Excellent point db. I have attempted that in the past but have met stiff resistance from the support departments. There are only a couple (QI & Shipping) that I can "force" to be internally audited and, therefore, operational steps involving those two are part of the Control Plan. I guess the other support departments prefer the "fire drill" approach of preparing for 3rd party maintenance audits the night before (and management hasn't seemed too interested in changing that YET - maybe after we get our first major finding???).
Hank & Thipan M- I would post our internal audit checklist but as you can surmise from my responses, it deals only with the process of manufacturing the parts (the "visible" flow). Hank's comments are "taken to heart" but I am limited by the competency of the people we place in the "internal auditor" position. About the time I have worked with someone long enough to get them to understand how to ask the "open ended questions" and then dive into the meanings of the responses, they are fed up with being a "policeman" and return to the production floor (there are many factors involved with this, but I don't think this is the proper thread for that discussion).
If you'd still like to see what we use, I'm pretty sure I can post it without getting in too much hock.
Bill