You are conducting an ISO 9001 audit of a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF). The organisation processes
waste plastics into raw materials for plastic bottle manufacturers. You reach the manual picking line where operators are removing contaminant materials from incoming products, such as plastic bags, plastic film and badly contaminated items that would compromise the recycling process. You interview the line supervisor.
You: "Why are these plastic items being rejected at this stage?"
Auditee: "They do not meet our processing standards."
You: "What is the reason for that?"
Auditee: "These items are likely to damage the machinery down the line. They can also compromise our
quality standards. We need to protect our reputation for good quality output materials."
You: "What happens to the rejected items?"
Auditee: "Some get melted down in another process later on and some are disposed of as waste products that cannot be recycled."
You: "What happens to the waste products?"
Auditee: "I'm not sure. I suppose they go to landfill."
Which two. of the following actions would you take to investigate further?
What is an advantage of group interviews?
ABC is a fast food shop that receives orders by phone or the internet. The normal menu includes 15 different types of hamburgers; however, in the
last two days, due to a shortage of a special type of meat, they can only prepare six of the 15 varieties.
You are performing a third-party audit of ABC; you observed that the menu offering food on the website is still the normal one, with 15 different
hamburgers. During a 30-minute period, you observed several customers reluctantly accepting other than the hamburger they preferred. You decided
to raise the following nonconformity as follows:
"There is evidence that ABC has not reviewed the ability to provide customers the offered products".
The restaurant manager does not accept the nonconformity. She says that ABC had an extensive training programme for all personnel, which you have already seen when auditing Human Resources. This shortage of some hamburgers cannot be considered a management system failure.
Which one would be your answer from the following options?
ABC is a worldwide fast-food organisation. One of the branches, in downtown Cape Town, decided to
implement an ISO 9001 quality management system and you are the audit team leader (with two other
auditors) that will carry out the certification audits, Stage 2.
ABC receive the orders by phone or internet; some of the employees deliver the ordered food to indicated
addresses. The normal menu includes 15 different types of hamburgers; however, in the last two weeks,
due to a shortage of a special type of meat, they can only prepare six of the 15 varieties.
During the internal meeting of the audit team, you ask one of the auditors to describe what she has
observed. She audited the reception of orders from customers (via phone or internet) and the
communication of the orders to the kitchen. She noticed that the menu offering food on the website is still
the normal one, with 15 different hamburgers, and during a 30-minute period, she observed many
customers reluctantly accepting something other than the hamburger they preferred.
You, as audit team leader, inform the Quality Manager of your concern about the major nonconformity,
since you consider this a serious breach of the basic principles of quality that lasted two weeks without
action being taken.
Right at the beginning of the Closing meeting, you discuss the nonconformity with the General Manager.
She got quite upset and said she was going to make a complaint to the certification body and left the
room; the Quality Manager was the only member of ABC left with the audit team. The Quality Manager said the General Manager would not come back to the meeting.
What would you do? Choose the best from the following options: