ISO 9001 Audit: Are you ready?

By Shelly Goodman, ANAD Quality OfficeMay 16, 2019

ISO 9001 Audit: Are you ready?
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. -- The depot has an ISO 9001:2015 recertification audit scheduled for July 29 and 30.

ISO 9001:2015 is a standard for a quality management system and is an internationally recognized certification granted by a third-party certifying body.

The standard focuses on the context of the organization, leadership, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation and improvement.

Benefits of being certified to ISO 9001:2015 include improvement in the quality of products produced, increased competitiveness, improved customer satisfaction and standardization of processes.

The ISO 9001 certification basically means we have a set of instructions and must adhere to that guidance.

The guidance ANAD uses can be found in the Quality Manual, Depot Maintenance Work Requirements, National Maintenance Work Requirements, Technical Manuals, Letters of Instructions, Depot Process Control Pamphlets and shop instructions.

These directives provide the who, what, where and why for all processes.

For example, we have a shelf life LOI which teaches various roles in the fire cabinet process.

It states the shop supervisor, or appointee, will audit the locker, remove out-of-date material monthly and document the audit on a ledger posted outside of the fire cabinet.

It also states the depot will keep a years' worth of inspections for auditing purposes.

Quality's role is to audit processes to ensure we follow our documentation and the ISO 9001:2015 standard.

Quality records these findings in an Audit Corrective Action Request to the supervisor.

These requests require an investigation and initiation of an interim corrective action, root cause identification and permanent corrective action.

Once the corrective action has been in place for two weeks, Quality conducts a follow-up audit to see if the actions were effective.

The audits conducted by Quality are about ensuring documents in place for processes are followed and verified.

This is what ISO is all about.

REPETITIVE FINDINGS DURING ISO AUDITS INCLUDE:

• Building sheets not initialed or stamped as the product is built.

• Material not labeled with the condition code or route tag.

• Material should not be mixed in baskets. For example, condition code F parts shouldn't be mixed with condition code A.

• Supervisors don't have Shop Project Orders for their programs or the SPOs are not current.

• Drawings on the shop floor are not controlled or marked properly.

• Shelf life cabinets are not organized, inventoried and records maintained for one year. Expired items should be disposed of.

• TMs, DMWRs, NMWRs, etc. were not current for the program in the shop or available on the shop floor for employees to use.

• Supervisors were unaware of the location of their controlled documents and unable to explain the process.

• Bottles of fluids for processes, such as cleaning, were not labeled with the correct content.

• Tools and equipment were not marked with current calibration stickers or tagged for turn-in to be re-calibrated.

Quality will be doing internal audits and shop walkthroughs to help shops prepare for the external audit.

Contact your Quality Assurance Specialist with any questions regarding ISO 9001:2015.

Let's make this a successful audit.