Re: Supplier Quality Management System (QMS) Audit - Formal Documented QMS does not e
What are the steps the auditor should take of a QMS Audit on a potential supplier, from the initial contact the auditor learns that a formal documented QMS does not exist.
You absolutely should determine the scope of the audit, the procedure and the benchmark - ie, what you will audit against - before you go there.
It just isn't fair, let alone effective, to do an audit without that. I speak having seen the other side of such "audits" done on where no one was clear about what the audit was against, and the results were enormously time-wasting. For example, at one company I saw an audit report by some so-called 'auditors' which was almost unintelligible and I doubt its accuracy. It kept saying 'no quality manual exists' and virtually refused to look at anything else, giving ultimately a somewhat biassed and incorrect view of the operations there, which did have a number of controls built into the computer system, but which the auditors didn't appear to consider.
The suggestion to audit against the Standard's requirements is a sound one - it's a recognisable and respected benchmark. You could always leave out a clause or three if they aren't relevant. And yes, you could also call it an evaluation, which may go down better.