When should the certification body accept the audit?
XYZ Corporation is an organisation that employs 100 people. As the audit team leader, you are conducting a certification audit at Stage 1. When reviewing the quality management system (QMS)
documentation, you find that quality objectives have been set for every employee in the organisation except top management. The Quality Manager complains that this has created a lot of resistance
to the QMS, and the Chief Executive is asking questions about how much it will cost. He asks for your opinion on whether this is the correct method of setting objectives.
How would you respond with the following options? Select three.
You are carrying out an audit at an organisation seeking certification to ISO 9001 for the first time. The organisation offers health and safety training to customers. Training courses are offered either as open courses, delivered at a public venue, or online, or as courses that are tailored to meet specific requirements. The business operates from a single office and those who deliver the training are either full-time employees or subcontractors.
You are interviewing the Training Manager (TM).
You: "What quality objectives apply to the training process?"
TM: "One of the quality objectives we aim for is a 90% minimum exam pass rate for all open training courses."
You: "How do you measure this objective?"
The Training Manager shows you a record on her computer and you see the following:
Which two of the following statements are true?
Scenario 5: Mechanical-Electro (ME) Audit Stages
Mechanical-Electro, better known as ME, is an American company that provides mechanical and electrical services in China. Their services range from air-conditioning systems, ventilation systems, plumbing, to installation of electrical equipment in automobile plants, electronic manufacturing facilities, and food processing plants.
Due to the fierce competition from local Chinese companies and failing to meet customer requirements, ME's revenue dropped significantly. In addition, customers' trust and confidence in the company decreased, and the reputation of the company was damaged.
In light of these developments, the top management of ME decided to implement a quality management system (QMS) based on ISO 9001. After having an effective QMS in place for over a year, they applied for a certification audit.
A team of four auditors was appointed for the audit, including Li Na as the audit team leader. Initially, the audit team conducted a general review of ME's documents, including the quality policy, operational procedures, inventory lists, QMS scope, process documentation, training records, and previous audit reports.
Li Na stated that this would allow the team to maintain a systematic and structured approach to gathering documents for all audit stages. While reviewing the documented information, the team observed some minor issues but did not identify any major nonconformities. Therefore, Li Na claimed that it was not necessary to prepare a report or conduct a meeting with ME's representatives at that stage of the audit. She stated that all areas of concern would be discussed in the next phase of the audit.
Following the on-site activities and the opening meeting with ME's top management, the audit team structured an audit test plan to verify whether ME’s QMS conformed to Clause 8.2.1 (Customer Communication) of ISO 9001.
To do so, they gathered information through group interviews and sampling. Li Na conducted interviews with departmental managers in the first group and then with top management. In addition, she chose a sampling method that sufficiently represented customer complaints from both areas of ME's operations.
The team members were responsible for the sampling procedure. They selected a sample size of 4 out of 45 customer complaints received weekly for electrical services and 2 out of 10 complaints for mechanical services.
Afterward, the audit team evaluated the evidence against the audit criteria and generated the audit findings.
Which stages of the audit were performed?
You work as an external quality consultant for an organisation, “ABC”, which provides packaged food to the public. You are asked to lead a team (you as the leader and two other auditors) to audit an external provider, “XYZ”, which provides packaging materials to “ABC”. It is 4 pm, and the closing meeting was scheduled for 5 pm.
You, as the audit team leader, audited Top Management. You explain to the audit team that you identified two non-conformities:
a. There is no documented information on the results of Top Management Reviews, as required in clause 9.3 of ISO 9001:2015.
b. There is no evidence of Top Management commitment as required in clause 5.1 of ISO 9001:2015 (e.g., not ensuring the availability of resources to operate the QMS, not ensuring the establishment of objectives).
All agreed to present these two non-conformities, graded as major.
As the audit team leader, select the best option on how to handle the closing meeting.
Scenario 4:
TD Advertising is a print management company based in Chicago. The company offers design services, digital printing, storage, and distribution. As TD expanded, its management recognized that success depended on adopting new technologies and improving quality.
To ensure customer satisfaction and quality improvement, the company decided to pursue ISO 9001 certification.
After implementing the QMS, TD hired a well-known certification body for an audit. Anne Key was appointed as the audit team leader. She received a document listing the audit team members, audit scope, criteria, duration, and audit engagement limits.
Anne reviewed the document and approved the audit mandate. The certification body and TD’s top management signed the certification agreement.
Before contacting TD, Anne reviewed the audit scope and noticed that TD made changes to it due to the adoption of new printing equipment. However, Anne disagreed with the changes, stating they would affect the audit timeline. She considered withdrawing from the audit.
How do you assess the situation presented in the last paragraph of scenario 4?
Scenario 5: Mechanical-Electro (ME) Audit Stages
Mechanical-Electro, better known as ME, is an American company that provides mechanical and electrical services in China. Their services range from air-conditioning systems, ventilation systems, plumbing, to installation of electrical equipment in automobile plants, electronic manufacturing facilities, and food processing plants.
Due to the fierce competition from local Chinese companies and failing to meet customer requirements, ME's revenue dropped significantly. In addition, customers' trust and confidence in the company decreased, and the reputation of the company was damaged.
In light of these developments, the top management of ME decided to implement a quality management system (QMS) based on ISO 9001. After having an effective QMS in place for over a year, they applied for a certification audit.
A team of four auditors was appointed for the audit, including Li Na as the audit team leader. Initially, the audit team conducted a general review of ME's documents, including the quality policy, operational procedures, inventory lists, QMS scope, process documentation, training records, and previous audit reports.
Li Na stated that this would allow the team to maintain a systematic and structured approach to gathering documents for all audit stages. While reviewing the documented information, the team observed some minor issues but did not identify any major nonconformities. Therefore, Li Na claimed that it was not necessary to prepare a report or conduct a meeting with ME's representatives at that stage of the audit. She stated that all areas of concern would be discussed in the next phase of the audit.
Following the on-site activities and the opening meeting with ME's top management, the audit team structured an audit test plan to verify whether ME’s QMS conformed to Clause 8.2.1 (Customer Communication) of ISO 9001.
To do so, they gathered information through group interviews and sampling. Li Na conducted interviews with departmental managers in the first group and then with top management. In addition, she chose a sampling method that sufficiently represented customer complaints from both areas of ME's operations.
The team members were responsible for the sampling procedure. They selected a sample size of 4 out of 45 customer complaints received weekly for electrical services and 2 out of 10 complaints for mechanical services.
Afterward, the audit team evaluated the evidence against the audit criteria and generated the audit findings.
According to general principles of sampling procedure, did the audit team select a valid sample for electrical services?
You are conducting a third-party audit to ISO 9001 and interviewing the Training Manager. She explains that training is more
important than ever because the organisation has had to reduce the number of staff employed. Many of the remaining staff
are now required to be 'multi-skilled'. You ask to see plans for the multi-skilling training and are shown plans that look
comprehensive, and include both 'on the job" training and internal and external training courses.
The records indicate that several staff required parts of their training to be repeated one month after the first training was
provided. You ask why this was needed and are told that an investigation of customer complaints identified that several staff
members did not complete certain tasks in the correct manner. The extra training was therefore recommended as a
corrective action.
Based on this interview, which two of the tollowing audit trails would be the most appropriate to follow?
Select the two most appropriate audit trails from the following.
You are carrying out an audit at a single-site organisation seeking certification to ISO 9001 for the first time. The organisation manufactures
cosmetics for major retailers.
You are interviewing the Manufacturing Manager (MM).
You: "I would like to begin by looking at the cleaning controls."
MM: "We record the cleaning of the equipment at the end of every batch. This document details the minimum cleaning frequency and the
procedures to follow for all areas and each item of equipment. The person who carries out the cleaning puts their initial on the document and records
the time and date alongside."
Narrative: You sample production records over 3-days and note down evidence of nonconformity as per the table below.
Among others, what does Clause 4.4 (Quality Management System and Its Processes) of ISO 9001 require from organizations?
