Auditing is an important part of maintaining a management system, so be sure that your auditors’ programme is effective for your business.
Here we take a look at our own audit programmes and the best practises we apply.
Guidelines for Auditing Management Systems
As you would expect, there are ISO standards specifying guidelines for auditors. The recently updated ISO 19011:2011 ‘Guidelines for Auditing Management Systems’ is a good place to start.
Principles of Auditing
The standard defines the following six principles of auditing which all our auditors adhere to:
Integrity – Ethical Conduct.
Fair Presentation – report truthfully and accurately.
Due Professional Care – application of diligence and judgement.
Confidentiality – security of knowledge acquired.
Independence – objectivity of audit results.
Evidence-Based Approach – rational method fro reaching reliable and reproducible conclusions.
Choosing the Audit Team
When establishing an audit programme we consider which of our auditors has the relevant experience to evaluate the evidence presented. It’s important that the auditor understands the business they are auditing.
We ensure competence by using IRCA training lead auditors, who have experience of implementing and auditing management systems. Continued Professional Development is also an important part of our auditor training.
Schedule and Programme Improvement
Where ever possible, we will fit the audit schedule around you. Our auditors will be looking for evidence to support your management system, but will not want to disrupt the running of your business. Therefore we may prepare some aspects pre-audit.
The audit team will also be improving their audit programme with each visit, and may identify areas that they would like to revisit more often.
Conclusion
Our audit team will apply the 6 auditing principles to establish and maintain an appropriate audit programme for your management systems. Their feedback is intended to identify weaknesses that you can improve and strengthen.
To discuss the audit of your management systems or suppliers contact 020 3432 2854.
entry111024-112012
