Eight Principles Quality Management Audit Should Examine

To obtain this certification, you will have to perform certain tasks; internal audits are one of these tasks. Your quality management audit should examine these principles to ensure the Quality Management System or QMS is performing as per ISO 9001 and business requirements.

1. Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a vital requirements of the ISO 9001 Quality Management Standard. Your audit team should determine whether the QMS is able to meet customer requirements or not, as meeting all customer requirements means customer satisfaction,

2. Leadership

The standard has clearly defined the importance of the roles played by leadership. Without strong leadership, a business will not be able to survive, and so auditors will interview leadership and evaluate previous meetings to learn about the involvement of leadership in quality management. This principle is examined in other ISO internal audits as well, such as ISO 27001 internal audits.

3. Employee Engagement

Like leadership engagement, employee engagement is important. The more engaged employees, the more productivity in the organization. Therefore, the audit team should make sure employees are actively involved in quality management, and that they actively participate in internal audit programs.

4. Process Approach

The process approach is all about the efficiency and effectiveness of the QMS, it maintains the consistency, speeds up the daily activities, and improves the existing processes. Your internal auditors find out whether the process approach is able to reduce excessive costs (fine and compensation), improve consistency, and reduce wastes.

5. Systematic Approach to Quality Management

According to the International Organization for Standardization or ISO, “Identifying, understanding, and managing interrelated processes as a system contributes to the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives.” This implies that ISO wants a business to focus efforts regarding key processes and aligning complementary processes to improve the efficiency level. To meet this requirement, a business should follow a systematic approach to quality management.

6. Factual Approach to Decision Making

It is important for the QMS to be logical, therefore the business should follow a factual approach, based on facts and data. Auditors should evaluate how far a factual approach is maintained to manage the QMS.

7. Continual Improvement

An ISO 9001 internal audit ensures that organizations are maintaining continual improvement. An effective quality management audit program should also determine whether your QMS is flexible enough to adopt new market opportunities.

Strong Supplier Relations

A strong bond with a supply chain promotes the relationship between the company and its suppliers. Your audit team should carefully examine the QMS to determine the strength of your business relationship with suppliers.