Audit score and NC's changed from audit closing meeting
Earlier this year, we had a consultant (hired by our customer/sister company who we make product for), visit our facility to access the food safety program.
Later in the year, the customer/sister company sent the same group to conduct an audit.
The consulting group hired an auditor to conduct this audit, who carried with him the consultation report that he referred to during the audit.
For the auditor to have the consulting report for reference, did not look right.
Also, at the closing meeting, this auditor indicated we got one non compliance, shared the non-compliance, and verbally rated us 'Generally Meets Audit Expectations'.
When we received the final report from the consulting group who hired this auditor, the rating changed from 'Generally Meets' to 'Partially Meets', with additional non -compliances (did not indicate the observations, just said we did not meet certain criteria on their checklist).
Would like to know how you would handle these situations.
Thank you.
Piki
A couple of things
No auditor should have the consultants paper notes in hand.........things change/get amended etc (plus it's a conflict of interest)
You should have been given a copy of the report PRIOR to the auditor leaving and any changes made post audit should be discussed and agreed to prior to official changes being made
I would refute the changes in their entirety.........you got the shaft
Was the group a bunch of employees from your customer or independent?
Was the Auditor with the company or commissioned from an auditing company.
What is your issue with the auditor having the Consultant notes?
Hello Piki,
I would first argue that you don't remember these non-compliances beeing notified during the closure meeting, and ask about the evidence of the non-compliance.
If it is taken from that report,
1- stress out that you didn't give your authorisation to the communication of said report (provided, of course, you haven't), - probably in a nicer way though =D
2- that the report refers to an earlier point and, to the date of the audit, was no longer up to date (in this case you'd really like to make sure the non-compliance no longer exists!)
3 - that an audit has as objective to give an accurate picture of the company at the time of the audit and that this audit report is therefore faulty for based on an outdated consulting report
If not, it all depends where it comes from?
If there is no evidence... then there is no non-compliance, that is how audits work.
In both cases you might be up for a re-audit though!
According to what the non-compliances are and their impact, it might be worth to point out that they were not mentionned during the audit and "unformally" adress them to avoid reauditing.
Best regards,
Pauline
If the auditor left you a copy of the audit it covers all of the non-conformances that can be considered. If you fail to implement corrective actions they can change for the worse and your certification can be pulled but an auditor can't add non-conformances as he has no empirical evidence to support them, not having actually been at the facility when he raised them. You have every right to appeal them and the only real evidence is he wasn't at the facility so he has no proof. Show the audit report he left when he performed the audit not showing the additional issues, that should be plenty. It also might spell the end of that auditor's auditing career.
I have unfortunately seen this before with customer audits. I find it happens when the person doing the auditing has not been trained on auditing or familiar with the auditing process. They turn their notes into their management and are challenged as to why they did not write something up or management deems an item seen as minor should be a major. I would personally push back on the topic. If they work in supplier quality they should be used to this. I would say we push back on about 60% of customer audit findings. Most of the time it ends up being a communication issue where their notes did not show the whole thing or they did not ask enough questions or even the right person and jumped to conclusions.