Vandana Sharma said:
Hi all,
We have passed the certification audit and we are now an ISO 9001:2000 certified company.
I am now supposed to conduct internal audits for my company and then target for surveillance audits in June 05.
What am I supposed to look for, apart from continual improvement.
Please help.
Vandana
That, of course, depends on what your management wants or expects from the internal audit program and whatever input it may wish from its supposedly regular management review meetings.
The most basic (I might venture, banal) matter is to look for compliance with the QMS and for the QMS to be compliant with that standard.
If you are unsure of what to look for or how to perform an audit, I would suggest these options:
1. Attend an audit training course. (As I have mentioned in another thread, there are plenty of them around but good ones are in a distinct minority.) If your company will not pay for training, buy a good book on the subject of "management audits" (Wallace at the Cove has some excellent suggestions on what to choose!)
2. Since presumably the registrar has "assessed" your internal audit function as a condition of awarding your ISO 9K certificate, ask whoever was the auditor that has done the internal audits so far what he/ she did. If, though, the registrar has not investigated the existence or efficacy of your company's internal audit programme, ask why your company was awarded the certificate.
3. Engage an outside auditor to perform an audit which you can observe. (A risky choice for one must hope that person is competent.)
4. Next time the registrar arrives watch what he/ she does. (If, as per 2., that registrar has not "assessed" your internal audit programme, I would not consider him/ her competent anyway, as per 3.)