Auditing is integral to a quality management system (QMS). While a QMS defines a company’s commitment to quality, auditing ensures that this commitment is met and maintained.

“Auditing keeps everyone honest. Your QMS is the gospel truth of your work, and audits evaluate your adherence to this truth,” says Timothy McClung, a self-employed test systems architect.

An audit ensures that what a company says it’s doing aligns with what it’s actually doing. While the QMS outlines what needs to be done, audits ensure these guidelines are being followed, driving continual improvement.

“Effective auditing observes real-time performance. By assessing both past and current performance, audits ensure that the organization meets its goals,” says Andrae D. Maze, ISO sector manager, quality assessments, Smithers.

Audits, especially the internal ones, are like health check-ups for a business. They ensure that a company is on track with its quality objectives and help to reveal areas that might need upgrading. As processes and customer needs change, regular audits ensure that the QMS remains adaptable and effective.

What exactly is an audit?

An audit is essentially a health check for your business processes. Picture a doctor’s visit, but for your company.

“There are three main parts to an audit: The people involved, the rule book, and what you’re checking,” says McClung.

An audit consists of:

• The people involved: This refers to both the auditor (the one conducting the check) and the audited (the one being checked).

• The rule book: This is the set of standards or benchmarks against which the company’s processes are evaluated.
• What you’re checking: This is the specific area or process being examined. It could be anything from financial accounts to production quality.

Types of audits

Each type of audit serves a unique purpose and provides different insights into a business’s operations.

At its core, an internal audit is a self-assessment.

“This is when someone from your own company checks how things are going,” McClung says.

Internal audits are “like a practice test [where] you spot problems and fix them before anyone else sees them,” says Scott Carey, ISO Certification Manager, HSB Registration Services.

By conducting these audits, businesses can preemptively address any potential issues, ensuring smoother operations and enhanced productivity.

Supplier audits are when leaders evaluate vendors, or “When you check if the people you buy stuff from (like materials for your products) are doing their job right,” says Timothy Cruickshank, lead auditor and consultant at Quality Audit Solutions.

The effectiveness of your suppliers directly affects your business. Conducting external audits is like “picking the best teammate,” says Carey. “You want to be sure they won’t let you down.”

By ensuring your suppliers adhere to quality standards, leaders not only safeguard product quality but also enhance their brand’s reputation.

Third-party audits provide a neutral assessment of your company. Achieving certification or a positive review can significantly boost your company’s image, making it easier to gain customer trust and business partnerships. In this scenario, “Another company comes in and gives you a grade,” says. “If you do well, you get a certificate that shows everyone you’re doing great.”

Tips for effective audit preparation

Whether you’re gearing up for an internal review or a third-party evaluation, preparation is crucial. To do well, experts advise the following:

• Document everything: “If you didn’t write it down, it never happened,” McClung says. In other words: No matter how good your processes are, if they aren’t well-documented, they might as well not exist (from an audit perspective).
• Maintain a good team: It’s crucial to have a dedicated team prepared for the audit. “Assign capable individuals,” Cruickshank says. “Ensure they are trained and can handle the stress of an audit.”
• Make it instinctive: Your processes and documents should be easy to follow. “Make the documents intuitive so that anyone can follow the logic, reducing training needs and ensure compliance,” Carey advises.

Audits are key to ensuring quality, compliance, and continuous improvement. By understanding them and preparing effectively, leaders can turn them into valuable tools for growth.

Data analytics and advanced information technology have made some traditional auditing methods outdated, experts say. Instead of these older methods, many audits can now be streamlined through email communications or regular data sharing.

“Data analytics and information technology has both made many forms of auditing obsolete and opened doors to auditing processes and methods that have not existed in the past,” says Timothy McClung, a self-employed test systems architect. “Many audits can now be bypassed with a simple email or regular data share.”

This shift reduces the need for time-intensive, manual checks. In fact, experts predict that future audits will lean heavily towards algorithm-based and AI process standards.

“Future audits, I believe, will focus on algorithm and AI process standards as that industry moves from its infancy into maturation,” McClung says. “It will become increasingly common, especially when corporations look to add AI into their products and processes, that standards (and therefore audits) will be the backbone of those negotiations.

For this reason, as AI becomes more embedded in products and processes, auditors must ensure that it adheres to established standards.

Remote Auditing: A New Norm

The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to remote auditing, utilizing video platforms like Zoom and GoToMeeting. While remote audits offer convenience, they come with their own set of challenges.

“The auditor does not need to be on-site, but it does help and is more value-added to the client,” says Timothy Cruickshank, lead auditor and consultant, Quality Audit Solutions. “If I am [in-person], I have the benefits of peripheral vision, and can turn my head to see other things in real-time. You lose that with remote audits and are subsequently more likely to miss things.”

For this reason, remote audits should come at a cheaper price, Cruickshank says, as they don’t offer the same audit coverage.

“When the client is showing the auditor evidence via computer, the auditor gets to see that and only that,” he says. Plus, remote audits are reliant on a good platform connection and typically take longer to view the same information, he says.

Data Analytics: A Precision Tool

Data analytics has become invaluable for auditors. With enhanced analytics, organizations can sift through vast amounts of data to identify negative trends and descriptive analysis, such as dashboards, failure reports, and customer surveys, provide immediate insights.

Diagnostic analysis delves deeper, investigating the root causes of failures and customer complaints. Predictive analysis goes a step further, forecasting future trends to preemptively address potential issues. Such in-depth analytics allows auditors to pinpoint high-risk processes, ensuring more focused and efficient audits.

The improvement in data analytics allows an organization to analyze statistics associated with their processes to identify possible negative trends using descriptive analysis such as dashboards, failure reports and customer surveys; diagnostic analysis, including root cause of failures, customer complaints, and process flow; and predictive analysis, such as improved preventative maintenance programs, industry trends, and procurement needs, says Scott Carey, ISO Certification Manager for HSB Registration Services.

“This allows the internal auditors, second-and-third party auditors to focus the audits on high-risk processes,” Carey explains.

The Versatility of Modern Auditing

One of the most significant advantages of technology and data analytics in auditing is its adaptability. Advanced tech makes auditing possible in challenging environments, while data analytics boosts auditors’ detection of organizational inconsistencies.

Andrae D. Maze, ISO sector manager, quality assessments, Smithers, says that technology and data analytics shape the future of auditing practices.

“Technology is improving the ability of audits to take place in environments that historically would be too volatile because of extreme climates, atmospheric conditions, safety hazards, or any extreme exceptions that would question the safety and/or integrity of the auditor or audit,” Maze says. “Data analytics give auditors an enhanced ability to comprehend trends and patterns of the organization making it easier to identify deficiencies and anomalies.”

As manufacturing and quality control becomes increasingly digital, auditing is increasingly enmeshed with technology and data analytics. Together, these tools promise more efficient, precise, and adaptable auditing processes.