A
ALM
I wanted to start a thread that was a little more on the light-hearted side. Call it a "sharing of your weirdest experiences" during an audit.
I believe, due to personal experiences, that these most likely occur when a customer comes in to assess your Quality System.
So... here is my offering, one of my personal favorites:
I was given a deviation under element 4.5 from a customer because, at the customer's request, I was unable to provide a "controlled signature sheet" so that he could verify that the signature on various documents was, in fact, THAT PERSON'S SIGNATURE! Yupper, he was looking for a sheet that had the person's typed name, with a signature next to it and initials as well.
I recall him asking me, "How do you know that this is so-and-so's signature?" I imagine he wasn't pleased with my response of, "I've worked with these people for years and I know who's signature is who's." He told me that "he didn't know." I told him that at any time, he was welcome to ask the appropriate person if that was their signature and that they would be happy to verify it for him.
Well, despite my obvious challenge to his "deviation" it still showed up in his report.
My response to him was that "no corrective action is required at this time" because "in no place in the ISO Standards is there a requirement for controlled signature and/or initial sheets" but that "documents must be approved by appropriate authority" blah, blah, blah.
It might be that you "had to be there" to appreciate the humor in our interaction that day, but, we continue to maintain the business in spite of my not "correcting" our lack of a "controlled signature sheet" as somehow, somewhere it is "required" by the Standards.
It was one of my funniest experiences... going back and forth in a serious, professional manner, all the while laughing inside at how funny his assertion was...
Hope you enjoyed my experience, do you have any "World's Funniest Audit Experiences?"
How about having an employee faint when approached by the registrar for a Q&A session, before even a word was spoken? Happened here.
ALM
I believe, due to personal experiences, that these most likely occur when a customer comes in to assess your Quality System.
So... here is my offering, one of my personal favorites:
I was given a deviation under element 4.5 from a customer because, at the customer's request, I was unable to provide a "controlled signature sheet" so that he could verify that the signature on various documents was, in fact, THAT PERSON'S SIGNATURE! Yupper, he was looking for a sheet that had the person's typed name, with a signature next to it and initials as well.
I recall him asking me, "How do you know that this is so-and-so's signature?" I imagine he wasn't pleased with my response of, "I've worked with these people for years and I know who's signature is who's." He told me that "he didn't know." I told him that at any time, he was welcome to ask the appropriate person if that was their signature and that they would be happy to verify it for him.
Well, despite my obvious challenge to his "deviation" it still showed up in his report.
My response to him was that "no corrective action is required at this time" because "in no place in the ISO Standards is there a requirement for controlled signature and/or initial sheets" but that "documents must be approved by appropriate authority" blah, blah, blah.
It might be that you "had to be there" to appreciate the humor in our interaction that day, but, we continue to maintain the business in spite of my not "correcting" our lack of a "controlled signature sheet" as somehow, somewhere it is "required" by the Standards.
It was one of my funniest experiences... going back and forth in a serious, professional manner, all the while laughing inside at how funny his assertion was...
Hope you enjoyed my experience, do you have any "World's Funniest Audit Experiences?"
How about having an employee faint when approached by the registrar for a Q&A session, before even a word was spoken? Happened here.
ALM