Monitoring audit quality performance: a contribution based on the analysis of audit reports

Purpose: The process of conducting management system audits, the core activity of a
certification provider, is a demanding process requiring specialized auditors according to the
different industrial sectors or services under analysis. As such, these processes need to be
continuously assessed in order to stay accurate and efficient. For APCER, a leading Portuguese certification provider operating worldwide, this continual assessment is particularly critical in order to ensure its leadership position and strengthen its evaluation methods.
Design/methodology/approach: Using descriptive analyses, this work analyses the
certification process according to ISO 9001:2008 standard of APCER over the past five years.
Based in a sample of 6436 audit reports, an analysis was performed to identify if there are
clauses of the standard where there is an evidence of under or over allocation of resources in the auditing process, through an analysis of the number of findings and non-conformities by clause.
Findings: The results of the analysis suggest that audits generally guarantee a fairly accurate
verification of all clauses according to audit objectives and do not indicate evidence of over or under resource allocation. However, the study shows that there are significant differences in the value ranges of the number of findings in each clause, when looked up according to organization size, audit duration, business area and audit type.
Practical implications: APCER has performed a similar assessment five years ago, based on a smaller sample of audit reports, an analysis that originated a set of guidelines for the auditors. The results obtained with the actual analysis, based in a much larger database, reinforce the fact that the auditing guidelines previously issued where followed. This database provides feedback from the audit process and can be the base of the definition of new performance indicators to management, indicators that will be extremely helpful for the effectiveness and improvement of the auditing process.
Originality/value: Information based on real data of audit reports belonging to a certification
provider covering a large time span (five years) is scarce in the literature, being the reason why this type of analysis is relevant for an effective improvement of the certification process.

Ver artigo

certification process, ISO standards, ISO 9001:2008; audit process; audit performance