Internal audits and pastures new?
By Allan J. Sayle, President Allan Sayle Associates

What should be the ISO position and that of the TC committee?

For many, ISO is a bookshop. Whenever a standard changes it’s good for business and ISO knows that well as does any other bookstore peddling standards. As the business actualite develops and such practices as PR become more accepted, the TC committee will play catch-up (again) and its members will bask in their feelings of importance. Let us remember, since creation of the ISO 9K standard is supposedly the end result of a democratic process involving a hierarchy of committees supposedly considering input derived from business practice, catch-up is inherent in the formulation of that standard. It is the result of experience, i.e. something obtained from past actions and decisions. More importantly, it is also based on what management will accept.

What will consultants and “professional bodies” think?

One is reminded of the advice given by “Deep Thought,” the great computer appearing in Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy,” to the philosophers who felt threatened by the computer’s task to find the answer to “life, the universe and everything” They perceived a demarcation dispute: Deep Thought advised them to get onto the pundit circuit, which they did and became famous as a result by arguing with each other about the eventual answer the computer would provide.

So, one must expect the same old game, same old faces, same old topics keeping the velocity of circulation of money greater than zero, as those faces have recently been fearing it might be stopping altogether. Instant experts all. Expect the usual slew of conferences, “tables of comparison,” “Guides to the new requirements”, “How to implement…,” “How to be guided by the guide,” “The new requirements and you…” and training courses offered by great, the good and grand of the committees and so forth. And, for a price, business will be advised to do what it already decided to do which is what provided the input for a revised standard anyway. It will thus be sold its own decisions neatly presented in three ring binders by a three-ring circus! It will all be highly enjoyable, entertaining and amusing. But taken most seriously for it is a serious matter.

As in any sporting event, “Let the games begin!”

What are my own personal “lessons learned” from these recent events?

Overall, I do not believe on the basis of Mr. Wade’s subsequent posting, there are justifiable reasons to take an action I posted on the Saferpak and Elsmar Cove, viz: that the registrar should be “thrown out” of the quality profession. That action was suggested on the basis my original concern, describe above. In fact, I broke one of my own guidelines for auditing in being hasty in reaching a conclusion. One is always learning from one’s errors and, sometimes, repeats them: that, too, is a personal lesson.

That said, I still adopt the Missouri wisdom when it come to the current efficacy of PR at, say, NKUK: “show me,” your fresh woods and pastures new.

Appendix 1
Appendix 2

April 14 2005, Allan J. Sayle
president@sayle.com

© 2005, Allan Sayle Associates. All rights reserved.

Allan J. Sayle President Allan Sayle Associates

Allan J. Sayle has published numerous articles and delivered major speeches around the world in his 35 years experience. His book "Management Audits", ISBN 0951173901, now in its 3rd edition was first written in 1978 and is acknowledged as the "classic" and "definitive" text on that subject. Sayle is also acknowledged as the originator of the "Process Approach" (or "Task Element" approach) to auditing and quality programs, a method he developed in the early 1970s and which is now the de facto approach used around the world: the process approach is now at the heart of ISO 9001:2000. He is a pioneer of value-added audits. Allan Sayle's seminal work in Quality Management has influenced every practising quality professional. More information is available at his web site www.sayle.com.

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