One of the key audit skills we deliver in our audit courses is the ability to write a good audit checklist. This is simply because a checklist provides you with a clear set of questions to ask during the audit and keeps you on track with the audit timetable and objectives.
At QCS write our checklist of the month to help people with areas of auditing management systems but this month we thought we would look at how to actually write an audit check list using and ISO standard.
The key steps to writing a checklist based on any management system standard is to understand:
- the intent of the section/clause of the standard
- breakdown the specific requirements of the clause of the standard (the ‘shalls’)
- identify what objective evidence you are going to look for to prove the system works
To give a simple example I have chosen Management Review from ISO 14001:2004 (Section 4.6) but this technique can be applied to any section of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 or OHSAS 18001.
The overall intent of management review is to ensure the management system is implemented and effective in driving continual improvement.
If we take a look at clause 4.6, the key requirements of ISO 14001 are that
- Results from internal audits will be reviewed
- Results from legal requirement evaluations will be reviewed
- Review of environmental performance
- Review of the extent to which objectives and targets have been met
- Communication from regulators and other interested parties
- Status of corrective/preventive actions
- Follow up actions from previous reviews
- Changes (legislation, organisation, technology etc) are reviewed
- Records of the review shall be maintained
The evidence you will need to look at during the audit will be:
- Minutes of management review meetings
- Who actually attended management review meetings
- Agendas from the meetings including any data analysis/reports
- Action plans resulting from the management reviews
And of course the main question to ask to ensure effectiveness… review an actual improvement that has occurred as a result of a decision taken in management review. This way you can show that the system if fully implemented and effective.