Please read the following cases and judge as under – please note you are an auditor assessing this situation, that means you are standing there in the case and performing interview while auditing.
In ABC Catering Company, once customer complaint was received as under: “Our Contract says that the quality of rice to be used for rice-based dishes should be an “Indian Basmati Rice only” and you would be giving proof of calories should comply to specs. Sheet “ABC_SPEC212 issue 2 Dt. 12th Jan 2013” and you would be giving us a III party laboratory test report every quarter of the year and we have not received any evidence till now. Last month we performed a system audit and were surprised to note that the audit team raised the same issue in the form of Non-Conformance report (NC- 15; Dt. 21 Dec 2013) which is not yet closed. Please note the following: 1. Since our contract is for 5 years and one year has passed. We need to ensure that for the remaining 4 years you would be providing us the evidences of compliance of the same, for past 3 consignments and shall ensure that, you will continue to adhere to the contractual requirements 2. In the event of failure to adhere to requirements of above point 1, as per the discretion of our management, there may be a possibility that we may not continue with you for the remainder of the contract term. We are taking a stand on this, as we need to submit 3 evidences to our customers and all of them are concerned on this issue; we cannot afford to lose our clients, as they are prestigious international airlines. This is very important for our business standards and reputation. Hope you realize the criticality of the situation and comply to the requirements ASAP. On this ABC company responded in the following manner: “We have been faxing all the evidences to the number as defined in the contract, yes we did not confirm whether you have received or not. We have all the evidences of the faxes sent to you in our files and were shown to your auditors when they were here to perform the II party audits. Please confirm if the fax is working or has changed. In future we shall be emailing the evidences to your Quality department. And also, we shall be uploading all these evidences in our internal intranet and provide you the password for access (only to authorized personnel only-as identified by you), to avoid such issues occurring again. The NCR-15 clearly mentions that one report is missing, which we agreed and responded to you (after rectifying our recording system) for closure and requested you to formally close the NCR which is pending from your end for acceptance of the actions and close out. We assure you the best of services at all time to come. We thank you for this opportunity for improvement which we feel that without you pointing out, our communication system would not have improved.
Section A
Section B
While doing the audit of Sheet Metal Components for various industry sectors, you found that one of the gauges (GO- NOGO) for final inspection of circular product was found to be broken from one of the sides. On asking the inspector using the gauge, you were informed that it was supplied by the client & would be returned to the client with the last consignment. On verification of the Quality Manual, you also detected that this company where you are presently auditing, had sought Customer Property as non-applicable clause.
A company manufacturing compasses for pleasure crafts. During the audit you observed that, to do the inspection of the centricity pin (the arrow in the compass which points to north), the person lifts a liver to lift the pin up & visually verified the parallel level or the pin with the surface. You as an auditor observed that the person doing the job is wearing thick glasses and hands shaking. On enquiry you came to know that the person is the senior most person in the company since last 20 years and very experienced in compasses – the only inspector in the company and his hands shakes because of some kind of illness. Through the complaints register you also establish that nearly 3% of the consignments on an average comes back from the market and are replaced by the company free of cost. It was further established by you that on re-verification of some of the samples from the stock ready to delivery, revealed that they also have problem of centricity. Note: A pleasure craft (speed boat) moves very fast in water compared to big ships which, even turns very slowly. The precision and swiftness of the compass indications are the key quality norms acceptability.
While review of Management Review Meeting minutes, recorded the issue as – The brand retail business started operation in one suburban town and due to local laws, they had to recruit local manpower, but their English was not good enough to sell the products to prospective customers mainly foreigners. This was identified during interview process also. Human Resources developed competency matrix and detailed job descriptions and translated to local language. These local personnel had no problems in selling products to local community but failed to sell products to foreign guests, due to problem in communication. As per the Law there is a restriction that female employees will not interact with males and vice versa. HR & Operational Management identified this problem but were not able to balance the Law and business requirements, for nearly a year due to which business targets were not able to meet business objectives (sales & branding). This aspect was taken up for discussion in Management Review conducted last year and it was recorded in the minutes of meeting that local regulatory labor authorities would be contacted for solutions. No action was taken.
While auditing the Management Representative area (Internal Audit Process), you noticed that one of the internal audits NC reveals the fact that internal audit frequency was annually and 70% of the 3 internal audit results revealed that the non-conformities were on Product Quality. You also noted that there were no changes in the Quality plan, inspection sampling plan & no trainings imparted in quality inspections.
The result of a student (with Slr. #: 098703) of a computer institute has appeared in the Final evaluation for ORACLE 8 (5 months diploma course). During the audit as a member of audit team towards ISO 9001:2015, you required to verify the records of this student. Following were the facts which were revealed from the records (soft & hard copy): 1. The approved marks allotted on practical exercises test on computer were not traceable (neither in hard copy not in soft copy form) 2. The answers for the test revealed that they were correct in the soft copy and the hard copy having Srl.# which is correct but the name was different on the record. 3. There was also a letter from the student dated 4 months back (after the test) mentioning that his marks were not disclosed by the institute and his new prospective employer wanted to verify the certificate and marks obtained – No corrective action records evidenced. 4. One of the objectives of the institute was “TO BUILD CARREERS OF AT LEAST 75% OF THE PASSED STUDENTS OF EACH BATCH THROUGH THEIR PLACEMENT CELL.”
You ask the Quality Manager for this year’s schedule of internal audits. This shows that the 10 departments in the organization are each audited once every 12 months and this year’s Programme has been completed. You ask the Quality Manager how the frequency of the audit was decided. He told that when the Quality System was implemented 3 years ago, internal audits were scheduled at intervals of 12 months and organization has been following the same schedule since then. You ask if the results of the audit are analysed, Quality Manager replies affirmatively. To support the statement, a report was offered representing the result of last 3 years. The report showed that all planned audits were completed and over the 3 years period a total of forty-five nonconformity reports (NCRs) were raised, 25 in the purchasing department, 15 in the inspection department and remaining 5 NCs were shared between 5 other departments.
Using ISO 9001 to provide the audit criteria, you are auditing an organization that produces electronic components. You are discussing with the Quality Manager how the organization deals with the customer complaints. You establish that they have detailed procedures in place that require them to investigate complaints and take appropriate action. You review the complaints they have received during the previous 12 months and note that several customers have recently made repeated complaints with respect to faulty components being delivered. The faulty components were returned to the organization by the customers. The organization repaired them and returned them to the customers. You ask to see the reports on the investigation for these complaints. The report show that the cause was the use of 02 new employees in the inspection department who were not fully trained to the requirements of the job profile at the time and who, due to staff shortages, were not supervised. The action shows that they were subsequently trained and assessed as being competent. The report also states that the investigations also examined the reasons why the components were manufactured with faults and corrective action was put in place to ensure the manufacturing problem could not be repeated. There have been no further customer complaints since these 02 issues have been addressed and the investigation and corrective action has been closed.
You are conducting an audit of the process for the Measurement Traceability. You see a box containing parts that are neatly stacked and accompanied by production paperwork in a plastic sleeve. You examine the paperwork, which appears to be complete and accurate and shows this to a repeat order. You see a comment “Customer supplied gauge # A123 to be used to verify components meet the requirements given in drawing XB 113 Rev 2”. The gauge is numbered A123 and appears to be in good condition although well used. You ask the inspector to show you the calibration records for the gauge. The inspector responds “We do not have any calibration record for it. We receive it from the customer with their order, the drawings and nothing else. We used it and the components are all acceptable according to the gauge.