Mejora continua

International Organization for Standardization

International Accreditation Forum
Date: 1 December 2009

ISO 9001 Auditing Practices Group Guidance on: Auditing Continual Improvement
How much improvement is “enough”? It should be emphasised that the requirement in ISO 9001 is for continual improvement of the effectiveness of the QMS. Continual improvement emanates from the objectives set bytop management, which should (at least) address: the improvement of internal efficiency (for the organization to remain economically competitive), individual customer needs, and the level of performance that the market normally expects. For example, in the aeronautical sector, the “acceptable rate” of non-conforming delivered product is zero percent, so it would not be useful for the organizationto set objectives for an “improvement" in this rate. However, it would be useful for the organization to have objectives aimed in improving its internal efficiency and its competitiveness (e.g. through innovation). The auditor should seek to determine if the auditee has attempted to set objectives that establish the correlation between the 3 factors of: corporate objectives, customer needs, andmarket expectations. Thereafter, it is up to the organization to balance the need for improving internal efficiency and the need to progress with external performance (although the two are very often closely related). No one in isolation can ever be considered as being “enough” or “not enough”. One area which can be problematic for the auditor to know is what a reasonable market benchmark is.Continuing the above aeronautical example, if the organization announced that it had improved from a level of 50% non-conforming product delivered to 40%, this would demonstrate continual improvement, but would hardly be acceptable, given the industry sector's zero percent normal rate. However, if it announced that it had set an objective to improve its performance from 0.50% to 0.40%, this would bemuch nearer the market norm. The only real solution for the auditor is to verify how the organization has determined this proposed rate of improvement, how it has evaluated the associated risks, and how this relates to customer requirements and the monitoring of feedback on customer satisfaction.

© ISO & IAF 2009 – All rights reserved www.iaf.nu; www.iso.org/tc176/ISO9001AuditingPracticesGroupIt would be almost impossible to issue an NCR that stated: “There was not enough continual improvement”. What sort of information is relevant and where can we find it? The auditor has to verify how the overall corporate objectives have been translated into internal requirements throughout the appropriate processes, and how these requirements are communicated and monitored. So, the auditor shouldlook for evidence that the organization is analysing data from process monitoring, and is then taking the results forward for evaluating process efficiency and/or improving process output. One point that should be specifically examined is the consistency of the way in which the improvement of any one process contributes to meeting the overall objectives, in order to ensure that this will notcause conflict in the achievement of other objectives. ISO 9001 lists a number of areas that an auditor can assess to obtain evidence of both planning and actually implementation of improvement. Examples of areas where the quality management system can be improved include, but are not limited to: • internal communications, • follow-up activities, • documented procedures, • the effectiveness ofmanagement review meetings, • customer feedback systems, and • training programs (e.g. for management or for internal auditors). The type of information that an auditor needs to look for, is evidence of how the corporate objectives are translated into specific QMS objectives. For example: an organization could set an objective to reduce customer complains by 30%. The top management analysis shows that...