ISO Internal Audit Consultants & Consulting Services

Many believe auditing has to be adversarial, but the best results come when it is collaborative. The aim of the internal audit, or ‘process review’ as many of our clients call it, is to find weaknesses in processes and hence find system weaknesses. To quote ISO 9000:2015, a system is a ‘set of interrelated and interacting elements’ and processes are key elements. But critically, processes ‘interact’ to enable the Quality Management System (QMS) to operate. We must focus on process linkage just as much as we do with individual processes.

The Challenge with ISO Internal Audits

The common adversarial perception of the audit needs to be overcome. Many think incorrectly that the audit is a test of competence and people’s ability to follow procedure. In fact, it is a test of whether a process is working and delivering the information and product, or service, required by the next process in the system. The best “Audit’ results come when your own people work together to find process weaknesses and failure in the system is frequently at the linkage between processes. Quest engages a cross section of your people on the audit team. This is a process audit not a people audit.

How can Quest help with ISO Internal Audits?

Quest Management will work with you to develop a team which is good at asking questions in a collaborative way and we do this by providing best training on how to carry out a process audit. The two day training will include audit question development, role-plays on actual audit interviews and how to identify non-conformances. These are just a few of the skills we will develop. We follow the training with individual coaching during the audit interviews. 

Audit Planning and Reporting

Quest provides you with our unique audit risk analysis tool and helps you plan the audit in detail. We work with you using the manual and the procedures to develop the ISO Internal Audit questions. Those questions will be ‘open’ questions designed to flush out knowledge on process weaknesses. We facilitate your audit team meeting after the audit and draw your findings together. 

We develop your report and action list and show you best practice in reporting. We will use the knowledge gained from the Internal Audit to update the manual and procedures.

Quest Experience

Quest has led several hundred audits in a wide range of organizations. We know how to overcome that traditional adversarial thinking and make auditing a collaborative activity.  We engage your leadership in resourcing the post audit actions that need to be taken. The Quest President has been a frequent speaker at Audit Conferences and our training is highly complemented by registrars.

The Result

The ISO Internal Audit finds areas where objectives are not clear, risk is not adequately managed, or processes are not well linked. It is then vital that leaders take ownership of the audit findings, as required by the standard, and we help you agree actions at Management Review. Quest develops the Corrective Action System, the heart of the ‘business improvement’ process, to ensure closure on the audit findings.