Will a Business Plan be included in an ISO 9001 Audit?

M

miwriter

Hi, can anyone advise if a business plan is mandatory for ISO 9001? I think this is also needed in a company, but not sure if ISO also include this in the audit.. any advise? Can anyone also advise where I can get a good sample of a business plan? thanks,
 
K

keres

Re: is business plan included in an ISO 9001 audit?

Business plan is not a mandatory in ISO 9001, but if you meet all management elements in this standard, your business plan will be completed.
 

Big Jim

Admin
Re: is business plan included in an ISO 9001 audit?

Hi, can anyone advise if a business plan is mandatory for ISO 9001? I think this is also needed in a company, but not sure if ISO also include this in the audit.. any advise? Can anyone also advise where I can get a good sample of a business plan? thanks,

I don't find any reference to a business plan in ISO 9001:2008. I suppose a business plan could be used to help fulfill the requirements of element 5.4.2, but I have never seen that approach used.
 

qusys

Trusted Information Resource
Re: is business plan included in an ISO 9001 audit?

I don't find any reference to a business plan in ISO 9001:2008. I suppose a business plan could be used to help fulfill the requirements of element 5.4.2, but I have never seen that approach used.

Business plan is recalled and cited in ISO TS 16949 in clause 5.4.1.1.
However you can include how the management deals with quality objectives and related setting inside an internal audit to the management review:bigwave:
 

AndyN

Moved On
Hi, can anyone advise if a business plan is mandatory for ISO 9001? I think this is also needed in a company, but not sure if ISO also include this in the audit.. any advise? Can anyone also advise where I can get a good sample of a business plan? thanks,

Can I ask if you have access to a copy of the ISO 9001 standard? Often we get asked questions about what's required or mandatory in the ISO document and it's because the Poster hasn't actually read it. Really, the best place to discover what's 'in' the requirements is to read it. It really doesn't need much 'interpretation'!
 

Sidney Vianna

Post Responsibly
Leader
Admin
Can I ask if you have access to a copy of the ISO 9001 standard? Often we get asked questions about what's required or mandatory in the ISO document and it's because the Poster hasn't actually read it. Really, the best place to discover what's 'in' the requirements is to read it. It really doesn't need much 'interpretation'!
Andy, while I agree that people MUST read the standards as the "first line of defense", sometimes people have genuine confusion because they might have had some involvement in a previous audit where an auditor might have asked to see a business plan, as mentioned in post #4 of this thread, for a TS16949 audit.

Further, remember that, the standards that apply to the CB's and their auditors ask for certain things that are not covered in the standard the registrant is being certified against.

A couple of examples: nowhere in ISO 9001 the term objective evidence is used. However, day in, day out organizations get written up against lack of objective evidence of a certain activity or requirement happening in their management system. Where does objective evidence comes from? ISO 19011.

AS9101D requires a registrant to show 12 months of performance data during a stage 1 audit, as part of the readiness review for the stage 2 audit. Nowhere in AS9100C such requirement exists. Many similar examples abound.
 

AndyN

Moved On
Andy, while I agree that people MUST read the standards as the "first line of defense", sometimes people have genuine confusion because they might have had some involvement in a previous audit where an auditor might have asked to see a business plan, as mentioned in post #4 of this thread, for a TS16949 audit.

Further, remember that, the standards that apply to the CB's and their auditors ask for certain things that are not covered in the standard the registrant is being certified against.

A couple of examples: nowhere in ISO 9001 the term objective evidence is used. However, day in, day out organizations get written up against lack of objective evidence of a certain activity or requirement happening in their management system. Where does objective evidence comes from? ISO 19011.

AS9101D requires a registrant to show 12 months of performance data during a stage 1 audit, as part of the readiness review for the stage 2 audit. Nowhere in AS9100C such requirement exists. Many similar examples abound.

I was making my point (and resulting question) strictly relating to the OP's question in context - since they didn't mention being 'written up' or applying AS 9100...
 

John Broomfield

Leader
Super Moderator
Hi, can anyone advise if a business plan is mandatory for ISO 9001? I think this is also needed in a company, but not sure if ISO also include this in the audit.. any advise? Can anyone also advise where I can get a good sample of a business plan? thanks,

miwriter,

I may ask to see the business plan when seeking evidence of sufficient resources for:

  • Implementing and maintaining the quality management system,
  • Improving the effectiveness of the QMS,
  • Enhancing customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirements,
  • Improving the effectiveness of the QMS processes, and
  • Improving products related to customer requirements.
If the auditee did not have a funded plan then I would have to find some other way of verifying conformity to clause 6.1 and 5.6.3.

I may examine evidence of the process for managing continual improvement instead.

Or I may ask the auditee how they know if they have sufficient resources for achieving A thru E above.

John
 
Q

Quality-Geek

Re: is business plan included in an ISO 9001 audit?

I don't find any reference to a business plan in ISO 9001:2008. I suppose a business plan could be used to help fulfill the requirements of element 5.4.2, but I have never seen that approach used.

We use it for both internal and surviellance audits. Since our department and plant business plans drive a lot of the activities for the year, it's taken pretty seriously. It's also an easy way to show conformance to the Management Responsibility and Resources sections of the standard.

I actually have a Business Planning process internal audit, to audit management responsibility. I can't audit it myself though, since apparently I'm now part of the process... :(
 

Jim Wynne

Leader
Admin
miwriter,

I may ask to see the business plan when seeking evidence of sufficient resources for:

  • Implementing and maintaining the quality management system,
  • Improving the effectiveness of the QMS,
  • Enhancing customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirements,
  • Improving the effectiveness of the QMS processes, and
  • Improving products related to customer requirements.
If the auditee did not have a funded plan then I would have to find some other way of verifying conformity to clause 6.1 and 5.6.3.

I may examine evidence of the process for managing continual improvement instead.

Or I may ask the auditee how they know if they have sufficient resources for achieving A thru E above.

John

If a business plan isn't explicitly included in the scope of the QMS, an auditor would be out of bounds in asking to see it for any reason.
 
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