For quality managers at ISO 9001 manufacturers

A documentation review against ISO 9001 at any point in the certification cycle.

A certification cycle runs three years. Each surveillance visit samples part of the management system, and procedures are revised in the months between visits. Aligntra reads the full document set against all 235 obligations whenever it is run, and again after a revision. Walkthroughs, interviews and the audit report remain with a person.

The interval

Between one visit and the next, you check the system in one of three ways.

A surveillance visit assesses the slice the registrar selected. Everything revised after it stands unassessed until the next one.

Schematic · one cycle
An audit week
An experienced operator comes off the line and audits the areas that person already knows.

Scope is the areas the auditor selected.

A clause-to-procedure matrix
A spreadsheet recording which document answers which clause, brought up to date after each visit.

Correct at the revision it was built against.

Wait for the registrar
The next assessment against the standard is the surveillance visit already in the calendar.

Revisions made since the last visit go unassessed.

With Aligntra
Read the document set
Upload the procedures, work instructions, forms and records as they stand, and run the review again after a revision.

All 235 obligations, on today’s documents.

An obligation with no document mapped to it is not reported by a sampled audit. It is reported by a full review.

What a run produces

Findings you can put in the file, with the paragraph they came from.

1
In
The document set

Procedures, work instructions, forms and records, as they stand. A revision is a re-upload.

2
Out
A finding per obligation not met

Cited to the document, the page and the paragraph, and classified Major NC, Minor NC, Observation or OFI.

3
For the file
The adjudication record

Who confirmed, reclassified or dismissed each finding, and when. Exported to Excel with a sign-off sheet.

An example finding

What a finding looks like when it reaches you.

Prepared for this page against ISO 9001. No ISO 9001 example audit is published.

Minor NC ISO 9001:2015 · §10.2.1
Nonconformity records close without a recurrence check.

QP-08 Rev 03 defines identification, containment, disposition and correction, and closes the record at ¶ 4.4 once disposition is signed off. No step addresses whether a nonconformity of a similar nature has occurred previously, and the NCR form provides no field for prior occurrences. §10.2.1(b) requires review of existing nonconformities of a similar nature.

QP-08 Rev 03p. 3¶ 4.4

A reviewer in your organisation confirms, reclassifies or dismisses this before it enters the report.

Boundaries

Where the review stops.

Is this the internal audit?

No. It is the documentation review that an internal audit includes, and it produces the findings, evidence and adjudication records for that part. Walkthroughs, interviews and the audit report remain with a person.

Which records are checked against my procedures?

CAPA and NCR. All other documents are classified and assessed against their applicable clauses; those two are additionally verified against the SOP that governs them.

Who determines what is recorded as a finding?

A reviewer in your organisation. Aligntra proposes findings; each one is confirmed, reclassified or dismissed by a person before it enters the report.

What does it cost?

One standard is included on all tiers. Pricing is on the pricing page.

Can it be run on a supplier?

Yes, against whatever documentation they provide, where a questionnaire response is not sufficient evidence.

Run a review before the next surveillance visit.