Audits and Findings

Auditor plans an audit around a defined scope and records findings against specific requirements. The audit might examine how a supplier controls printed packaging or how an internal team checks artwork before production. Its purpose is to make the observed condition and the follow-up responsibility clear.

An audit has a planned date, an assigned auditor and a completion date. Findings keep their own requirement, observation, severity, owner and due date. This separation lets the team describe an audit that has reached Reporting while still following individual findings to their recorded closure.

• Audit scope. Write the activity or supplier practice being examined and assign the Auditor. Planned and in progress distinguish upcoming audits from work already being conducted.
• Requirement findings. Record what the requirement says and what was found. Observation, Minor and Major give the team a consistent way to describe the finding’s severity.
• Follow-up responsibility. Assign each finding to a person and agree its due date. Use the closure date when the response is complete, keeping it visible beside the original due date.

Agree how detailed an audit scope should be. “Packaging quality” is difficult to rehearse; “revision selection for carton printing” gives the Auditor a concrete activity to inspect. Decide which document revision defines the requirement and how the supporting material will be available during the audit.

Define who may own a finding and who judges its response complete. The Auditor should agree the meaning of severity with the team before the first audit. Also agree how audit completion relates to outstanding findings. An audit’s Closed status and a finding’s closure date answer different questions and should be reviewed separately.

Audit a supplier’s process for selecting the approved carton artwork. Auditor records the planned scope, moves the audit into active work and finds an older revision at a printing station. Record the requirement and the observed condition, assign an owner and agree a due date. The finding should be understandable without an oral explanation from the Auditor.

Move the audit into Reporting and review its findings with Quality Approver. When the owner supplies an acceptable response, record the finding’s closure date under the agreed follow-up procedure. Review the due list again: a finding with a past due date may already be closed, so read the closure date before describing it as outstanding.

Where an inspection also identifies a product issue, follow that inspection’s nonconformance process. Keep the audit observation clear about what it examined, rather than assuming that the existence of a product correction resolves the process finding.

• Audit Workload — Upcoming audits, active examinations and audits in reporting.
• Findings Due — Findings whose due date has arrived, with closure dates visible for interpretation.

Rehearse audit and document follow-up. Use correction and effectiveness when a related inspection issue requires corrective work.