ISO 19011 - Section 11
Explanations in Plain English
ISO 19011- Section 11 - Audit Path
ISO 19011 states "The audit schedule should reflect a sequence of activities or
personnel to be audited. This sequence is commonly called the audit path."
A smart selection of the audit path is critical to a successful audit and should
be conducted using 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.
One auditor = one path:
According ISO 19011, Section 11 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 allocated 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 interrelated 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 11. ISO 19011 Audit
path
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 a copy of our ebook to refer to when auditing.
EBook "Explanations and Definitions for ISO 19011:2002
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