ISO 9000:2000 -: The challenges and opportunities for internal auditors

Internal auditing was included in ISO 9001 to provide an in-depth review of the quality management system. It is generally agreed that internal auditors are the best source of identifying nonconformities within a system. Changes to the standard have resulted in more challenges for the auditors, but with these challenges come opportunities for improvement. ISO 9001 has been restructured as a set of four major processes: (1) management responsibility, (2) resource management, (3) product realization and (4) measurement, analysis and improvement. A fifth element covers general requirements. The restructuring is a major challenge to the auditors because they are used to auditing the 20 elements of the 1994 version of ISO 9001. There are 8 themes in the standard, which present challenges to the auditor. These are: (1) understanding and applying the eight quality principles, (2) auditing undocumented processes, (3) following the process approach, (4) focusing on the customer, (5) identifying and using measurable objectives, (6) analysis and use of data, (7) assessing competence needs of the organization, and (8) using the improvement loop to enhance quality. The internal auditor should help the organization understand these themes and identify where compliance to ISO 9001 will enhance the value to the organization of its quality management system.