Scheduling Internal Audits: Status and Importance of the Activity

[Andrews]

QS9000 and ISO 9001/2:1994 Element 4.17 requires Internal Quality audits to be scheduled on the basis of the status and importance of the activity being audited . In our company, we review the rejection / rework data, customer complaints, previous Internal Quality audits results and decide whether to change the frequency of audit or not. Is there anything else that has to be considered? Does anyone use a format to comply with this requirement? If so, a sample of the same will be appreciated.

I think that would cover status but not importance. I see importance being more of an up-front activity to define which elemenets/activities are most important to the company in meeting business plan and management goals. I have not mentioned the customer on purpose because they have such varied requirements.

QS-9000 itseld gives a "type" of a guideline on page 84 where it states that certification bodies must include the following items in each of their audits:

-Customer complaints and supplier response. (C/A)
-Internal Audit with management review of results and actions.
-Continuous improvement.

Anybody alse?

[E Wall]

This guidline is also in the ISO 9001 1994 version. We used previous internal audits, day-to-day activity trends and the QA Manager and I would review and discuss which areas impacted our product most with consideration to any areas we felt there was weakness that could be strengthened by getting them on the audit schedule sooner.

Eileen

[Aaron Lupo]

The things I use when determining our IA are:
· Previous Audits
· Corrective Actions
· Client Complaints
· Registrar Audits results
· Client Audit results
· Day to Day Activities
· And lastly but not an official one is if the Managers ticks me off enough I am going to audit them more often!! (just kidding)

[db]

ISO Guy misquote "Hi, I'm from Internal Auditing and I'm here to help you." (just kidding as well)

I simply look at it as importance relates to impact, and status relates to condition (read problems). Anything that has a major impact on customer requirements (including contract review), or any area that is having problems need to audited more frequently.