Case study - auditing in Japan
| Here, one auditor, Noriyuki Hoshino from the Japanese branch of Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance, shares his experience of training and auditing in the UK and how it compares to his home country. |
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Returning to Japan after the training for ISO Assessor in the UK, I was surprised at how many Japanese staff attended the opening and closing meetings. There were over 50 participants in one meeting, while the minimum was five or six. In UK, usually only the QMS or EMS representative would be present at the meeting. Japanese staff tend to like to participate more in every stage of an ISO management system.
It's also common for the secretariat of a Japanese organization to conduct the oral examinations of the certification bodies to find the most suitable one. A representative from each department evaluates the assessment techniques of each certification body. The logic behind this is that they want to select the best certification body for the organization by the assessment way, regardless of the expense.
Another difference is the issue of respect and hierarchy. The secretariat and the staff of an organization always say 'sensei' (teacher) to an assessor in Japan. I noticed that they express respect to the assessors in much the same way as to government officials, which does not indicate impartiality, so I always tell those I asses: "we have equal rights. We are business partners. If you say 'sensei' to me, please put penalty cash into the box for your beer party".
In Japan, if a nonconformity is found during an assessment, the secretariat often makes a great effort to delete the finding logs to save face. Thus, their thinking goes, 'if the non-conformity was not issued, I will be evaluated as a good employee by top management'. There's no sense that a nonconformity is a treasure for the organization to learn from.
Find out more about the audit experience in India:
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