During our internal audit in our company, we found some findings in the civil&mechancal works.(HVAC,Firefighting,Electrical works ). I need your comments whether it is an Non Conformance or Observation against the ISO 9001 standard.

In the project planning master schedule, the whole 10 critical activities /tasks of the project have not started on time which is witnessed from the project execution plan (2 months delay from the schedule). Also, it is not evident clearly that no corrective actions have been taken for the schedule delay however the project is planned to complete on time which is a major client requirement. (As per ISO 9001:2000 Clause No.8.2.3)
The subcontractor evaluation reports 3 out of 4 reveals that all the three subcontractors are awarded same average grade in only two parameters like Safety, Responsiveness however there is no evidence or incidents happened to support the evaluation results and also the safety is main requirement as per subcontractor agreement. (As per ISO 9001:2000 Clause No.7.4.1)

To fully answer your questions we'd have to know a bit more about the situations. For example, starting late isn't a problem, if there was a good reason for it - maybe a customer requirement wasn't clear so the project was delayed and the time made up later. What do your own process requirements say? Do you have to have a corrective action for a project delay?

For an internal audit, I wouldn't be using ISO 9001 as the only audit criteria.....

You are hundred percent correct. I have not explained fully about the situations.

Audit criteria includes : Quality Assurance Manual of ISO9001 Standards also. So, We are auditing against ISO as well as procedures.

Regarding the project plan, the activities which are having definetly impact on the delivery schedule determined during the contract are critical activities.

So, in this project all critical activities are delayed for 2 months,but however there is no change in the project delivery schedule and no corrective actions were taken and no revised plan or strategy had been defined to complete the project on time as committed to the customer. ( On time delivery is the customer critical requirement)

Say for example :

They committed to complete the project on Sep,2008 during the contract conditions.

My query is the project has not shown any deviations or revisions or changes in the final delivery schedule date Sep,2008 though all the critical activities are not started on time and no corrective actions are taken say for example . by increasing the resources like man, machine,material etc.,

Where is the revised planning for product realisation to fulfill the customer requirements? which is not available in the project during the audit.

I hope this is a detailed one..

Feel free to highlight even now also i didnot explain in detail

When you said that the company is handling HVAC, Firefighting and Electrical works, are they a part of a larger contract that includes a large building or structure? Are they a "Nominated Specialist Sub-Contractor" or "NSC" in short?

Do you know what a 'Nominated Sub-Contractor' is and are you familiar with the operations and workings of such a form of 'Contract'?

We are not using the terminology like NSC as you specified.. but we are the main contractors for the construction works for this project. besides,We are responsibile for HVAC and Firefighting work..

We are having rights to decide the subcontractors also.. We designed our own procedures with respect to contractual requirements.

dear suresh,
Internal audit as you know is not a fault finding mission ,it is a very powerful tool towards customer satisfaction and continual improvement , therefore if the work is not progressing as per the master plan then obviously there is a deviation , a deviation report with the reason for deviation and the proposed corrective/preventive action with the new project schedule has to be established and monitored.
regards,
sudhir varma

dear suresh,
Internal audit as you know is not a fault finding mission ,it is a very powerful tool towards customer satisfaction and continual improvement , therefore if the work is not progressing as per the master plan then obviously there is a deviation , a deviation report with the reason for deviation and the proposed corrective/preventive action with the new project schedule has to be established and monitored.
regards,
sudhir varma

Welcome Sudhir,

You raised a good point but I think the original poster is aware of it. I think he is not sure whether an NC or Observation is appropriate in this circumstance.

What he should do is to investigate or find out from the relevant people on what's going on. The problem could be due to the client (approval, land acquisition, amendments or changes in ideas or plan, etc) or it could be internal. You may be ISO certified and need to carry out your works in some specific manner but others who are not may not care and often diplomacy is needed to nudge clients and/or their Architects or Engineers along.