PECB ISO-9001-Lead-Auditor Exam With Confidence Using Practice Dumps

Scenario 5: Mechanical-Electro (ME) Audit Stages

Mechanical-Electro, better known as ME, is an American company that provides mechanical and electrical services in China. Their services range from air-conditioning systems, ventilation systems, plumbing, to installation of electrical equipment in automobile plants, electronic manufacturing facilities, and food processing plants.

Due to the fierce competition from local Chinese companies and failing to meet customer requirements, ME's revenue dropped significantly. In addition, customers' trust and confidence in the company decreased, and the reputation of the company was damaged.

In light of these developments, the top management of ME decided to implement a quality management system (QMS) based on ISO 9001. After having an effective QMS in place for over a year, they applied for a certification audit.

A team of four auditors was appointed for the audit, including Li Na as the audit team leader. Initially, the audit team conducted a general review of ME's documents, including the quality policy, operational procedures, inventory lists, QMS scope, process documentation, training records, and previous audit reports.

Li Na stated that this would allow the team to maintain a systematic and structured approach to gathering documents for all audit stages. While reviewing the documented information, the team observed some minor issues but did not identify any major nonconformities. Therefore, Li Na claimed that it was not necessary to prepare a report or conduct a meeting with ME's representatives at that stage of the audit. She stated that all areas of concern would be discussed in the next phase of the audit.

Following the on-site activities and the opening meeting with ME's top management, the audit team structured an audit test plan to verify whether ME’s QMS conformed to Clause 8.2.1 (Customer Communication) of ISO 9001.

To do so, they gathered information through group interviews and sampling. Li Na conducted interviews with departmental managers in the first group and then with top management. In addition, she chose a sampling method that sufficiently represented customer complaints from both areas of ME's operations.

The team members were responsible for the sampling procedure. They selected a sample size of 4 out of 45 customer complaints received weekly for electrical services and 2 out of 10 complaints for mechanical services.

Afterward, the audit team evaluated the evidence against the audit criteria and generated the audit findings.

Which stages of the audit were performed?

You are conducting a Stage 1 audit at an organisation that services refrigeration equipment for a large customer base.

The scope of certification is "Provision of refrigeration equipment maintenance and repair services". You are interviewing

the Managing Director to learn more about the organisation and to explore how the requirements for policy, objectives,

and risks and opportunities in ISO 9001 are addressed.

The Managing Director explains that they only use sub-contract refrigeration engineers and do not have any full-time

refrigeration engineers, which helps to optimise overhead costs. The full-time staff employed are essentially a small team

of office staff who process customer enquiries, schedule jobs and process invoices.

The Managing Director adds that the ISO 9001 requirements for competence of personnel extends to both sub-contract

and full-time staff. He also states that the full-time staff are aware of the Quality Policy, objectives and plans to address

risk and opportunities.

You ask if the sub-contract engineers have been informed of the Quality Policy, objectives and plans to address risks and

opportunities, to which the Managing Director replies that this is not applicable as they only use sub-contractors who

operate ISO 9001 certificated quality management systems. The documented information provided to the auditor

confirms this.

Which clause in ISO 9001 is most likely not to have been fulfilled in this instance?

You are carrying out an audit at a single-site organisation seeking certification to ISO 9001 for the first time. The organisation offers warehousing and export services to customers. Customers are invoiced for the time stock items are stored in the warehouse. Transport to and from the warehouse is controlled by the organisation and approved subcontract transport services are used. The organization does not have its own transport vehicles. Stock items are not purchased by the organisation.

You have gathered audit evidence as outlined in the table. Match the ISO 9001 Clause 8 extract to the audit evidence.