I believe they did mention the appeal process both in the opening and closing meeting, but I choose to fight before it can get to an appeal.
I had a AS9100B surveillance audit last week. One auditor wanted to write a NC for not internal auditing every process in the system within the last year. I asked where is it required that audits must be conducted annually, because it is not in the standard. Six months ago I took a hit on the same issue as I had just adopted a messed up system and was in the process of revamping it, so it was not a big deal to me. I'm in a very smalls shop and know where our issues are. My audit schedule shows my rationale for pushing some internal audits out. Filling out records to make an external auditor happy is not my idea of value added.
He claimed it was in our contract (via standard polices) with the registrar. As strange as I thought that would be, I printed off a copy of their policies from our account on their website. He was not able to find it there, nor could I. He then claimed that it was in the signed contract, and I didn't have a copy handy. Ended up in a closed door meeting with the lead auditor, who then asked why I was being so difficult. I basically said, they make me produce evidence my system complies to the standard, I am simply asking for evidence that the requirement exists. If they could produce the requirement, I would be happy to accept the NC.
He decided to "give me a break" and not write it, but he would get me the information that showed the requirement later. Then he said he could also write a NC because one of the auditors took their notes in pencil, and since it was a record and that was not allowed. Thought he was going to explode when I asked where that requirement was.
