Rationale of Audit Manual
The herein Quality Audit Report documents and shows that Highway Airline is devoted to uphold the high quality services it offers to its consumers in the safe environment it has provided to them. The report has also showed that the company’s first priority is safe environment for customers and the developments it is making to improve the services (Wang, Li & Li 2012). Highway Airline’s philosophy is that the quality services it offers are the fundamental parts of this the project. Therefore, this Quality Audit Report will be called Quality Audit Manual. The business is the way to implement the quality management systems to help it improve its quality standards.
The intension of this Quality Audit Report is to show the rationale and the conformance of the audit which in turns helps to decide the acquiescence and conformance of the required standards (Furnham & Gunter 2015). The auditing process of Highways Airline is has been done by following the ISO: 9001 quality standards to ensure that the procedure has been done per the ISO: 9001 quality management system requirements. The reference that is of present edition has not been used in conforming this quality audit manual. The ISO: 9001 is the auditing reference that has been use in almost all the cases in the report.
ISO 9001 provides that methods that should be followed when conducting audit for quality management systems which are very clear and concise (Kogan, Sudit & Vasarhelyi 2018). The certification can be used by any business in the world of trade including small, large, or medium type of business (Yang & Jia 2012). According to Alles, Kogan and Vasarhelyi (2018) over 170 countries in the world use ISO: 9001 for quality management system and more than one million organisations are ISO: 9001 certified. The ISO: 9001 standards are as a result of progression improvement of the firm, customer focus, type of leadership, and the procedures that company use to approach the market (Wang, Li & Li 2014). The standard is there to make sure that the certified organisations produce high quality products that are consistent in the market which turns beneficial to the business at the end (Chan & Vasarhelyi 2018). Therefore, this report has been made using the ISO: 9001 standards by the ISO: 9001 Internal Audit Team after the internal audit was completed in 23/4/2018. The audit was done from 1/4/2018 to 23/4/2018 at Highway Airline. The report consists of opportunities for improvement and the con-conformities.
Highway Airline may have been using other sources of quality standards to guide the process of quality management system audit. The reference may consist of the following standard which are unlimited to standards’’ editions.
- Measurement management system which gives the necessities for measurement procedures, ISO 10012
- The overall necessities for testing competence and co-operation test centres, ISO/IEC 17025
The references used are not the required standards in auditing process however; they were just used to guide the process (Juneau 2012). The ISO: 9001 was the auditing standards used to as the main reference in the whole Highway Airline Quality Audit Procedure.
The internal audit has been done to validate if Highway Airline is ISO: 9001 certified. The company has one of the objectives that it will fly its passengers across the world but that cannot be done if the firm is not certified to be the safest, fast and quality airline. The audit is also done to help the industry identify credible suppliers who supply commodities of high quality. Another objective of the internal audit is identifying cost-effective ways the company can use money to get profits. The last objective of the internal audit is making the organisation know how they can pay as taxes to the government.
ISO 9001
The scope of Highway Airline auditing extended to the policies of the institution, their strategies, the systems they have in place and the resources they use to offer quality services. The audit also considered the overall management activities that include the governance of the firm and the financial actions that have the direct consequences on the quality management system. The first stage of the audit, the mission of the firm was the target, relations between allocating resources, planning and quality management system was investigated and findings were studied by the audit team. The second phase the target was the financial statements.
Highway Airline’s overall obligations to produce quality processes to its customers are stated through the support procedures. The report will show how Highway Aired is obligated to produce quality services thought:
- The ability of the firm to make assessable quality services to its customers and meet the quality regulatory necessities of ISO: 9001.
- By considering the satisfaction of customers thought application of the system effectively to improve continuously and prevent non-conformity.
- By empowering employees and coming up with innovations that improve the company’s performance.
- Through changing the leadership that always provide quality services to customers and are ready to accept positive change in the organisation.
The audit manual process generally have four stages which served different purposes during the audit which include pre-audit study, conducting research/investigations, write-up or documentation and lastly the audit manual review (Liu et al. 2014). The main objective of the audit planning/pre-audit research is to determine whether the audit fulfil the ISO: 9001 intentional quality audit standards. The stage includes review of all relevant materials at the Highway Airline. At this stage is also where the auditor budgets time for his/audit. The second stage is the investigation part which is done by reviewing all the necessary documents at the Highway Airline and interviewing relevant people to the firm to collect the data needed for the manual. The audit data are then documented in the third stage to make the work of the people who are going to review the manual easy. In the stage the interpretation of data is done. Review is the last stage and is done to check if the audit manual has reached the ISO: 9001 standards of a quality audit report (Yuan & Yu 2013, October).
The herein audit manual states the QMS of Highway Airline and then offers the report describing how HWA meets and comply with the global quality management standards of ISO: 9001. The audit manual also explains the necessities of ISO: 9001and also contain the evidences to a well written quality processes that relate to Highway Airline. The registration of ISO: 9001 procedures shows that the Highway Airline is compliance hence, the document wants to show if the company is compliant with the international requirements. The objective evidences provided are in line with the ISO: 9001 necessities. The evidences where obtained through extensive investigation of the company by looking at its financial statements, the customer service data and the general day to day activity information (Hope Langli & Thomas 2012).
ISO Clause No |
Requirements |
Audit notes and evidence |
Comply |
5.0.0 5.6.1 |
Does the company have good communication protocols? How does management review its work? Are the resources available? Objectives should be quality are they? |
The company has good communications protocol that assist in providing its clients with the best services. The Airline has communication director who is in charge of the communications in general. The Highway Airline also has supervisors who oversee how works are conducted. The resources to support the customers’ needs are also available. To confirm this we observed that the firm has six aeroplanes and qualified pilots. The organisation has employed the best workers to serve its customers well. The organisation has developed objectives that focus on serving the clients well hence, they are of high quality. |
Compliance |
6.0.0 |
Training |
The Highway Airline has training programs for its employees to ensure that the customers get the quality services. When employing workers, the company has guidelines in place to take quality professionals. The personnel are given time to continue with part-time learning. |
Compliance |
7.0.0 7.2.1 |
The product necessities. |
The customer requirements are determined by the board of managers and communicated by the communication officer through memos, mainstream media and social media. The customers are satisfied by the services. |
Compliance |
7.2.2 |
The requirements of reviewing products |
Highways Airlines reviews its customers’ requirements every weekday when the board of managers meet. There is a systematic way in which the company conduct review. The person handling reviews are professionals. |
compliance |
7.2.2 |
How the orders are communicate and documented? |
The organisation does not confirm verbal orders |
Non-compliance |
7.2.2 |
Are there relevant documents to refer to when amending orders? |
The enterprise has a constitution and policies that describe how the orders should be changed and the channels to follow to communicate the transformation. |
Compliance |
Vii. Monitoring and Controls
The Highway Airline monitors and controls all the activities in the firm to ensure that the customers are served according to its principles. The process of monitoring is to ensure that the customers are satisfied after they are served (Gehani & Tariq 2012, December). Quality monitoring and control is done by observing the client satisfaction, through the internal audit, processes, products and nonconformity of the products (Bell & Griffin 2012). Internal audit is done every year to see where the firm in terms of international standards. The processes are monitored and control to ensure customers satisfaction. The process monitoring may include the proficiency testes and control checks. The main objective of the Highway Airline is to provide the best quality transport services to clients hence, the firm must monitor and control the vessels transporting the clients and ensure that they are safe.
Other Relevant Standards
A good monitoring and controlling strategy must first fulfil the requirements of the ISO: 9001 quality management system (Gray & Laughlin 2012). The strategy should provide clear directions on how to go about with the monitoring process (Sandvig et al. 2014). Lastly the strategy should be able to provide accurate answer after the process.
The audit and risk procedures should follow the international standards for necessities of audit and risk procedure, the ISO: 9001. The producer should be able to give clear results on the following activity planning, implementation, assessing, identifying, and communication process (John et al. 2012). The audit and risk process should justify all the activities named above.
There are no indicators used in the report.
When anyone wants to raise issues concerning the audit manual, he/she should forward a formal complaint to the quality assessor who will then direct the problem to the person who made the report (He, Zeadally & Wu 2015). Then the panel that conducted research and wrote the report will respond through the chairman of the group.
Non-Conformities
The Highway Airline ensures that the customers services that do not meet the ISO: 9001 requirements are recognised, and measured and to reach the public. However when the non-conformities reach the clients they are corrected. The company constitution provides the details for the non-conformity requirements.
There are two sections missed in ISO: 9001 in the audit manual which include;
- How the constitution of the company made
- Register Quality Audit Assessment
Auditor __________________________________
Registry Audit __________________________________
Decision Conformity ? Non-Conformity ?
Approval Date ________________
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