You, as auditor, are in dialogue with the quality lead and managing director of a small business that supplies specialist
laboratory equipment and furniture.
You: "I'd like to look at how you manage change in the organisation. What changes have you made as a business, say,
over the last 12 months?"
Auditee: "We have made some strategic changes, the main one being that we no longer manufacture our own products
in house."
You: "That sounds like quite a significant change. What has been the impact of that?"
Auditee: "We now mainly sell other manufacturers' products, under their brand names, and have outsourced
manufacture of our own brand products to one of our suppliers. Unfortunately, we had to make six members of our staff
redundant. This represents about 20% of our workforce, so this has been quite a challenging time."
This scenario presents a number of audit trails to different ISO 9001 requirements.
Which three of the following requirements would be relevant audit trails for this scenario?
An internal auditor of a manufacturer of polystyrene packaging products for the electronics industry raised a nonconformity against
section 10.3 of ISO 9001 in Report IA202. The nonconformity (NC 3) stated:
"The reject rate of 'finished' product of 9.7% needs improvement as it doesn't meet the stated objective of top management of 5%."
Just before the Closing meeting of a third-party audit, the audit team leader is invited to a meeting with the Quality Manager. He tells
the audit team leader that a member of the audit team was seen taking photographs of the factory on his phone during the day and
wants him suspended from the Closing meeting with any nonconformities raised by him rescinded. The issue of photographs was not
discussed during the opening meeting.
Select the three options for how the audit team leader might deal with this situation.
A Health Trust has contracted with Servitup, a catering services company that has been certified to ISO
9001 for one year. It provides services to 10 small rural hospitals in remote locations involving the
purchase and storage of dry goods and fresh produce, preparing meals and loading heated trolleys for
ward service by hospital staff. You, as auditor, are conducting the first surveillance audit at one site with
the Deputy Catering Manager (DCM).
DCM: "I apologise for the absence of the Catering Manager. He has called in sick today and we are really
short of staff."
You: "I see. It really shouldn't affect the QMS so the audit can progress as normal."
DCM: "The Catering Manager set up the system. I'm afraid I'm not as familiar with it as he is."
You: "OK, let's start with the Quality Policy. What are the main issues for the QMS here?"
DCM: Give me a minute. I need to look at the Quality Policy on the noticeboard in his office.
You find that two internal audits have been carried out in the first year by the Catering Manager. One of
them indicates that complaints from patients are increasing in number, mainly due to food being served
too cold. The DCM comments that the trolley thermometer is often unreliable.
Which two of the following actions would be "correction" in dealing with the complaints?
ABC is a worldwide fast-food organisation. One of the branches, in downtown Cape Town, decided to
implement an ISO 9001 quality management system and you are the audit team leader (with two other
auditors) that will carry out the certification audits, Stage 2.
ABC receive the orders by phone or internet; some of the employees deliver the ordered food to indicated
addresses. The normal menu includes 15 different types of hamburgers; however, in the last two weeks,
due to a shortage of a special type of meat, they can only prepare six of the 15 varieties.
During the internal meeting of the audit team, you ask one of the auditors to describe what she has
observed. She audited the reception of orders from customers (via phone or internet) and the
communication of the orders to the kitchen. She noticed that the menu offering food on the website is still
the normal one, with 15 different hamburgers, and during a 30-minute period, she observed many
customers reluctantly accepting something other than the hamburger they preferred.
You, as audit team leader, inform the Quality Manager of your concern about the major nonconformity,
since you consider this a serious breach of the basic principles of quality that lasted two weeks without
action being taken.
Right at the beginning of the Closing meeting, you discuss the nonconformity with the General Manager.
She got quite upset and said she was going to make a complaint to the certification body and left the
room; the Quality Manager was the only member of ABC left with the audit team. The Quality Manager said the General Manager would not come back to the meeting.
What would you do? Choose the best from the following options:
At the end of a second-party audit, the audit team enters the meeting room to hold the closing meeting; only
two people are present and waiting for them: the Health and Safety supervisor and the Administrative Officer.
Neither has participated in the audit. However, the team had previously agreed with the auditee Quality
Manager on two nonconformities identified during the audit (NC1 and NC2).
They said:
Health and Safety Supervisor: "Good evening. We are sorry to inform you that the general manager was
involved in a serious car accident, and the other two managers have had to leave urgently to attend to the
emergency."
The Administration Officer: "Concerning 'nonconformity 2', the General Manager left a message asking us
to tell you that he does not accept it and requests you not to include it in the audit report. Here is a note in
which he explains why."
Which one of the following would be your preferred answer (as team leader) to the General
Manager's request?
