won't screw up on.

Short Story #8

Auditor: What do you do when that (an abnormality we were talking about) happens?

Employee: Do you want to know what we're supposed to do or what we really do?

Auditor: Never mind.

***

And that's all that comes to mind right now, folks....

This is a little off the topic, but is quality related. I was working at the time, late seventies, as a 1st shift machining supervisor. One morning I came in to find most of the entire production, close to 500 armature shafts from one manual turret lathe being defective. When 2nd shift reported to work I was present when the 2nd shift supervisor questioned the machine operator as to why there were so many defective parts. The operator was new, only a few days on the job. He explained how the set-up man had instructed him of the need to check every fifth part for the dimension which happened to be the cause for the parts being defective. It was our procedure to segregate the parts inspected as a means to assure the frequency inspections were being done. The operator said he really didn’t know how the set-up man knew every fifth part was going to be bad and to set it aside. This is an example of poor training,follow up, not to mention lack of intelligence.

He saw a guy walking and said that he would like to ask him about our quality policy. Before I could stop him, he had the man cornered and was asking about the quality policy....

The auditor asked the man to sign the interview sheet and we walked away as he repeated once again how knowledgeable our employees were. I just did not have the heart to tell him he'd just interviewed one of our customers' truck drivers, in for his daily pick-up.

This one is the funniest one in my opinion. I wish I could have been there.

While I don't have a funny story I did have an experience that made me go "MMMMH!!"

During our registration audit to ISO 9001:2000 our external auditor began his opening meeting with the following:
"Auditors are not calibrated."

I understood what the auditor meant. Unfortunately, all of the managers and Top Management in the meeting had no clue what the auditor was talking about.

We got our registration so I guess that's what counts.

Story One:

Despite warnings about safety equipment from yours truly our previous registrar managed to send us an inexperienced young female auditor who managed to turn up to a heavy industrial site in medium heel shoes, unprofessionally short skirt and no safety boots. I can't say for certain (but I have a real good sense for these things) but she walked like she had put herself through school as an exotic dancer. ;) Now company safety rules are rules, you can tour our facilities if you stay between the yellow lines without safety boots as long as you have external safety toe caps on. We hadn't been in the mill for more than 30 seconds before the "attention hot babe on the premises" secret code goes out over the intercom. Typically, employees avoid auditors like they have the plague but strangely in this case a crowd quickly formed. Picture this, auditor in red fashion shoes with large yellow plastic toe caps trying to audit a facility from the tourist lines with hordes of gawking operators bending over backwards to bring her SOPs and records. Needless to say it wasn't very effective and that was her one and only visit to our facility. Pretty sure production levels were lower than normal that morning too. For weeks afterward operators were asking me when the next audit was.

Story two:

Training internal auditor team for a multi-national automotive parts company onsite. Unbeknownst to me the Head of Corporate quality had flown in to secretly witness the audit. This branch made rear window package shelves and under carpet sound dampening padding (mastico backing). They used mylars to inspect the padding to make sure it was cut-out to the right shape and dimensions. On the off shifts if a mylar got damaged or worn they had a stash of cardboard cutouts they used to trace a new mylar and they then faked the approvals. The internal audits stumbled across an example, wrote up a major CAR and brought this cardboard cutout to the final meeting. At the final meeting the plant manager started arguing vehemently that this was just a production set-up aid, nothing to do with inspection. At which point the internal auditor flipped the card board over and written in big black permanent marker was the instruction "Don't ever let an auditor see this", signed by the inspection foreman. :biglaugh: Fortunately, the corporate quality head saw the humour in this and was highly complimentary to the internal auditors and gave us more work training auditors all over the corporation.

Story 3:

Female internal auditor from corporate stumbles across the very remote field shipping shed. In flagrant violation of company policy the shed is wall papered in centrefolds and page 3 girls. After checking some load tallies she looks around the shed, shakes her head and says this just won't do. She gets out a blank CAR form and writes on it, " shipping sheds contains evidence of systematic driscimination against brunettes" and gives it to the gobsmacked shipping foreman and tells him next audit there had better be 50% non-blondes on the wall or else. :lmao: She made her point very diplomatically, needless to say all the pictures were gone by next visit.

Thanks to everyone for the funny stories. You've prompted my first post.

Story 1
I was doing an internal audit of one of our welding shops about their fabrication of nuclear class pressure boundary pipework.
Internal auditor: So, what procedure did you use for the welding?
Welder (proudly): I didn't use a procedure.
Internal auditor (looking over at the shop bench where a binder is sitting that's got all the drawings and procedures required for the job): But you must have had some instructions on how to prepare the weld, or which welding rods to use?
Welder: Yeh, but I didn't use them. I've built two nuclear power plants and I don't need to use the procedures!
~
After I dinged them on the audit report, I had a quiet word with the Supervisor. Now at least they say they use the procedures!

Story 2
The best recovery I've ever heard to this question came from a very good design engineer ....
Internal auditor: So, what procedures did you use for developing this design?
Design engineer: Procedure #XXX, but I didn't use it.
Internal auditor (thinking, oooo there's an easy finding here): Oh? Why not?
Design engineer: Well, I've been doing this job so long I've pretty much got the procedure memorized. I do the work and review the procedure as a quality check at the end. That's how I caught the new requirement to fill out --- (new form). But usually the procedure hasn't changed.
I'd already reviewed the documentation he'd produced and it was flawless.

This is one of those experiences that are funny now, but not so fun when you are living them. I was the Lead Internal Auditor for a company, also handled some environmental work, while we were in the middle of my audit with a third party auditor, and the receptionist came in and whispered in my ear, the EPA and the Attorney's General's office is here to see you.

I said to quit joking I had enough of my plate. She said nope its true. I had to stop my audit to see the attorney general. It turned out that our trash hauler was cheating the government counting our trash as construction materials, we were not in trouble but our contractor was.

Can you say - Oh sh--! I apologized to the third party and wasn't able to offer anything in the way of explanation.

Maggie

This happened about seven years ago; we had an auditor from Singapore carrying out the Stage II audit of our factory in India for ISO-14001 certification. During the site visit, we came to the sewage effluent treatment facility; the effluent treatment facility was surrounded by a well maintained lawn, trees and flowering plants. The Plant Engineer explained to the auditor the working of each section of the ETP and finally was explaining the functioning of the clarifier. At this point she had a question: What was the quality of the treated effluent ? By the time she completed the question, she held back with a shock; we realized the reason at once - a long cobra, about 1.5 metres long was drinking the effluent water from a spray with its body wound over the GI pipe connected to the spray nozzle. Our Plant Engineer answered the auditor - "here is a proof madam... our treated effluent is of drinking water quality". :) Best Wishes,Ramakrishnan

During an EMS Stage 2 audit.

Me: "What are your targets and objectives?"

A: A slide showing cost savings goes up

Me: "OK, how does this information relate to environmental performance improvement"

A: "Our environmental targets are in our overall financial goals"

Me: "Where and what are they?"

A: "They're in there as part of our 6 Sigma program"

Me: "What are they?"

A: "They're in there" (pointing to the finance chart)

Me: "OK, let me rephrase this...If I were to interview lets say, employee Smockatela (ficticious name I commonly use) in one of your departments and asked about environmental objectives could he/she tell me?"

A: "They should"

Me: "Would they tell me finance stuff or real environmental stuff?"

A: Deer-in-the-headlight-stare

Break for lunch

After lunch

"Because of complaints about demeaning language about our employees we're asking you to leave" (I used the fictional employee Smockatela)

Me: Deer-in-the-headlight-stare :oops:

I got home 3 days early (BTW, Smockatela is an actual real last name for some people but not at this place)

So much for the glamorius life of an auditor

Come on, Randy, tell us the real words exchanged. You are the master of tact and diplomacy....http://www.flashplayer.com/forum/images/smilies/roll1.gif

So, let me see. When you ask about environmental objectives and targets, you expect a coherent answer that (at least vaguely) adresses something related to the environment... Man, you are so demanding.... I guess rubber stamping is not your hobby.

It's a good thing you didn't give Smockatela a first name--they probably would have had you arrested.

The guy that was the Lead I was working with couldn't stop laughing and making jokes at dinner that evening...of course this was really a serious issue being asked to leave. My Lead (a native Brit) was worried that he would say something just as innocuous and wind up getting tossed from the country :lol:

Talk about being dumbfounded. :confused: This was a 1st for me.

BTW, they did have objectives, but it took about 4 hours to track them down

Additionally, someone had to come in at the last minute to fill in for me.

Wait, I'm confused. Were they saying that the fictitious name Smockatela was demeaning? I don't get it, unless they thought that it was supposed to be a racial comment about the makeup of their workforce.
I wonder how someone whose name really was Smockatela would feel about their name being "demeaning."

:topic: Wait, I'm confused. Were they saying that the fictitious name Smockatela was demeaning? I don't get it, unless they thought that it was supposed to be a racial comment about the makeup of their workforce.
I wonder how someone whose name really was Smockatela would feel about their name being "demeaning."
What race would a Smockatela represent?

:topic:
What race would a Smockatela represent?
Well what gender do you suppose then? My guess would be a girl, or a guy a little light in the loafers. ;)

:topic:
What race would a Smockatela represent?

Heck if I know, Ewok or something maybe?

I was only thinking it might have been a race thing because I once worked at a company where someone said “Look, these instructions need to be posted on the floor so every Shanequa or Tyrone we have out there can access them.” That person got to go to a special sensitivity class…

I could see their offense if Randy had picked a name that was stereotypically associated with an ethnic group, but Smockatela seems pretty harmless.

:topic:
What race would a Smockatela represent?
I Googled "Smockatela" and came up with not even one entry. :rolleyes: In this instance the "Search was a terrible waste." :lmao:

:topic:
What race would a Smockatela represent?

I have no idea. I've used this term for the better part of 40 years in training and conversation if I just wanted a generic, vanilla flavored person to use as an example. In the service (where I learned it) it was used to refer to the average, day-to-day, Marine or soldier who just does his work and is neither outstanding nor lacking...just a regular guy.

There are probably some folks that visit the Cove that have heard me use the word in conversation. Those that have met me can verify I ain't no different in person than I am here. I definitely wouldn't offend on purpose and I try not to accidentally.

This is for sure going into my auditor training repertoire as a "thou-shalt-not"

Sounds to me like that was just an excuse for them to buy some time, to regroup and try to understand the nature of the questions that were asked, and try again later.

Randy, I guess John/Jane Doe doesn't work for you? Isn't the word schmuckatelli (http://www.schmuckatellico.com/), derived from the yiddish word schmuck. (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=schmuck)

Randy, I guess John/Jane Doe doesn't work for you? Isn't the word schmuckatelli (http://www.schmuckatellico.com/), derived from the yiddish word schmuck. (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=schmuck)
Bingo!

schmuck: A clumsy or stupid person; an oaf. :tg:

[Yiddish shmok, p*nis, fool, probably from Polish smok, serpent, tail.]

Maybe their employees you demeaned would like to buy some "schmattes" (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=schmattes) like these (http://www.schmuckatellico.com/schmuckatelli/product_info.php/products_id/111). :lmao::biglaugh:

Maybe their employees you demeaned would like to buy some "schmattes" (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=schmattes) like these (http://www.schmuckatellico.com/schmuckatelli/product_info.php/products_id/111).
I will take these "schmattes"! :o Please.

I will take these "schmattes"! :o Please.
That's most likely the only way you'll get them:cool: .

I will take these "schmattes"! :o Please.Stand in line they're not schmattes, but may be kurva.:mg: (http://www.notam02.no/%7Ehcholm/altlang/ht/Yiddish.1.html#so1)

Stand in line they're not schmattes, but may be kurva.:mg: (http://www.notam02.no/%7Ehcholm/altlang/ht/Yiddish.1.html#so1)


Oy vey :eek:

Guys I don't know :confused:

All I'm sure of is I had a great plane ride back and the Admirals Club had some good snacks.

Guys I don't know :confused:

All I'm sure of is I had a great plane ride back and the Admirals Club had some good snacks.So, when are you going back for their next surveillance?:lmao:

Trust me when I say I don't think I'll be packing for that trip anytime soon :lol:

Trust me when I say I don't think I'll be packing for that trip anytime soon :lol:
The bright side Randy is that if everyone liked you there might be something wrong with you.

In May 1994 a client went thru their ISO9001 registration audit. I had written a document control database where document changes were recorded. All except 1. When I came to help the company the quality manual was a mess. I updated it. In the document control database I wrote "...the changes in the quality manul were so extensive that the reader will have to compare the old version to the revised version to determine the changes..." The point of this was that there were so many radical changes it would have taken 100 pages to describe every change to the original manual and to what effect? The original one wasn't used anyway.

The registrar AGA (American Gas Association) and the auditor was an ex-GM person. The auditor wrote the company up saying '...it is not easy for me to tell the changes in the two quality manuals..." I asked where it said it has to be 'easy' to tell all the changes. The auditor hemmed and hummed, etc, and finally said (as we thumbed thru ISO9000) "...well, it's implied..." Horse sh_t.

This was at the very beginning of the audit. The auditor kept the 'minor' on that but after I challanged him he did 'take it easy' the rest of the audit. This is when I learned much of this is opinion and interpretation. I now tell every client "Be ready to fight."

Marc, this is a real old post, but it's been fun to read. But, I'm curious. I've seen many changes in the audit field from the 90's to now. Do you still feel a need to advise clients to "Be ready to fight?" Or, do you find it has become a more appropriate playing field. I would welcome your perspective.

This is a great post! Thanks for bringing back to the top. :D
Marc, this is a real old post, but it's been fun to read. But, I'm curious. I've seen many changes in the audit field from the 90's to now. Do you still feel a need to advise clients to "Be ready to fight?" Or, do you find it has become a more appropriate playing field. I would welcome your perspective.
In May 1994 a client went thru their ISO9001 registration audit. I had written a document control database where document changes were recorded. All except 1. When I came to help the company the quality manual was a mess. I updated it. In the document control database I wrote "...the changes in the quality manul were so extensive that the reader will have to compare the old version to the revised version to determine the changes..." The point of this was that there were so many radical changes it would have taken 100 pages to describe every change to the original manual and to what effect? The original one wasn't used anyway.

The registrar AGA (American Gas Association) and the auditor was an ex-GM person. The auditor wrote the company up saying '...it is not easy for me to tell the changes in the two quality manuals..." I asked where it said it has to be 'easy' to tell all the changes. The auditor hemmed and hummed, etc, and finally said (as we thumbed thru ISO9000) "...well, it's implied..." Horse sh_t.

This was at the very beginning of the audit. The auditor kept the 'minor' on that but after I challanged him he did 'take it easy' the rest of the audit. This is when I learned much of this is opinion and interpretation. I now tell every client "Be ready to fight."

Sounds to me like that was just an excuse for them to buy some time, to regroup and try to understand the nature of the questions that were asked, and try again later.
S'what it sounds like to me too.

Marc, this is a real old post, but it's been fun to read. But, I'm curious. I've seen many changes in the audit field from the 90's to now. Do you still feel a need to advise clients to "Be ready to fight?" Or, do you find it has become a more appropriate playing field. I would welcome your perspective.

Hjillling - I will throw my $.02 in.

In the last 3 - 4 years, there has been a "sea change" from the QS and now
TS audit world. I see far fewer of these b.s. issues than I used to. I have been told by several registrar auditors that they (the registrars) were given strong direction by the big 3 to avoid "non-value added" nonconformities, at least when the auditee's customer performance figures justify it.

IMO this has improved the process. However, it does put a burden on the 3d party auditor to exercise judgement. It also (to an extent) creates a degree of auditor bias (that is, basing decisions on the customer performance reports), which could be a bad thing.

I'm a consultant and typically have 2 - 4 active clients at any time, so this
represents the experience of a small sample of auditees.

Brad

Sounds to me like that was just an excuse for them to buy some time, to regroup and try to understand the nature of the questions that were asked, and try again later.Good bet. But what was strange in this situation is the fact Randy mentioned they were doing Stage 2 audit. The question about objectives and targets is definitely one of those covered during the Stage 1 phase. If it takes 4 hours for an organization to find their E O&T, there is something "fishy".:horse:

I'm conducting a medical devices audit at a reputable company. Relations between us and the management are excellent, they encourage us to dig deep, however the place is extremely well-managed and we never have had cause to raise many NCs.

We get to the closing meeting. I take them through the Observations, and minor NCs, all very friendly/professional.

I then casually announce that we need to discuss the Major I came across. Everyone sits bolt upright, a look of horror and confusion across their faces.
(Everyone, that is, apart from the QA Manager, who just rolls his eyes.)

So between gritted teeth (understandable, because it is a golden rule that you don't ambush people at the closing meeting, especially not with Majors!), the CEO asks me to explain.

Instead, I point to the QA Manager - instead of looking scared/embarrassed etc, he just looks sheepish - he knows what's coming.

"Well it's like this, ten minutes into the audit, I realised I had forgotten my wedding anniversary...."

:lol:

This one, I heard several years ago, may be an urban myth. However it is so mad, it is probably true.....:tg:


Our assessor turns up for an initial audit at a medical device company. Traffic is much better than expected, so he arrives very early, but checks in at the security gate anyway.

"They won't be here for another hour, I'd be happy to show you around."

"Okay" says our auditor.

"So how many patrols do you do on the nightshift?"

"I usually go round the site two or three times."

"The whole building?"

"Yep - I'm very conscientious"

"That's commendable"

"Including in there?" [points at a particular manufacturing area]

"Yep, everywhere"

"And Buster, your guard-dog, always tags along"

"Yep".

"Everywhere?"

"Yep"



The guard and his faithful hound conscientiously patrolled the whole site at least twice every night.

Including the cleanroom.

Not often you raise a Major NCR before the Opening Meeting. :mg: :biglaugh:

I swore that I would write a book about this particular audit experience (October 2003). It was my first audit with this particular company (I was fairly new to the company). I was the auditee. The auditor was a nice guy, luckily.

First, a little background. This was an assessment audit for conversion from the 1994 to 2000 standard. We were additionally adding two new offices to the scope of the certificate. We had 4 sites in total, 3 of which were to be visited. All the program directors from all sites attended the opening meeting. Prior to the opening meeting we had told all the program directors that we didn’t necessarily want to bring up the fact that some of our staff work at home. If it came out, it came out—we certainly wouldn’t hide it. But we didn’t want to unnecessarily bring it up to bring about a whole barrage of questions about how you control work-at-home staff.

So, we have the opening meeting, and the auditor asks everyone in attendance to go around the table and introduce themselves, which site they work at, and their job responsibilities. The very first person to speak says “Hi, my name is John Smith, and I work at home!” Needless to say, my boss and I looked and each other and almost fell over. That set the tone for the entire audit! Not that anything went wrong, we just had comedic moments.

We go to the second office, where we actually only have our contract administrator who works there. So, we were expecting to go see one person who is responsible for all of our contractual communication (we work on a government contract). Obviously, all contract review occurs at this site. We get there, and the contract manager walks into the conference room, with a 20-year-old-ish girl in tow. My boss and I look at each other, as we have no idea who this tag-along is. DANGER! DANGER!

So we get around to introductions, and the contract manager (Liz) introduces herself, then points to the “new girl” and says, “This is Nancy, she’s an intern her.” My boss and I had no idea this girl even existed. Later, the auditor brings up the topic of training, and asks to see Nancy’s training file. Liz said, “Oh, she’s an intern, she doesn’t need to be trained.” RED FLAG. The auditor said, “What are Nancy’s responsibilities?”. Liz replied, “She’s responsible for proofreading all of our contracts before they go to the government to be signed.” THAT DOESN’T REQUIRE ANY TRAINING—SURELY?!?

Third audit site. The program director states that associate “Betty” is extremely nervous, and hopes she won’t be picked to be interviewed. Naturally, the auditor slates Betty for the first interview. She’s a nervous wreck, but gets through easily. The auditor was good at putting her at ease. At the end of his interview, the auditor asked Betty if she had any questions for him. She asked, “Can I hug you?” PLEASE DO NOT MOLEST THE AUDITOR!

By the time this audit was over (with only one minor nonconformance which was corrected before the auditor left, by the way), my boss and I were rolling on the floor laughing at the little things that just kept adding up . . .

Third audit site. The program director states that associate “Betty” is extremely nervous, and hopes she won’t be picked to be interviewed. Naturally, the auditor slates Betty for the first interview. She’s a nervous wreck, but gets through easily. The auditor was good at putting her at ease. At the end of his interview, the auditor asked Betty if she had any questions for him. She asked, “Can I hug you?” PLEASE DO NOT MOLEST THE AUDITOR!

OMG! LOL! :lol:

There's a bumper sticker in there..."Have you hugged your Auditor today?"

From our latest external audit:

New auditors this time... and some people from the national accreditation agency, surveying the auditors. Ok, no problem. Five people drops in and introductions start. Still no problem, so we start to dish business cards around, and one of the visitors stats squirming... and finally asks:

-Is this the forklift training class?

As it turned out he was a summer temp, coming in for his first day, and some training. He just happened to enter the building along with the auditors, and just followed the crowd. We all (Yes, including the temp) had a good laugh :lmao: , and then I helped him finding the rest of the class.

/Claes

That's a good one - thanks for my first good belly laugh of the day.:lmao:

And now, the poor soul will be nicknamed "Wrong Way" for the rest of his summer job?

As an Auditor for one of the earliest ISO 9001 registars, I was a team member of the certification audit of a major power generation equipment manufacturer. In the bucket welding shop, we were checking the control of weld consumables (welding rods) in the conditioning ovens. As usual, we found someone's lunch sandwiches warming in there. So, we wrote a non-conformity: -

"In the weld shop consumables ovens, a quantity of unidentified product was observed. It couldn't be determined if it was white, wheat, rye, cheese, ham, chicken or turkey.
ISO 9001, 4.8 requires product to be identified.........":lol:

In another 3rd party audit, the Purchasing buyer went into labor just as her audit interview was completed...............Her husband said they delivered a bouncing baby boy later that evening.......to be called "Lloyd"........ after the registrar organization:lmao:

Andy

Her husband said they delivered a bouncing baby boy later that evening.......to be called "Lloyd"........ after the registrar organization:lmao:

Andy

It could have been worse - had a cheaper quote come in from another registrar the poor kid might now be answering to the name of "Det Norsk Veritas"...:)

It could have been worse - had a cheaper quote come in from another registrar the poor kid might now be answering to the name of "Det Norsk Veritas"...:)
It occurs to me that it could have been much much worse..........."Perry Johnson":lmao:

Andy

Mine was during a QS surv. audit. Our new Japanese Sales Manager (fluent in English by the way) had just been transferred to our US facility in Mi. The auditor was questioning office employees and happened to notice the new Sales manager trying to dodge the audit. The auditor still was able to corner him, and asked what the company quality policy statement was. After moaning and groaning, the sales manager replied that he knew it but could only speak it in Japanese. BUSTED!!! The auditor was married to a woman from Japan. He was fluent in Japanese, and had lived in Japan for 5 years. He immediately asked in Japanese something to the effect of. "Great, I speak Japanese, could you please tell me in Japanese???". After a few moments they both started to laugh. No N/C was written.....

I've had stories on both sides, as an auditor and as a consultant -observing while my client is being audited-

This is one story as an auditor, during a pre-assessment audit over a car maintenance workshop:

Auditor: Could you please explain to me briefly the steps you perform once a customer arrives at your gate.

Auditee: He leaves the car, and we fix it.

Auditor: Who does he leave it to?

Auditee: No one specific...anyone who's around.

...and then the audit continues and then i cite what he had said before

Auditor: If no one specificly receives the cars then how come. .whatsoever..?

Auditee: Who said no one specificaly receives the car?....I receive the cars!

Auditor: Ok.

...and then the audit continues and then i cite what he had said before

Auditor: If you personnaly the cars then how come....whatsoever..?

Auditee: Who said I receive the car?....The foreman receives the cars!

................... and he continued to change whatever he's saying, and the funny thing is that he was frustrated with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the way i see it, and the way i've found it, was that, there was absoultely no system in place, no identification of processes or assignment of resposnibility, but the auditee was trying to read my face -which was more of a poker face whenever i get his response- and my feedback to find out what is the right answer so he'd say it, because he just wants to say he's doing a good job, regardless of what it is!

A story i heard from a friend.....who knows how true it is...


during the surveillance audit, the auditor was reviewing calibration stickers...unfortunately, the audit date has been changed from Jan 19 to Jan 12....and of course, the supervisor was so busy, he forgot to tell his staff to adjust the calibration stickers(mistake #1)...however, they did what they were told to do...they made all the records and stickers, reflecting jan 18th...one day before the scheduled audit(mistake #2)...of course, the supervisor is shi__ing in hs pants when he realized what he did not do (mistake #3)...


the crazies part of this whole audit was......the auditor preprinted his checklist (mistake #4) and it had jan 19th as the audit date and he completely ignored the non-conformance (mistake #5)...talkng about mistakes after mistakes....

it was a MASTERCARD moment when the auditor called the company to inform his mistakes and OUR MISTAKES one week after the audit...

i guess he found his mistake while he was writing his final audit report.

Last TS 16949 audit a funny event happened to me. We were digging into the corrective action items for one of our suppliers.

In the 8D the supplier had stated that the non-conformance occurred from an operator error. The operator had missed a step in the process. Knowing that operator errors are not acceptable as a corrective action response I wrote back that they must dig deeper into the process steps to solve the root cause issue, and asked what would they do to correct this issue from ever occurring again.

The supplier wrote on the 8D "Operator to be taken out back and shot." I wrote back to the supplier that I would need objective evidence that the operator was shot and that an Obituary would be needed to close the corrective action. The supplier made a mock newspaper clipping of the events that lead to his demise and sent it back. This time he also included the true root cause.

The auditor seeing the whole events as funny, wrote a OFI and that we should look into changing suppliers because of the potential of high turn over at the current supplier.

Last TS 16949 audit a funny event happened to me. We were digging into the corrective action items for one of our suppliers.

In the 8D the supplier had stated that the non-conformance occurred from an operator error. The operator had missed a step in the process. Knowing that operator errors are not acceptable as a corrective action response I wrote back that they must dig deeper into the process steps to solve the root cause issue, and asked what would they do to correct this issue from ever occurring again.

The supplier wrote on the 8D "Operator to be taken out back and shot." I wrote back to the supplier that I would need objective evidence that the operator was shot and that an Obituary would be needed to close the corrective action. The supplier made a mock newspaper clipping of the events that lead to his demise and sent it back. This time he also included the true root cause.

The auditor seeing the whole events as funny, wrote a OFI and that we should look into changing suppliers because of the potential of high turn over at the current supplier.

You just gave me the best laugh of the week. :lmao: :lmao:
That's a really amazing story!

PSI´s got me rolling on the floor ! alot of other great "stories" too...

My contribution comes from an experience that our TUV auditor was telling us at lunch time. He arrives at the Organization promptly at the combined time and identifies himself at the reception. The MR comes out looking totally surprised and says "Wow, you´re OK? I´m so sorry about the news!?" The auditor confused asks "What news?" MR says "Your office called yesterday saying that your father had died and that the audit today was cancelled !" The auditor promptly said, my father is alive and well, can we get on with the audit ? The MR tried to argue that the audit had been postponed by the Registrar for a while... conclusion : after about 2 hours of audit, the auditor suspended the audit with a handfull of major NCR´s.

I guess this was one more of those companies that just wants the certificate looking pretty on the wall.

Couple of months back I was doing a 2-day surveillance audit of a major home appliance service provider that required my looking at office activities and observing a service technician in the field.

The office part of the audit went very well, everything was hunkey-dorey. On the 2nd day the field service manager took me to meet the tech and discussed the wherefores, how-we-do-its, and all that stuff. We got to the meeting place and the manager introduced us and I started in. "Hi, I'm Randy, what do you do, how do you do it, blah, blah, blah......"

About 2 minutes into the preliminary interview the Tech stopped cold. He paused, looked at his boss, looked at me and loudly said "HOLY SH_T, IT'S RANDY DAILY! HOLY SH_ _ _T!":mg: "You used to chase me around when I was in high school and wrote me up a couple of times. QRAP, RANDY DAILY of all people! I thought you were dead or something." "Not quite yet" was my answer.

Turns out he was from the city where I served as a police officer back in the 70's-'80's and had "fond" memories of our previous relationship when he was in high school. After the immediate embarassment:o wore off he explained everthing to his boss and we had a couple of chuckles over past events, especially about how many times he got away with whatever. Things even got a bit crazier when I found out that he had married a good friend of my wifes after the lady's husband prematurely passed away.

We went on his run, he did his work well per requirements (honestly, he did). I was impressed by the organizations communication and documentation process (satellite technology and almost immediate feedback).

Of course another wierd thing happened..the owner of the home we visited had been in the Air Force with my dad. Whole other conversation here....;)

My new position has no auditing in it. There are assessments but I've been told that the difference is that in audits, we look for evidence. In assessments, we don't. :confused: I'm having a hard time taking folks at face value!!!

But I apparently miss donning my auditor's hat as was apparently in a recent regional purchasing meeting.

Regional Rep: We saved $xx,xxx this year in lean initiatives and waste management.
Me (knowing that lean hasn't been kicked off at that site) : Wow! That's really impressive considering your annual spend is only six digits. What did you do?
RR : Uhh...stuff.
Me : Such as? I mean, this is so exciting. You're like the benchmark! If you could tell us what you did, we can bring the other site teams here to learn from your example. Very impressive! So what did you do?
RR : We didn't document it.
Me : Shame. But surely you had a plan. I mean kicking off lean isn't easy. I'm sure we could still benefit from seeing what you planned to do.
RR : We didn't document that either.
Me : Okay...how about an example of what you did.
RR : Uhh...if someone came to me and wanted to buy a bearing for $90, I'd get it for like $60.
Me : Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's you doing your job and not lean. Oh well.

Later on, the regional manager came up to me and described me as a "pit bull with a smile". I'll take it as a compliment.

During an audit discussion challenging a finding regarding design validation of our laptop line, the external auditor complained to my manager (the quality manager) that I was physically intimidating during my discussion. When I asked what specifically intimidated him, he stated that my arms were really big. :lmao: I took it as a compliment.

During an audit discussion challenging a finding regarding design validation of our laptop line, the external auditor complained to my manager (the quality manager) that I was physically intimidating during my discussion. When I asked what specifically intimidated him, he stated that my arms were really big. :lmao: I took it as a compliment.

Were you wearing a muscle shirt to work again? How many times must I tell you that those aren't appropriate work attire? ;)

Were you wearing a muscle shirt to work again? How many times must I tell you that those aren't appropriate work attire? ;)

Here (http://www.happyasianguy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/muscle-man.jpg) are some auditees you want to avoid.....:D

Stijllor.

....RR : Uhh...if someone came to me and wanted to buy a bearing for $90, I'd get it for like $60.
Me : Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's you doing your job and not lean. Oh well.

Later on, the regional manager came up to me and described me as a "pit bull with a smile". I'll take it as a compliment.


Nicely done! :applause: Loved it....

...Correct me if I'm wrong, but apparently, YOU are doing YOUR job as well... :D

I remember a initial QS-9000 audit a few years ago, which was fairly tense, since the plant in question was "on the bubble" for being shut down, and everyone assumed that getting QS-9000 would be the make or break. The lead auditor had what amounted to a verbal tic- whenever someone made an assertion, he would say "Can you show me where that's documented?" Our plant manager believed in very open communication, so the final report from the auditors was presented in a large auditorium, with hundreds of folks present. After the discussion of his (minor) findings, the lead announced "We will be recommending you for cetification." Wild applause and cheering (from relief of tension) ensued. He then said "I guess now you will admit my parents were married." Before I could stop myself, I called out "Can you show me where that's documented?" After a VERY long moment, he cracked up laughing.

Geoff Withnell

Here (http://www.happyasianguy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/muscle-man.jpg) are some auditees you want to avoid.....:D

Stijllor.

My arms arn't that big, but I have been jokingly accused of steriod use...please don't mention this to the Major League Baseball commissioner...

One of my auditors raised a classic NC the other week, at a company employing a few tens of people, related to Management Commitment.

The text was something along the lines of "The President is unaware where the production floor is". :mg: :D

One of my auditors raised a classic NC the other week, at a company employing a few tens of people, related to Management Commitment.

The text was something along the lines of "The President is unaware where the production floor is". :mg: :D

Sad, but funny :D

I was once part the management team hosting an FDA inspection of a medical device manufacturer in the UK in the 90's.

The inspector was touring the clean room and noted the presence of "insecticutors" in the area outside the main manufacturing clean room.

He asked why we needed them, and we pointed out that the surrounding marshland gave rise to high numbers of mosquitos in the summer and the devices were to kill them before they could get into the clean room.

He asked to see training records and procedures for the insecticutors and our facility manager shouted out "There's no point, mosquitos can't read".

Sadly the auditor had no sense of humour and the facilities manager was removed from the audit team.

After have read many of this threads I think that the world's funniest audit experiences was when I went to audit one of ours vendors just removed from the list of ours suppliers for serious non-compliance. :lmao:
But it is to difficult for me to explain it in English.
If somebody is really curious to know what was happened, and laugh of it I suggest to him to learning a little bit of Italian and after calling me using skipe. :bigwave:

I was once part the management team hosting an FDA inspection of a medical device manufacturer in the UK in the 90's.

The inspector was touring the clean room and noted the presence of "insecticutors" in the area outside the main manufacturing clean room.

He asked why we needed them, and we pointed out that the surrounding marshland gave rise to high numbers of mosquitos in the summer and the devices were to kill them before they could get into the clean room.

He asked to see training records and procedures for the insecticutors and our facility manager shouted out "There's no point, mosquitos can't read".

Sadly the auditor had no sense of humour and the facilities manager was removed from the audit team.

Reminds me of one of my answers (when I was on that side of the 'war').

Corporate Auditor: "How many people work here?"
Me: "Oh, about half."

My co-auditor fell face first asleep into the meeting room table while we are auditing top management. Embarassing really.

I was once part the management team hosting an FDA inspection of a medical device manufacturer in the UK in the 90's.

The inspector was touring the clean room and noted the presence of "insecticutors" in the area outside the main manufacturing clean room.

He asked why we needed them, and we pointed out that the surrounding marshland gave rise to high numbers of mosquitos in the summer and the devices were to kill them before they could get into the clean room.

He asked to see training records and procedures for the insecticutors and our facility manager shouted out "There's no point, mosquitos can't read".

Sadly the auditor had no sense of humour and the facilities manager was removed from the audit team.

I'm with the facilities manager! :lol:

I wish a GSOH (good sense of humour) was a requirement for auditors... it often helps to help people lighten up.