Beware! The Misinterpretations of a third party auditor

Recently, IQC has run across a disturbing trend among 3rd Party auditors: deciding how they want the client to comply with the standard; be it ISO 9001 or ISO/TS 16949. Registrar’s auditors have very little actual authority to decide anything regarding a client’s registration. They collect data (evidence) and make recommendations. For those of you who use IQC’s RASI™ approach, you can recognize this as “Level 2” authority! One auditor threatened to “pull” the client’s certificate because some paperwork wasn’t in order.

Some auditors are great for consulting under the guise of telling you how it was when they ran plants/companies/departments, etc. Some misinterpret their own Registrar’s instructions. Recently, a client was told that the Registrar would no longer “accept” the client’s use of a checklist for Internal Audits. When checked, the Registrar said that their auditors could not use a checklist for an ISO 9001:2000 audit. Just a slight mistake.

These auditors have no authority to interpret these Standards. I am on the US TAG to ISO/TC 176, and I do not have the authority to interpret the Standard. Interpretations are voted upon by the T/C nation members. ISO/TC 176 is the only body who can interpret ISO 9001:2000. As far as TS 16949, only the IAOB can issue sanctioned interpretations. The role of the auditor is to determine if your interpretation is effective!

The second area of concern is for registrar’s auditors to “approve/disapprove” the clients’ outsourced quality management processes. Once again, they have no authority to do this. What can they check? Your process for selection and control of outsourced process providers – not the providers themselves, is all.

Third Party auditors do not have the authority to approve or disapprove a client’s outsourced trainer, auditor, consultant, plater, assembler, IT provider… . Yet, in some cases they do. So,

What can be done? First, tell the auditor directly that you disagree and do not accept the “finding.” Second, appeal to the Registrar. If those actions fail, file a complaint with the ANAB -- http://www.anab.org/ and click on “Complaints.” For TS 16949, you must contact the IAOB (www.aiag.org) and file a complaint.

Many organizations are fearful of doing this. They feel that a Registrar or auditor will “nit pick” them to death if action is taken. Would you suffer this from any other supplier? No. Your Registrar should be selected, evaluated and monitored just as you would any other supplier – can they meet your requirements, on-time? If not, it’s time to change registrars, or, where feasible, consider a Self-declaration of Conformity.

-- George Hummel, CEO
IQC, llc.
PS – if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at george@4iqc.com