Hi elmo28,
I'd go back to first principles: (that old Plan Do Check Act stuff)
* What's the aim - ie, what are you trying to achieve with these audits? Presumably the answers would include: ensuring we get what we want, mutually beneficial supplier relationships, continuous improvement, customer satisfaction, etc etc... but I'd really try to focus on bringing those into serious 'concreteness' - ie, instead of just saying 'customer satisfaction', if possible, make it specific, something like 'Customer Brown & Co receives their Goods (widgets, whatever) on time in Arkansas... '
* Then, review results. Are you (meaning you the organisation of course) achieving the results that are wanted? What's the evidence for that? Is there any? What are the facts, the data that support/disprove that?
Each department head uses this tool to assess their department for compliance (none have received adequate training in auditing to ISO standards).
Sounds like an improvement opportunity there!
The problem I have with using this questionnaire is that it firstly contain questions about processes which occur perhaps once per year due to nature of the business and there is no documented procedure to provide guidance on points awarded per question. Most of the questions appear to include customer,business and legal requirements but its possible for the process to meet the required standard of 80% and yet fail on a Health and Safety question. So there is the potential for areas to continue failing within the process and yet the overall result is always a pass
I'd have problems with that also. But then I also don't like these 'one size tools fit all' - people keep trying to find a 'totally objective and errorfree' tool for auditing, which I don't believe exists or is possible. Auditing is a skill, requiring experience, judgement and a whole lot of other attributes.
I have also recently completed a BSI Internal auditor course and was advised that this approach is not considered best practice as it does not get to the root cause of the problem.
No, it's not best practice. I'd hunt around to find as much data as you can to quote on how things have changed since the 1994 version, and where the focus is now - ie, find evidence to present to your GM.
How can I persuade my GM to change their approach. The focus is too much on individual performance rather than opportunities for improvement.
Someone in this forum (can't remember who) recommended an excellent book on organisational change called The Change Agents Handbook, a Survival Guide for Quality Improvement Champions by David Hutton. You can get it from Amazon, and it's seriously worth reading! Ignore what he says in it about ISO 9001 because that bit is now horribly out of date, but the rest of what he says is excellent. Lots of very handy and eminently practical advice.
I'm sure you'll get other useful input from here also.