You are auditing a manufacturer of speciality tea products during a Stage 2 certification audit. In the quality laboratory, you interview one of three operatives conducting sensory testing of a batch from the production line.
You: How do you determine the consistency of the product?
Operative: We conduct sensory tests to evaluate flavour and aroma and record the results. We then allocate a quality grade.
You: How can you ensure that results are consistent between operatives?
Operatives: The three of us in the lab are well-trained and very experienced. We use the Hedonic Scale method involving a 5-point scoring system.
You: Are operatives periodically calibrated to ensure consistency?
Operative: No, but we regularly ask each other for a second opinion in borderline cases.
Select three options of evidence which could demonstrate conformance with clause 9.1.1 of ISO 9001.
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.
You decide to raise a non-conformity.
You are conducting a Stage 2 audit at an organisation that services refrigeration equipment for a large customer base. The scope of certification is “Provision of refrigeration equipment maintenance and repair services”. You are interviewing the Managing Director to learn more about the organisation and to explore how the requirements for policy, objectives, and risks and opportunities in ISO 9001 are addressed.
The Managing Director explains that they only use sub-contract refrigeration engineers and do not have any full-time refrigeration engineers, which helps to optimise overhead costs.
The Managing Director adds that the ISO 9001 requirements for the competence of personnel extend to both sub-contract and full-time staff.
You then asked 2 of the sub-contract engineers what they could do to contribute to the effectiveness of the quality management system, they replied stating that “we are not really sure as we have not been told how we could contribute”. The Managing Director added that this is not applicable as they only use sub-contractors who operate ISO 9001 certificated quality management systems. The documented information provided to the auditor confirms this.
Which clause in ISO 9001 has not been fulfilled in this instance?
You are an auditor from a construction company who is conducting a second-party audit to ISO 9001 at a steel rolling mill producing structural steelwork. When auditing the rolling process, you find that the operator who is unloading the furnace does not use the adjacent infrared pyrometer to measure the appropriate product temperature in readiness for the next production stage.
You: “How do you tell when the billet is ready for the rolling stage?”
Operator: “I’ve done this job for 20 years. I can tell by the bright red colour.”
You: “What happens if the colour is wrong?”
Operator: “The billet goes back into the furnace.”
You: “Is the pyrometer ever used?”
Operator: “Only in borderline cases.”
Select the two checkpoints you should investigate further in the situation.
Which type of audit risk is the risk that a significant defect may occur in the QMS, although the organization has internal control mechanisms in place?
Below are four of the seven principles on which ISO 9000 series are based. Match a potential benefit to each of the quality management principles (QMP).
A screenshot of a chat Description automatically generatedScenario 7: POLKA is a car manufacturing company based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company has around 14,000 employees working in different sectors which help with the design, painting, assembling, and test drives of the final product. The company is widely known for its qualitative products and affordable prices. In order to retain their reputation, POLKA implemented a quality management system (QMS) based on ISO 9001.
Before applying for certification, the company decided to conduct an internal audit to check whether there are any nonconformities in their QMS and if the requirements of ISO 9001 are being fulfilled. The top management appointed Sean, the internal auditor, as the team leader of the internal audit team. Sean required from the top management to have unrestricted access to the employees and executives of POLKA and to the documented information. Furthermore, Sean required to establish a team with a large number of auditors, considering the size and the complexity of the organization. The top management of POLKA agreed with Sean ' s requirements.
The top management, in cooperation with Sean, assigned 10 more employees to the audit team. Following that. Sean planned the audit activities and assigned the roles and responsibilities to each auditor. They began by interviewing employees of different manufacturing departments to check whether they are aware of the process of the QMS implementation. While conducting these activities, one of the auditors asked Sean for permission to audit the department in which he worked on a daily basis, as he was very familiar with the processes of the department.
Along the way, the teams findings showed that the staff were trained, documented information was updated, and the QMS fulfilled the requirements of ISO 9001. The internal audit took three weeks to complete, and on the last week the audit team held a final meeting
The team shared their results and together drafted the audit report This report was submitted to the top management of the company. The report was maintained as documented information, and was available to the relevant interested parties.
Based on the scenario above, answer the following question:
Based on Scenario 7, the team worked together to draft the final audit report. Is this acceptable?
Select the two activities which pertain to Third-Party Audit.
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?
