hjilling said:
Marc, this is a real old post, but it's been fun to read. But, I'm curious. I've seen many changes in the audit field from the 90's to now. Do you still feel a need to advise clients to "Be ready to fight?" Or, do you find it has become a more appropriate playing field. I would welcome your perspective.
Hjillling - I will throw my $.02 in.
In the last 3 - 4 years, there has been a "sea change" from the QS and now
TS audit world. I see far fewer of these b.s. issues than I used to. I have been told by several registrar auditors that they (the registrars) were given strong direction by the big 3 to avoid "non-value added" nonconformities, at least when the auditee's customer performance figures justify it.
IMO this has improved the process. However, it does put a burden on the 3d party auditor to exercise judgement. It also (to an extent) creates a degree of auditor bias (that is, basing decisions on the customer performance reports), which could be a bad thing.
I'm a consultant and typically have 2 - 4 active clients at any time, so this
represents the experience of a small sample of auditees.
Brad