| The audit path is the sequence of activities or personnel to be
audited. A smart selection of the audit path is critical to a
successful audit and should be conducted using a description of the
interaction between the processes of the QMS.
The
important factors for this selection are:
Audit scope: the activities in the audit path have to be
within the audit scope and need to ensure full coverage of all areas
and operations to be audited.
Availability of the auditee: the auditee needs to be available and
auditable at the scheduled time.
Activity/process flow: the sequence of activities to be
audited should be based on a description of the interaction between
the processes and the QMS. This will ensure effective auditing of
various processes, enable a better comprehension by the auditor and
facilitate the communications between auditor and auditee.
For audits requiring more than one auditor the audit schedule will
need to reflect multiple audit paths. Each auditor will have his/her
own set of activities and processes to audit with a specific path.
The different paths can overlap in the areas where the activity
requires more than one auditor to achieve a proper sampling within
the given timeframe.
The paths should also be selected according to auditor expertise.
For example, an auditor with a strong engineering background should
focus on the engineering processes such as process and product
design, floor plan layout and workflow.
At a predetermined time during the audit, the auditors need to meet
and exchange information and notes based on observations made in
their specific audit path. This is necessary to evaluate the level
of nonconformities, if any.
If all the auditors found the same type of nonconformity in their
audit paths, it will indicate the nonconformity is systemic and is
therefore major. They also need to coordinate audit activities for
interacting processes, by exchanging information on the outputs of
processes that may be inputs for other processes.
The links below are excerpts from the our
e-book "Explanations and Definitions
for ISO 19011:2002"
Section 1. ISO 19011 Scope
reference and definitions
Section 2. ISO 19011 Principles of
auditing
Section 3. ISO 19011 Managing an
audit program
Section 4. ISO 19011 Audit program
implementation
Section 5. ISO 19011 Audit
activities
Section 6. ISO 19011 Preparing for
onsite activities
Section 7. ISO 19011 Conducting
onsite activities
Section 8. ISO 19011 What the
auditor is looking for
Section 9 ISO 19011 Audit
reporting
Section 10. ISO 19011 Audit
techniques
Section 12. ISO 19011 Effective
communications
Section 13. ISO 19011 Sampling
Section 14. ISO 19011 Audit
completion and follow-up
Section 15. ISO 19011 Competence
and evaluation of auditors
This represents a summary of the section in ISO 19011:2002. It's
suggested that you obtain an actual copy of the standard to refer to
for auditing program purposes.
EBook
"Explanations and Definitions for ISO 19011:2002"
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