Supply Chain Audits and Quality Management Systems (QMS)

An audit is a systematic and structured evaluation of a system, process, product, or other area with the aim of identifying deviations from the target state. Audits can be carried out internally or externally and are based on standardized audit questions and audit checklists. Audits should lead to constant improvements and are a fundamental part of every management system (Tritschler, 2014). As a result of an audit, the need for action and corrective measures (Corrective Action Requests; CARs; Open Items) are identified and set down in a scheduled action plan. The type of audit used depends on the type of goals that a company wants to have identified as “achieved.” If it wants to know—possibly in the course of preparing for certification—what status it is at with regard to the fulfilment of the respective standard requirements, it will first carry out internal audits, then (optionally) a pre-audit can be carried out by the certification company; this would make it clear whether the management system in question is already ready for a certification audit, which then ultimately decides on certification. For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that two annual monitoring audits are pending between the issuing of a certificate and the 3 years later following audit for recertification. Table 12.1 shows the five types of audits and their respective descriptions.