Having our first "witness" audit, what to expect?

[Doug J]

I was informed yesterday that we will be having at witness audit at one of our sites. Since previous auditors have told me things like"If this were a witness audit I would have to write a Major" (although not at this site) it has me a bit shaken. To add to the complexity, the CB auditor is the same we had last year and will generously state he is not the most thorough auditor I've dealt with.

Would love to hear your experiences with witness audits.

 

[Randy]

Would love to hear your experiences with witness audits.

I'm a 3rd party CB auditor, that's it and I've had probably a dozen witness audits when I was working. What do you have to do? Nothing but your job and act normal. It's the auditor and his performance that's being audited not you.

If you think you're getting a BS NC appeal it under the grounds that the auditor might have been under duress.

 

[Sebastian]

You could be selected blindly or you customer's score is poor or there were 0 NCs lately.
If I were you, I would recall all these "if this were..." not raised as NC so far and worked on it.

I've heard, that quantity of NC raised during IATF 16949 witness audits is higher than average of "unwitnessed".

Auditor is under stress, but has to raise NC in a "clever" way.
Raising NC against basic requirements in company certified for ages and already audited by him/her is not a good idea.
It is one of his/her concern points.
Who knows.

 

[Sidney Vianna]

I was informed yesterday that we will be having at witness audit at one of our sites. Since previous auditors have told me things like"If this were a witness audit I would have to write a Major" (although not at this site) it has me a bit shaken. To add to the complexity, the CB auditor is the same we had last year and will generously state he is not the most thorough auditor I've dealt with.

Would love to hear your experiences with witness audits.

This issue has been discussed many times here, so if you do a search you will find a lot of useful information. E.g. Witness audit panic - When our registrar is audited during their audit of us

You can expect it to be a stressful audit. Very likely your CB auditor is being “targeted” for data showing him as a softgrader. Under a witnessed audit he will feel the pressure to find and report nonconformities and you might be in the receiving end of stupid write ups. Even the auditing protocol, sometimes overly relaxed, will be strict, if this CB auditor know how to conduct it.

Good luck.

 

[Ashland78]

I'm a 3rd party CB auditor, that's it and I've had probably a dozen witness audits when I was working. What do you have to do? Nothing but your job and act normal. It's the auditor and his performance that's being audited not you.

If you think you're getting a BS NC appeal it under the grounds that the auditor might have been under duress.

Yesss, well stated. CB can be incorrect, or misunderstand, the wording is confusing at times. This is where the sanctioned interpretations device from - companies challenging their NC

 

[Randy]

This is where the sanctioned interpretations device from - companies challenging their NC

What are you talking about?

 

[Ashland78]

What are you talking about?

I meant derive, swype error. Our CB let us know (I actually work for a Big 3 auto company) during our last 2 audits that if we don't agree with a finding to challenge it, that is how the SI are established. That is why there are amendments every so often. They want feedback if a clause isn't clear enough.

 

[Randy]

So the CB is making its own interpretations?

 

[Jen Kirley]

So the CB is making its own interpretations?

I expect (I hope) this means the CB is feeding the information up to IATF so they can update the interpretations document.

 

[Ashland78]

I expect (I hope) this means the CB is feeding the information up to IATF so they can update the interpretations document.

Yes, actually when you appeal a NC (not sure that was correct term), it doesn't even go through the CB.