Audit Horror Stories

#21
I have similar story about an employee being fired for a major noncoformance sited for shipping nonconforming product.

back in 2002 we were going through a QS9000 surveillance audit and the auditor found out-of-spec recordings on an in process inspection. The next day the QS9000 coordinator was let go. When the auditor returned to verify our corrective action, he stated that the former QS9000 coordinator asked him not to site a major nonconformance, because the company would fire him. The major nonconformance was not the reason the employee was let go. I new the employee was going to be let go, because my QM told me that I was taking over as the coordinator mostly because of the actions I took to get corrective actions completed from the previous surveillance audit, which I might add, I had 1 week to complete them becasue the previous coordinator had not started or assigned corrective actions immediatly after the surveillance audit. I might add that the previous coordinator was suspended due to the fact he aurthorized shipping nonconforming parts to a customer.
 
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Wes Bucey

Quite Involved in Discussions
#23
I have similar story about an employee being fired for a major noncoformance sited for shipping nonconforming product.

back in 2002 we were going through a QS9000 surveillance audit and the auditor found out-of-spec recordings on an in process inspection. The next day the QS9000 coordinator was let go. When the auditor returned to verify our corrective action, he stated that the former QS9000 coordinator asked him not to site a major nonconformance, because the company would fire him. The major nonconformance was not the reason the employee was let go. I new the employee was going to be let go, because my QM told me that I was taking over as the coordinator mostly because of the actions I took to get corrective actions completed from the previous surveillance audit, which I might add, I had 1 week to complete them becasue the previous coordinator had not started or assigned corrective actions immediatly after the surveillance audit. I might add that the previous coordinator was suspended due to the fact he aurthorized shipping nonconforming parts to a customer.
This anecdote probably ALSO belongs in our Occupation Discussions Forum because it illustrates the point an employer may have already made a decision to fire an employee for lots of little reasons, but is looking for one "big" item to cite as the official excuse.

Those little reasons can be as petty and venal as not liking the way the employee looks or combs his hair.

Sometimes, just sometimes, the stated reason IS the only reason because the employer wants a scary example to use as a motivator for the balance of the work force. This, of course, is completely contrary to Deming's edict to REMOVE FEAR! Such actions by employers often illustrate a deeper and more rotten problem within an organization than the venality of one single boss.
 
G

Geoff Withnell

#24
Don't know if this is a horror story or just a funny, but here it is.

Some years ago, when QS-9000 was still fresh and new and consultants were making money hand over fist helping get automotive parts plants registered, I was working with a GM parts plant to get their registration. This particular plant was VERY nervous about the registration, since the rumor was, bad registration audit = plant closure. This was a very believable rumor at the time. GM parts plants were falling like leaves in October. Come the week of the assessment, and things seemed to be going very well. The lead assessor had a verbal tic, whenever someone would make an assertion, he would immediately say "Could I see your evidence for that?" After 4 days, this was quite noticeable. Our plant manager was very much in favor of wide open communication, so he decided the outbrief would be held in the plant main conference center, capacity 1200, with any employee who wished able to sit and observe. We have a couple of minors, corrective action already in progress. When the lead assessor stated "The team will be recommending you for registration." the crowd went wild. Applause, whistles, cheering, etc. When it died down, he then said "I guess now you will be willing to admit my parents are married?" And before I could stop myself, I called out "Could I see your evidence for that?" The three second silence before he started laughing seemed like eternity.

Geoff Withnell
 

Bev D

Heretical Statistician
Staff member
Super Moderator
#25
Yep. And there is also the possibility that the two NCs could have been adequately associated with the individual lack of performance. While audits focus on systems, a few times, some non-conformities reflect on a person's gross disregard and/or negligence in following an established process. It is impossible for us to conjecture if the demerit were justified, or not.
Which by the way is why I stated my caveats about the truth of the alleged situation and why I said I would 'pull the thread' on management committment (which is where the objective evidence comes from) NOT on teh person who left. My comments were meant as balance to the heavily worded point of "soft" findings by the auditor and how that was devastating to the profession...by the way I always pull hard on management committment and the findings of cause and corrective corrective for NCs. And it's never in response to lunchroom gossip.

A coorective action that I isseud to a supplier for parts that fell off a truck onto a busy highway resutled in a casual finding that the driver was a t fault for securing the parts correctly and the corrective action was to fire him. When the parts again fell off the truck in our parking lot, I investigated personally and foudn that the tie downs were not capable of holding the parts and they never had been. We changed suppliers.



unfortunately we all deal with hypothetical situations and/or the poster's perspective in this forum
 

ScottK

Not out of the crisis
Staff member
Super Moderator
#26
Just wrapped up our first ISO surveillance plus CE marking re-registration.

The horror story wasn't the auditor - although I really believe he confuses "auditor" and "consultant".

The real horror here is that no one in my company listened listened when I told them - "the first ISO surveillance will be way harder than the registration audit" and "I'm spending so much time covering everyone elses butts that I'm going to have mine lit up".

Sure enough - much of management didn't take prediction one very seriously as they saw a pretty certificate on the wall and suffered for it and I got minors on two things under my control that I should have caught before hand.

bottom line is we passed both but with more minor NCs than I would have liked.
 
B

Boscoeee

#27
Well here goes, once upon a time I supervised Metrology along with a number of other departments. We were scheduled for aa Air Force Audit, our product lines included F-16, Cruise Missle Structures, MD 11 Sideframes, and many other DOD products. Calibration was scheduled for the first day and we were prepped and standing by for Inspection. Upon entering the Laboratory, the Auditor went to the Temperature and Humidty recorder as the first order of business. To my dismay, he discovered that the strip chart was placed blank side up. When he questioned the Metrology supervisor, the explanation was that they had ran out of Strip Charts and were turning them over and using the back side for recording the temperature and humidity. We recieved a failing grade in the calibration section and of course I had to explain to the General Manager what happened. To this day....I have a severe dislike for anything to do with Metrology.
 
J

joshua_sx1

#28
Here’s mine… :cool: a few years ago, I audited one of our supplier as part of our process for evaluating supplier… anyway, this supplier (a well-known supplier in this country & listed on the top 10 companies), hired an industrial engineer (a few weeks prior to my audit) to do statistics… and really, :yes: I was impressed of how good his statistical works that highlighted those undesirable events happening on their production lines… so, my overall findings is that they should come-out with an effective corrective actions to lessen (if not totally eliminate) these “undesirable” events…

After, a few months (as per our agreed verification time frame), I re-audited them again and found no “undesirable” reports :nope: … so, to make the story short, I asked one of their engineer how they did it… he simply answered to me “the management fired the industrial engineer…:frust:
 

MichelleD

Involved In Discussions
#29
OK - my turn. Our company was one of those that would rent a trailer before the audit to hide the products, documents, etc. that they didn't want the auditor to see.

The day of the audit dawned bright and clear and the auditors showed up to begin the audit. They wanted a site tour to include the outside of the building just to get a look at how everything was layed out. At the same time they were outside, a supervisor took a few last minute items out to the trailer to hide. The auditors probably wouldn't have noticed it but the supervisor fell out of the trailer and broke his leg. Needless to say, the auditors came running over to where the guy fell and saw a trailer loaded with printed circuits boards.

Nobody was a happy camper at the end of this audit.
 

Helmut Jilling

Auditor / Consultant
#30
OK - my turn. Our company was one of those that would rent a trailer before the audit to hide the products, documents, etc. that they didn't want the auditor to see.

The day of the audit dawned bright and clear and the auditors showed up to begin the audit. They wanted a site tour to include the outside of the building just to get a look at how everything was layed out. At the same time they were outside, a supervisor took a few last minute items out to the trailer to hide. The auditors probably wouldn't have noticed it but the supervisor fell out of the trailer and broke his leg. Needless to say, the auditors came running over to where the guy fell and saw a trailer loaded with printed circuits boards.

Nobody was a happy camper at the end of this audit.
I think the auditor should have taken your certificate off the wall and taken it home. I came close at least one time. I had the cert lying on the conference room table at the closing meeting due to some continuing problems. I had heard the President had commented that I wouldn't pull it because no registrar wants to lose business. Top Management was much more attentive when they saw that, and I informed them I had already arranged permission with my office to bring it home...:notme:
 
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