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Quality & Environmental Audit Def N Gudlin
Quality & Environmental Audit Def N Gudlin
The cost of failing an environmental/quality management systems audit can take a number of forms:
companies can lose valuable contracts or prized certifications; they may have to pay for an expensive
range of improvements demanded by a client; they may experience and erosion of efficiency; etc.
BS EN ISO 19011: 2002 therefore offers guidelines for quality and/or environmental management
systems auditing. It is intended that by using this new standard, organizations can save time, effort and
money by:
Avoiding confusion over the objectives of the environmental or quality audit program.
Securing agreement of the goals for individual audits within an audit program.
Reducing duplication of effort when conducting combined environmental/quality audits.
Ensuring audit reports follow the best format and contain all the relevant information.
Evaluating the competence of members of an audit team against appropriate criteria.
Whatever the reason for the audit, however (e.g.: certification, internal review, contract compliance,
etc) it is intended that organizations can move efficiently through the process by applying the guidelines.
FOUR RESOURCES
Within one single standard there are now four critical decision/support resources for the efficient
planning, conduct and evaluation of quality and/or environmental audits: