That is your opinion, Jim.
And, I would have to admit the fact that, based on the present state of the 3rd party certification business, your assessment is correct for a high percentage of audits done, worldwide.
However, there are assessors that are very knowledgeable, seasoned professionals that can provide the assessed organizations a lot of value by doing thorough investigations. Let me offer one example. A couple of years ago, a lead assessor auditing the corporate Purchasing function of a MAJOR Aerospace conglomerate found out that the computer application, responsible for generating Purchase Orders, was failing to invoke several quality clauses, as applicable by commodity. That meant that aerospace components were being purchased without adequate definition in terms of process and quality system requirements, e.g., traceability to many suppliers. Nobody, inside the organization had caught the problem. Not even their internal assessors. This Organization identified the cause to be a glitch in the software, and upon fixing it, they realized that, had the problem be allowed to continue undetected, they could have found themselves in BIG trouble for failing to correctly specify the products. They estimated that, in the worst case scenario, it would have cost them between US$2.5 to 3 Million to rework incoming parts at their expense. And they were MOST thankful that an outside 3rd party auditor FOUND the problem and wrote them up. Names are obviously omitted, due to confidentiality reasons.
Do you have any idea of how many audits would it take to cover US$2.5 Million savings?
As an collective business sector, the Registrar community fails terribly in identifying on how we add value. But a few of us, do.
As mentioned above, in my opinion, most 3rd party assessors do not bring value into the process, but the same is true to consultants and implementators. ISO 9000 has been trivialized to a point that ANYONE can attain certification in a very short time. It is just a matter of finding the "right" partner.
Some of us bring value into the process. It is incumbent on the organization to determine of what value added is, and find an assessor that delivers it.