Internal auditing: picture perfect?

Nothing brings the message home to people quite as well as a picture from internal auditors with cameras, which are a common sight in The Consortium for Purchasing and Distribution, writes head of the IMS audit programme, Gail Sheppard. The truck driver without a high visibility jacket, a trip hazard in an office or the potential for a chemical spill, all are snapped by the Integrated Management System (IMS) auditors. So why should internal auditors embrace IMS?

The strategy for IMS comes right from the top with each facet, quality, health and safety and environmental management, championed by a main board director. Our company has a number of parties interested in its integrated approach. Major customers are schools who are actively involved in implementing and teaching green policies; the company’s main warehouse and offices are located close to a residential area and a brook, home to wild ducks, runs alongside its boundary fence.

The strategy to go integrated was formulated at the time of the transition to the 2000 version of ISO 9001. When we were flow charting the quality processes the overlaps with health and safety and environment became obvious. Now the company has every process and their interrelationship fully mapped. Health and safety and environmental management take equal place with quality requirements when drafting procedures and work instructions.

Two-tier system

Audits are carried out in two tiers – at the main process level they are performed by a 16 strong team of trained auditors. At the sub-process level self audits are done by team leaders and supervisors who are also trained in IMS auditing techniques.

Auditor training is carried out on-site over two days using accelerated learning. The trainees are all volunteers who are genuinely interested in helping to improve the way things are done. The first thing we ask them to do is to organize the training room to suit them. The traditional U-shaped room layout is not suitable for the level of interactivity required, so they usually end up with a table per group scattered around the room.

With all attendees having a sound basis in quality auditing, the emphasis is on them identifying the common requirements in the three standards (ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001) and those specific to environmental and heath and safety management (see figure 1). New terms and definitions are illustrated and explained.

Figure 1. (click to enlarge)

Non-conformity

The quality auditors are trained to approach every audit with the objective of looking for conformance, and reporting non-conformance when they find it (and can substantiate it). The same approach is employed with IMS auditing. There is now a large data base of photos illustrating both good and bad practice and these are used by the students to understand the requirements of the standards.

Shortly after lunch on day one the trainees have acquired sufficient understanding of the requirements and how to audit these using their existing auditing skills to progress to stage two – preparing to carry out IMS process audits in pre-selected areas of the company.

The areas chosen are those we consider suitable for the teams and the audits are those which we would have to do as part of our certification programme. With the teams operating under the watchful eye of experienced IMS auditors, this is quite within the rules and the audit results are submitted to the external auditor during their surveillance visits.

It’s important to have a day devoted totally to practical auditing in the warehouse, the yard and offices and culminates in the teams presenting their reports to the top management team headed by the chief executive. They don’t pull their punches and the management don’t expect them to. After all, if they find something significantly amiss they could have headed off a lot of trouble. The last thing we want is an injured employee or visitor, a product recall or a discharge into the brook and all that comes later with the attendant bad publicity and maybe a court case. 

The bigger picture

IMS auditing is part of a much bigger strategy aimed at continually improving the company’s business performance and reputation. Significant cost and efficiency savings were made (and continue to be achieved) on the back of mapping the business processes for ISO 9001:2000 conformance; reductions in fuel and energy costs were achieved by re-designing the transport policy and the company is currently investing in a number of initiatives including solar power for hot water. The strategy extends to their product offering, the policy being to buy products which can, where practicable be recycled or are from sustainable source, supplied by companies operating similar IMS management systems.

Whilst the company has achieved significant benefits in terms of customer perception, cost and efficiency improvements, IMS has also made life easier for everyone. It is easier to maintain one documentation system than three, the audit programme is easier to manage, improvement projects are more comprehensive and we have reduced the number of external assessment days, which can’t be a bad thing.

The Consortium for Purchasing and Distribution is a national procurement and fulfilment business focussed on meeting the needs of its many customers in the Social Care, Education, and Training Sectors. They are the largest independent supplier of education resources in the UK. For more information visit their website at www.theconsortium.co.uk

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