Quality Auditing, 1993

There are as many views on audits and auditing auditing as there are people who have ever thought about the subject and the process. Any author writing about it is faced with some common problems, such as how to make a description of a technical process anything less than dry to read. How to deal with the general belief that anyone can conduct an audit without any specific training or experience. Auditing is often viewed as a waste of time, money and resources with little, if any, real value to an organization. It is seen as something of a judgemental process. People see themselves as being under scrutiny and examination and as very few of us enjoy such a process, audits are not generally welcomed at first. I cannot claim to have found solutions to these problems or to have come up with an easy five-minute way of understand­ ing the detailed points that make up this whole subject. As with any form of technical textbook, this work must not be viewed as a volume to be read in one sitting from cover to cover but used to dip into as and when required. Thankfully the practice of auditing, in real life has compensa­ tions for those involved. Those being audited, the auditees, if sensible, will be able to learn from what is hoped will be an objective and skilled overview of the areas and subjects being audited.

Dedication. Introduction. An overview of audits. What is a quality audit? Why audit? The audit maze. Audit boundaries. Audit personnel. Auditor qualifications. Audit activities. The audit plan. Working methods. Guiding the audit. On-site procedure. Reporting the audit. Problems during the audit. Finished? Special cases? Managing an audit programme. Product auditing. Economical auditing. Auditing at the end of the road. Auditing in the ISO 9000 environment. References/bibliography.