Focus on results.
An external audit is the final step before obtaining your ISO certification. The S4 Consulting & Auditing Team will ensure your documentation meets all the requirements of the standard. Tommy & his team will also make sure that all procedures and processes are correctly followed.
Depending on the findings, theS4 Consulting & Auditing Team will either recommend you be granted your certification or require corrective actions before you can be accredited.
Take time out to align your documentation & processes.
Here are six tips to impress the auditor and obtain your ISO certification on the first try.
1. Be well-prepared
The ISO certification should be a living management process that is constantly updated and optimized. For that to be true, you have to establish a schedule for tasks, internal audits and reviews—and stick to it. The worst thing you can do is wait a month before the audit and then try to rush to complete everything.
2. Take internal audits seriously
Holding a rigorous internal audit will allow you to catch any serious non-conformity issues before the external audit. The internal audit can also prepare staff for the interview process.
3. Implement corrective actions
You should take corrective actions to limit recurrent problems as soon as they are identified. A single occurrence of a non-conformity problem will not endanger your ISO certification, but recurrent problems require corrective actions. A major problem found by the auditor could delay your certification and leave you scrambling to establish a process to fix the issue as quickly as possible.
4. Don’t forget your management review
Your management review looks over your entire quality management system at least once a year. Your top managers should be involved to review your quality policy, objectives for the next year, customer feedback, non-conformity issues and corrective actions, the status of internal audits as well as any changes to processes and regulations. The management review has to be a thorough, well-documented meeting that will result in the creation of an action plan to resolve issues identified during the meeting. Your management review should be done well in advance of an audit so changes can be implemented.
5. Correctly monitor objectives
New ISO norms have higher requirements with regards to setting, monitoring and adjusting objectives internally. The auditor will expect to see you have tracked your progress on meeting objectives over time. Don’t hesitate to adjust objectives according to business demands. In a downturn, for example, it is perfectly normal to lower sales objectives to reflect the changing economic environment.
6. Ensure that everything is clean
It’s important to make sure the workspace is clean and well-organized. Managers should do a factory tour before the audit to make sure that everything is in the right place.
What if the certification auditors find a problem?
Even though you may have tried your best, there is always a chance that the certification auditors might find a problem that you will need to fix.
This is not uncommon, and in your pursuit of continual improvement it is best that you find and correct any problems in your processes – even if you do not find them yourself. Any non-conformity that is found in your QMS is intended to be investigated and addressed.
This is why you hire the S4 Consulting certification body to audit your process, and this is why you have a procedure for investigating and correcting the root causes of audit findings: the corrective action process. Don’t think of these findings as a failure; they are only a small postponement in your progression towards ISO certification. Once they are addressed, your certification body will still issue your ISO certification.
Where do you go from here?
Remember: A Quality Management System is not something that is intended to be defined once, written down, and never changed. Having a QMS is the foundation for your company to maintain processes, correct problems, and continually improve the processes within your company.
In short, the Quality Management System is expected to change over time as you practice continual improvement.
It is the goal of a Quality Management System to improve and change over time; use every opportunity you can to work towards your improvements.
This is why you implemented the Quality Management System in the first place.
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