Types of Quality Audit

ISO 9001 is the the most popular standard on which the Quality Management System of many organizations are built upon. A Quality Management system ensures that the work performed by the organization follows defined processes so that the output product quality is consistent and hence customer satisfaction is ensured. ISO 9001 lists set of requirements which are to be complied with by the organization for successful certification. These requirements are called as ISO 9001 clauses. Quality Management systems of organizations are built upon these clauses. Quality audits are one of the important requirements of ISO 9001. A successful ISO 9001 certification requires internal audits as well as external (certification audits) to be completed. Internal audits are conducted by trained internal auditors who are part of the company itself. External audits are conducted by auditors from certification bodies. Audits are also classified as First, second and third party audits. First party audit refers to audits done within the organization; second party audit refers to audits conducted by the customer on its supplier organization while third party audit refers to the audits conducted by certification body (or any other third party).

Typically, organizations implement the internal audit requirement by defining an internal audit procedure, preparing an internal audit plan, training internal auditors, conducting internal audits and follow up on closure of non conformances. Typically, all these activities used to be conducted using pen and paper. However, nowadays with the availability of web based quality management system software, all these activities are being automated and done in a paperless way. The software packages have built in workflows which automate the entire cycle of activities in the internal audit process. Automating the internal audit process ensures the visibility and traceability of the reports and non conformances. Moreover, it acts as a repository for the internal audit reports, which can be accessed from anywhere at any time.