If your organization is considering to go for ISO certification, it is always a good thing to know what are the process criteria’s that has to be taken care. Auditing plays a major role to review and track the process adherence level in each department within an organization.

Nonconformities are one of the most important outcomes of an audit. It is “non-fulfillment of a requirement” (ISO 9001:2005) – this basically means that a nonconformity arises when a business process doesn’t fulfill what is required for standards.

Nonconformities and its types:

Nonconformities are the crucial aspects found in both internal and external (certification) audits. With these an auditor can judge up to which level the management system is compliant with a standard.

A Minor Nonconformity would be in the areas lacking to conform to a requirement that in the auditor’s judgment and experience and not likely results in a failure of the quality management system.

Minor Non-conformities can be:

• Problem in single occurrence
• Process gaps that does not affect customer
• Creates little or no waste
• Can be fixed easily with appropriate corrective action

A Major Nonconformity would be the total failure in adapting a business process, or the failure to address a key ISO 9001 requirement. It would be a nonconformity that in the auditor’s judgment and experience that affects the overall effectiveness.

Major Non-conformities can be:

• Company completely failed to fulfill a certain significant requirement
• Repeated occurrences of the same minor issue
• A number of minors related to the same clause

The defined Audit process should be effective and efficient to handle the Audit that streamline business process with nil non-conformities. Every organization undergoing Auditing should take care of 6 C’s to improve their audit handling and enhance their process effectiveness.,

• Clear
• Concise
• Correct
• Categorized
• Confirmable
• Complete

Audits will be only successful if it is the catalyst to prompt and effective corrective action for NC’s, possible preventive action and opportunities for improvement. A complete and correct nonconformity report is essential to concisely express and initiate right action. Automated audit management solutions help organizations to schedule and conduct audits, track the overall process gaps and record corrective actions taken. Get to know more about Audit management system visit www.auraqualitymanagement.com