More information for the survey
Okay, I'm halfway done sifting through all the responses given so far. Let me give you the actual situation as it occured during an ISO 9002 surveilance audit.
The element under question was calibration of test equipment. The auditor was questioning the calibration procedure for DMMs which are internally calibrated. This procedure is used for three types of DMMs we use, all 3-1/2 meters, all similar meters but not all the same models.
The was a question regarding the tolerance of the voltage used for calibration. The tolerance was listed in the owner's manual for one of the meters but not in the other two (and the auditor was looking at one of the "other two"). Remember, the meters are similar but different models.
So there I sat, do I take the hit for a questionable tolerance or do I pull out the owner's manual for a similar meter but not for THAT meter, thinking that there is a possibility the auditor would question where the tolerance was listed for the meter he was looking at. Of course I was speculating him asking that but such is the life of an auditee.
All in all the answer to the survey would probably be C). Tell your cheap boss to send the meters out to a cal lab so you don't have to deal with this problem in the first place!
A subnote:
I was bothered by a few comments such as if there was a deficiency then why wasn't it picked up before the audit. My response is that no system (quality or other) is perfect and there will always be minor flaws hidden within. If all deficiencies were already known there wouldn't be much of a need for audits then.
Also another comment was made to immediately issue a corrective action for the problem before the auditor left. My boss (The Prez) did that on another unrealted deficiency and he showed the auditor. The auditor said he didn't want to see it and asked my boss if he truly took the time to determine the root cause of the problem (I agree with the auditor and I wish I said or could have said that!). My boss's face turned beet red from embarrassment. Needless to say my boss treats the quality system as a trophy.
So much for ethics.