We have just finished our surveillance audit. Our auditor found had no findings; no majors...no minors...for about the 5th or 6th straight audit...
All a competent auditor would have to do is walk around and see all the non-conformances..both majors and minors...
As a result, top management believe we have a great QMS and are meeting requirements...and yet we continue to produce bad product, ship bad product and do a very poor job on corrective actions; lack of control of non-conforming product is an everyday issue.
Document control is a disaster...
We don't even have our process defined clearly....
And yet...here we are with another great ISO audit....
All a competent auditor would have to do is walk around and see all the non-conformances..both majors and minors...
As a result, top management believe we have a great QMS and are meeting requirements...and yet we continue to produce bad product, ship bad product and do a very poor job on corrective actions; lack of control of non-conforming product is an everyday issue.
Document control is a disaster...
We don't even have our process defined clearly....
And yet...here we are with another great ISO audit....
Why wait for your auditors?
Value starts with the system itself. The system is meant to be helping its users to add value (and prevent loss).
The system is meant to be informing its users on what needs improvement continually.
You will have many drivers of improvement before audit. Customer feedback, employee suggestions, process monitoring, system performance reports to name just a few of them.
If the system does not do this then you have another reason to issue a CAR as such a system failure is also a nonconformity.
Who knows, top management may even stop waiting for the auditor to suggest system improvements?

...and replace your registrar with one that sells the value of its auditors' well-crafted nonconformity statements! Do not hire a registrar that conceals system weaknesses by issuing OFIs instead.
John
