Quality System Assessment Practices, 1990 Process & Product Quality Conference Proceedings
Formal audit of quality systems involves checking of the documentation and physical system against the requirements of the customer and the Quality Standard. The auditors look for evidence of the system in operation against the documented procedures. Typically those documented procedures are arranged in three tiers, including quality manual, detailed procedures and work instructions.
It is important that, the procedures accurately reflect the system under assessment and that it is allowed to run for a sufficient time before assessment, as is internal audit of the whole system. Typical non-conformities found during assessments are not unique to any one sector of industry, these are: document control, calibration, and process control.
Quality System Assessment Practices, 1990 Process & Product Quality Conference Proceedings