Articles

Why ISO9001:2000 auditing has to change - Carl Ford

ISO9001:2000 has radically changed. Since its release in December 2000 the clock started ticking for organisations already registered to its 1994 predecessor to make the transition to the new standard by December 15th 2003. At the same time the clock also started ticking for auditors to become competent to audit against this new standard.

There has been a mixed response since the issue of ISO9001:2000 from both organisations and auditors alike. Organisations have welcomed the new standard and as a result questioned the need for formal third party registration and complain of auditors adding little or no value in the service they provide. Auditors on the other hand have also welcomed the new standard but have not noticeably changed their approach to the audits they conduct. The result of this is a virtual stand off between auditors and business.

Many auditors have failed to grasp the fundamental principles of ISO9001:2000 and set this in the context of how a business works, which has undermined what they are trying to achieve whilst delivering little added value to business.

Auditors should not be under any illusions that business is looking for an audit report containing detailed findings on the organisations compliance to ISO9001:2000, business is not.

What organisations want are reports from auditors describing the impact on the business, their findings put into the context of ISO9001:2000. In other words organisations need to see the financial / performance benefits if they are going to act on the reports findings.

To be fair to auditors, how can they be expected to test the effectiveness of, for example, a business planning process when they have no practical experience of such processes. This coupled to the fact that the majority of audits have to be performed in just one day, regardless of industry sector, number of locations or staff, and its no wonder that we often get the non-value adding audit reports we do.

Auditors without the competencies to audit, certification organisations using out dated working practices and poor audit reports as outcomes all say to me that something has to change, change now and change dramatically!