I am the QA and the QMS manager for a small manufacturer with less than 40 full time employees. Thus I own the QA process and the Internal Audit process. There is an assistant auditor who normally audits the QA process being that I own that process. The problem is that we have no one to audit the Internal Audit process because the assistant auditor audits the QA process, while I audit all the others. There isn't an uninvolved third auditor to audit the internal audits. There will not be a third auditor ever because, as those of you who work at a small company know, everyone wears multiple hats and is already spread thin. I'm lucky to have one person available to audit one process at all.
My question: is it possible to internally audit a process you own given the lack of personnel at a small company?
People. Stop. Lets get back on track with the OP...
@chetws
I can help, I think. I too work in a small 60-70 person company and wear several hats every day. I own the audit process and I do 98% of auditing. I do not have an assistant like you do. Sooooo, I trained my co-worker next to me to audit effectively. He typically only audits me and helps satisfy the objectivity requirement.
So my suggestion is choose just 1 person who has no involvement at all in your process. Train them to audit your process. And you're done. Annnd, NO, you cannot audit your process that you own if you are the one tasked with performing the process.
Heck, even I could audit you for that matter.... Over the phone, and send evidence I suppose. Anyone agree or disagree with that? Has anyone done that??
OMG, I opened another can of worms!