J
jeyaraj
Hi guys, it's great to be back after a long while!
I'm in a Quality Assurance team with around 12 contractors to manage. We are required to carry out audits to gauge if the contractors' QMS is sufficient for the project we are working on. Since it is based on ISO 9001:2008, it's all pretty routine. Majority of the contractors are based locally, so it was just a matter of getting to the contractor's project office for the audit, and carry out the audit in the usual manner (i.e. interviews, viewing objective evidence, etc.)
Here's where it gets interesting! One of the contractors is based in Europe, without a local project office (I'm in Malaysia, Truly Asia! ). We did not have the budget to travel to Europe for the audit (it's OK for top management to go on several unproductive 'visits', but not us auditors. Still, that's a different rant for a different day!), so I proposed that the audit be carried out via Skype. What we have planned is for me to send out our audit checklist to the contractor in advance (about 2 weeks +) so they understand what we are looking at, & get them to fill in their responses, referencing their evidences. For the next week, we will look through the responses to see if we can close out the straightforward ones. For those that need more details, we shall ask for clarification or further evidence.
On the stipulated audit days, we will be in touch via Skype, having the opening & closing meetings, asking questions that require face-to-face explanation, & some demonstration of the actual processes in place, factual evidence, etc.
While this sounds all hunky dory, I have a concern if this practice is acceptable from a Standards point of view. I mean, I couldn't find anything in ISO 19011 that said I can't do it, but in your expert opinions, do you think that is acceptable to do this? Please reply ASAP as I've got only slightly more than a week to go before the audit date proper.
Thanks in advance, guys. Really appreciate it.
I'm in a Quality Assurance team with around 12 contractors to manage. We are required to carry out audits to gauge if the contractors' QMS is sufficient for the project we are working on. Since it is based on ISO 9001:2008, it's all pretty routine. Majority of the contractors are based locally, so it was just a matter of getting to the contractor's project office for the audit, and carry out the audit in the usual manner (i.e. interviews, viewing objective evidence, etc.)
Here's where it gets interesting! One of the contractors is based in Europe, without a local project office (I'm in Malaysia, Truly Asia! ). We did not have the budget to travel to Europe for the audit (it's OK for top management to go on several unproductive 'visits', but not us auditors. Still, that's a different rant for a different day!), so I proposed that the audit be carried out via Skype. What we have planned is for me to send out our audit checklist to the contractor in advance (about 2 weeks +) so they understand what we are looking at, & get them to fill in their responses, referencing their evidences. For the next week, we will look through the responses to see if we can close out the straightforward ones. For those that need more details, we shall ask for clarification or further evidence.
On the stipulated audit days, we will be in touch via Skype, having the opening & closing meetings, asking questions that require face-to-face explanation, & some demonstration of the actual processes in place, factual evidence, etc.
While this sounds all hunky dory, I have a concern if this practice is acceptable from a Standards point of view. I mean, I couldn't find anything in ISO 19011 that said I can't do it, but in your expert opinions, do you think that is acceptable to do this? Please reply ASAP as I've got only slightly more than a week to go before the audit date proper.
Thanks in advance, guys. Really appreciate it.