Calculate your potential savings with our ROI Calculator
ROI CalculatorA third-party audit is executed by a separate entity that does not have a direct relationship with either party and is free of conflict-of-interest. Depending upon circumstances, the third-party audit may result in one or more of the following: Certification, Registry, Recognition, Award, License Approved, Citation, Fine or Penalty, issued either by the third-party audit body or another party with an interest in the results of the third-party audit.
A third-party audit is conducted to verify through an independent organization that a company has developed a QMS in accordance with a defined set of criteria, such as ISO 9001. The independent organizations conducting third-party audits are referred to as certification bodies or registrars and they conduct third-party audits to compare and verify that a company’s QMS meets all applicable requirements of the criteria specified by the standard selected for the certification and continues to meet those criteria afterwards.
Certification may be provided to companies approved through the third-party audit process and can provide a level of assurance/credibility to the certified company’s customers that the company’s QMS meets the applicable criteria specified by the standard selected for the certification.
The purpose of an audit is to compare the actual products and services of an organization against established criteria. These criteria are frequently found within a specified management system or standard of operations. As part of this process, the auditor is required to collect sufficient evidence to determine the conformity of the organization’s work, adhering to the requirements of the management system. The auditor must compile most of their audit evidence by reviewing documents such as documented procedures, documented processes, and numerous other records. If an organization does not have an effective document control process, the review of all documentation during the audit will be time consuming.
To complete the audit successfully, the auditor must speak with people to find out how the system works and meet the requirements of the management standard. This means employees will have to stop working for a while. One cannot audit a process unless you are causing the person being audited to stop working. This will have an impact on the operation. Audit teams are much smaller than the general workforce of the company. Consequently, the actual impact on the overall operation is limited. However, depending on the company's context and the individual process, stopping even just one employee may have serious consequences. Therefore, it is important to know that interruptions will happen and to plan audits properly.
There will always be some degree of anxiety when audits are performed. However, it is possible that this anxiety will become so extreme it will make the audit impractical. If the auditor does not exhibit ethical behavior, remain calm, and act in an assertive manner, then the people being audited may not be able to accurately respond due to their nerves. By the same token, if the individuals being audited are overly anxious, afraid, or uncooperative, they may not be capable of evidencing their compliance. Thus, it is advisable to assist those who are being audited as much as possible by making them familiar with the auditing process prior to the start of the audit, including referencing the benefit of the audit as a means of bringing about improvements.
