Tony, thanks for providing additional evidence of how dysfunctional some organizations can be and how management system certification has been prostituted in some places and in some cases, totally missing the point of what a quality management system standard should accomplish. Total mockery of the intended goal, in my opinion.
Funny story. I audited the logistics dept of a large company. During the assessment I discovered 2 things; 1) they really didn't take advantage of ISO 9001, and they didn't need it! and 2) the fire extinguisher that was the only one in a room that had no other exit, had been out of commission for 6 months.
I told them in earnest if they wanted to keep the cert, they should really embrace it a little bit more, rather than just kind of a minimal compliance approach. I told them "they passed the audit" with a couple of minor findings, however, I thought they would be better served giving up the cert and running a compliant system with a yearly consult instead of an audit.
They thanked me and kicked me out. They appealed the fire extinguisher minor and I was declared personna non-grata. Sucked for me, it was a good company to brag was in my portfolio. Doh!
Next audit, my buddy goes. I didn't know, he didn't know my story. He does the audit, and decides they really don't take advantage of ISO and maybe should discontinue certification.
Now look, I have done that twice in 100 audits. It is really rare! It was funny that both my and my buddy (incidently, my mentor) saw the same thing.
The registrars sales people are often too aggressive, but the assessors generally give genuine feedback about the organization, IME.
