Interesting discussion topic. I have auditing responsibility for four QS-9000 registered plants in a 25-mile radius. We use a team of auditors from plants A,B, and C to audit plant D, and so on so that they never audit themselves. At each plant, they get two complete system audits each year, roughly two months prior to the next scheduled surveillance audit. In between the complete audits, each plant has two "element" audits covering those elements where there have been problems in the past. We have a total of about 50 qualified internal auditors, which might seem like a lot until you consider 4 audits per year times 4 plants, times 3 shifts. We typically spend two days doing a system audit and one day doing an "element" audit. We are just now beginning to get into some process auditing (taking a control plan and walking a product completely through a process.) I invite your comments.