No Time to Audit? Becoming "leaner" - How do you make time for Internal Audits?

[Pazuzu - 2009]

Here's a conundrum I'm sure other organizations have. In a current market that is becoming "leaner" with smaller orders and quicker turnaround time, therefore filling the system with a higher quantity of jos, how do you make time for internal audits when the departments/processes have no time to begin with? When stopping a job to take part in an audit results in your customer shutting down a line, where is the benefit then?

 

[Jim Wynne]

Re: No Time to Audit?

Here's a conundrum I'm sure other organizations have. In a current market that is becoming "leaner" with smaller orders and quicker turnaround time, therefore filling the system with a higher quantity of jos, how do you make time for internal audits when the departments/processes have no time to begin with? When stopping a job to take part in an audit results in your customer shutting down a line, where is the benefit then?

You're creating a false dichotomy--a choice between auditing and doing "regular" work. It's not a question of not having enough time; it's a question of management providing the resources to be able to do what needs to be done. If you're working in business with a certified QMS, you don't have much choice in whether auditing gets done or not. One option that many companies use in these situations is use of contract auditors from outside the company.

 

[Pazuzu - 2009]

I agree 100% that management should be supplying the applicable resources. However, it's not the auditor (myself) that doesnt have time, its the individuals that the auditors speak with...whether they, the auditors, are internal or from an outside source.

 

[Jen Kirley]

There's an apparent view that the audit process is a non-value added function. Change that and you'll find they'll find time for audits.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Re: No Time to Audit?

I ran an extremely busy contract machining shop. We always found time to do what benefited our organization and eliminated those things which did not. Internal audits were high on our list of musts.

Here is a compilation of stuff we did to be efficient for ourselves and our customers. Often we were able to charge higher prices for our service than competitors because we demonstrated significant soft cost savings for our customers in

1. handling (package quantity exactly fit quantity for a shift or shift segment- no remainder to keep track of for next operator or shift.)
2. special protective packaging - (no damage to any part in ten years!)
3. pre-agreed control plans and inspection plans, down to the exact type of measuring instrument - (allowed easy replication and speeded up customer' receiving process)
4. eliminated separate inspectors, kept quality folk as trainers (for our people, customers, and suppliers) and "court of last resort" if a question arose.
5. made all steps and timetables open and transparent for each customer - they could come and watch part run or be inspected in person - timed down to the hour
6. were proactive if any production delay was foreseen - no customer ever waited for a delivery that didn't arrive - on time delivery ranged from 98% to 99% including shipping delays caused by weather.

FWIW:
In our high tech contract machining business (all custom work for other manufacturers), each part had a Control Plan.

In addition to all the other stuff in a Control Plan (agreed to in advance by each customer), we included an Inspection Process specific to the individual part. At first we did hand measurement and recording - later, automated measuring and direct input of readings to a computer.
Among other things, the Inspection Process included:

1. an engineering drawing of the part with each dimension to be inspected tagged with a number (in the order in which the dimension was to be inspected.)
2. A part-specific inspection check list with each dimension numbered in the order it was to be inspected, listing the target dimension with tolerance (column 1), together with the type of instrument (column 2), and the actual dimension measured (column 3), and a 4th column for a redundant check of the same sample by another inspector.
3. The measured sample was tagged and traveled with the rest of the documentation in the order traveler (the document package which traveled with each step in processing to final shipment.)

We specifically designed each part-specific inspection process for the most efficient use of instruments and operator time. The numbering directed a consistent measuring process on each sample, designed to identify most likely N/C (from the FMEA) first, before wasting time on subsequent measures. Often different parts of the same part had the same dimension, but had been produced in a separate operation and thus had to be measured separately and DISTINCTLY (to identify which process went with which dimension as an aid in problem solving in the event of an N/C.)

Different inspection sheets were created for in-process SPC charting and for both First Article and Final Inspection. Above all, we wanted to eliminate opportunities for error and to make the inspection processes as efficient and capable of being replicated as possible - either by our own in-house folks doing redundant inspections or by customers doing receiving inspection.

The identity of the type of instrument used on each dimension was important. We had a chart to identify each instrument used in an inspection of a sample by serial number, thus the instrument itself could be recalled if there was a suspicion a faulty instrument out of calibration was the cause of any N/C reading.

Anybody and everybody in our organization was empowered to halt manufacture if a N/C were suspected, calling in as much help as necessary to affirm or deny the suspicion before the manufacture was restarted.

Elsewhere in the Cove, over the years, I have described how our operation evolved from traditional manufacture and inspection departments to the point where manufacturing folk performed the routine inspections and quality department folk acted as designers of each part's inspection process in collaboration with each customer, then would act as trainers for the manufacturing folk to perform those inspections, and act as arbiters if a redundant inspection was required.

Everything was slanted to make every part of the manufacturing process flow as smoothly and efficiently as possible, removing bottlenecks and choke points along the way, making liberal use of mistake proofing concepts on every aspect of our operation.

If it's important, we could probably find links to those posts.

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

In a current market that is becoming "leaner" with smaller orders and quicker turnaround time, therefore filling the system with a higher quantity of jos, how do you make time for internal audits when the departments/processes have no time to begin with?

What you are in effect talking about is when the business goes beyond lean and becomes anorectic? Yes, I would say that lots of companies have crossed that line lately, in their efforts to hibernate until the market picks up again. In that situation QA in general and audits in particular can be expected to suffer.

If we try to make everything else leaner, I suppose we have to subject our audits to the same treatment (which does not have to be a bad thing). In our case it was simple, as we are much better at controlling and continually improving our processes than we used to be: This made it possible to go for fewer and "smaller" audits. What about the rest of you?

/Claes

 

[Mike S.]

I hope we're not buying from your company. If your management cut so much that the workers cannot participate in a reasonable internal audit without shutting down a customer, it is probably only a matter of time until you'll be shipping bad parts. What's next that they won't have time to do -- final inspection maybe? Heaven forbid a Manager come out and help out so the workers can participate in an audit! I smell a crappy culture. JMO.

 

[Wes Bucey]

I hope we're not buying from your company. If your management cut so much that the workers cannot participate in a reasonable internal audit without shutting down a customer, it is probably only a matter of time until you'll be shipping bad parts. What's next that they won't have time to do -- final inspection maybe? Heaven forbid a Manager come out and help out so the workers can participate in an audit! I smell a crappy culture. JMO.

When I was 20 and 30 years younger, I used to spend a large part of my time seeking out dysfunctional companies for our investment bank to buy at bargain basement prices. We'd throw out the managers and re-engineer the operation from the top down. We were extremely proficient in Change Management and often could spin off a completely revamped company in less than a year for profit ranging from 50% to 100% of our purchase price, but 200% to 300% of our actual invested equity (down payment, capital improvements, and operating capital to cover overhead until we reached profitability. We rarely fired workers, usually just "repurposed" them to more valuable function.

Aah - I was young then and could take 70 and 80 hour work weeks. Now I just tell and train other folks to do all the heavy lifting.

There's no big secret in what to do - it DOES require sufficient capital to carry the operation to profitability - something in very short supply in the "rust belt." The other thing it requires is what we continually preach here in the Cove - active involvement of top management - I or one of my partners in the investment bank would devote as much time and energy as necessary in implementing both "big picture" and small details. We always had an on-site manager who had our attention and support and at some time during our ownership of the target company, every member of our board would make a minimum of two or three personal visits to "meet and greet" employees, suppliers, and customers to affirm our interest and involvement in the success of the venture.

Often, suppliers and customers, pleased with our results, would suggest other targets for us to look at. Suppliers, especially, liked us because our policy was to be the best and fastest paying customer of each supplier - in return, we demanded and got service and collaboration as true partners.

We were very conscientious about our employees, maintaining the credo, "Any workman worthy of hire is worthy of pay." We never let a loyal employee hang in the wind.

 

[amanbhai]

I agree 100% that management should be supplying the applicable resources. However, it's not the auditor (myself) that doesnt have time, its the individuals that the auditors speak with...whether they, the auditors, are internal or from an outside source.

The same thing I feel during the internal audits. People busy all the time. Some schedule the internal audits when they expecting the heavy workload.
What's the solution!

 

[jkuil]

I always make shure that I need as limited amount of the valuable time from the auditees for data collection. There are several possibilities to make an audit less labour extensive to your auditees:

• The auditor should be prepared by reading the applicable procedures. Based on that prepare a questionaire that focusses in the doubtfull or unclear parts. What is clear might not be adressed during interviews
• Also evaluate other performance indicateds like CAPAs, non-conformances, previous audits etc. If evidence is provided that the proces is effective, you need not to spend much time in reverifying the effectiveness.
• Review the records to collect evidence of the effectiveness of the process. You don't need interviews to confirm that. Your interview can focus un the elements that were unclear in the records.
• Whitness day to day practise, without intervening. Only discuss your findings at the end of the activity/demonstration.

Make sure your reports are clear and supportive for effective resolutions of the findings: clear problem descriptions, grouped per likely root cause. Don't stuff too many non-conformances into your report. Stop auditing when you there are too many finding too be handled at one time by the auditees. Rather schedule an additional audit prior to the next scheduled audit.

Provide your assistance and experience to the person responsible for adressing the NCR (how to write action plans, how to use the automated audit tracking system, etc).