IATF 16949 Surveillance Audit Checklist Excel

IATF 16949 quality management system standards require accountability and competency from all stakeholders involved, which is best demonstrated through conducting regular internal audits to maintain compliance and demonstrate these qualities. Audit results must also be tracked and reported back to show actions being taken to address non-conformance issues – although this can be challenging with paper checklists that result in piles of paperwork which must be manually stored, maintained, and organized manually.

Preparing for the Audit
Preparing your company for an audit can be a tedious process, involving cleaning up internal records, assessing risks and anticipating questions from auditors. Therefore, it is crucial that preparation begins early. Furthermore, employees should receive guidance regarding expectations and timelines from management.

As soon as an auditor sends over their list of documents for review, it is vitally important that they are organized quickly. Doing this can save both time and money during an audit process.

One recommended practice during an audit is to organize all documents or shortcuts to them into an electronic folder for easier access during it. This can be done either beforehand to anticipate what the auditor might request to review or even during it itself; organizing these documents in this manner will reduce follow-up requests from auditors thereby saving both time and money for your company.

Getting Organized
At your certification and re-certification audits, auditors from your certification body will inspect every process within your quality management system (QMS), company documentation and its effectiveness – this process could take days or even weeks depending on the size and scope of your organization.

Preparing for an audit is of utmost importance, so the first step should be reviewing all available documentation to gain a greater understanding of your Quality Management System and create your own internal audit checklist.

Step two is to conduct an audit by inspecting bulletin boards, counters and drawers for uncontrolled documents, cluttered or disorganized workspaces, improperly calibrated measuring and monitoring instruments and unidentified parts or supplies – this will enable an auditor to focus on those areas that are most essential.

Once registered, it is also essential that any recommendations or minor nonconformances identified during the audit have been addressed and that you no longer display the ISO logo on letterheads and stationery.

Getting Prepared for the Audit Report
An audit report must be both comprehensive and succinct, depending on who it’s intended for. There are various ways this can be accomplished. For instance, when communicating to non-technical stakeholders such as business stakeholders who may not be technical subject matter experts they need not only get all the details but also understand risks in the process by mapping control attributes with related risks (for instance identifying whether preventive or detective controls exist).

Gather all the documentation associated with your processes, such as flow charts, turtle diagrams and process maps that relates to them in order to facilitate audit reporting. Once an audit has been completed, follow-up on any non-compliance issues and ensure improvements have been implemented as recommended by the internal audit team; posting results of IATF 16949 audits on intranet pages or in common areas where all employees can easily access them helps foster an environment of continuous improvement and ensure better compliance across your organisation.

Conducting the Audit
Once your business has achieved IATF 16949 certification, regular surveillance audits will need to be conducted on it. While the scope and intensity of these audits are less intense than initial certification or recertification audits, this does not give an excuse to postpone performing your internal audits on schedule.

An auditor conducting a surveillance audit will evaluate only part of your quality management system (QMS). They will focus more on key processes that have been performed or improved to determine if your QMS works as intended.

ZenGRC can save your business both time and effort while helping ensure IATF 16949 compliance. However, failure to do so could jeopardize its certification status; to prevent this happening, use of an efficient platform like ZenGRC is recommended in order to maintain current documentation as well as track corrective actions across various processes in an intuitive platform.