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Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal
Sistema de Información Científica
Fernández-González, Arturo J.; Prado, José CarlosUSEFULNESS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INTERNAL AUDITS. LESSONS FROM AN
EMPIRICAL STUDY
Revista de Administração FACES Journal, vol. 7, núm. 1, enero-marzo, 2008, pp. 11-23
Universidade FUMEC
Minas Gerais, Brasil
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Revista de Administração FACES Journal,
ISSN (Versão impressa): 1517-8900
Universidade FUMEC
Brasil
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FACES R. Adm. · Belo Horizonte · v. 7 · n. 1· p. 11-23 · jan./mar. 200810
USEFULNESS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INTERNAL AUDITS. LESSONS FROM AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
ADMINISTRAÇÃODA PRODUÇÃO
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FACES R. Adm. · Belo Horizonte · v. 7 · n. 1· p. 11-23 · jan./mar. 2008 11
Arturo J. Fernández-González, José Carlos Prado
ADMINISTRAÇÃO DA PRODUÇÃO
USEFULNESS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
INTERNAL AUDITS. LESSONS FROM AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
Arturo J. Fernández-GonzálezUniversity of Vigo
José Carlos PradoUniversity of Vigo
RESUM O
O padrão ISO 9000 tem sido considerado parte im portante da im plem entação das audito-
rias internas dos Q M S (Sistem as de G erenciam ento da Q ualidade), de m odo a gerar um a
avaliação de eficiência do sistem a.
Este trabalho apresenta os resultados de um serviço em pírico, conduzido em em presas de
Portugal e Espanha, sobre as m etodologias usadas nas auditorias internas dos Sistem a de
Q ualidade, provendo conclusões e recom endações que perm itam aprim orar estes sistem as
de auditoria e gestão.
PALAVRAS-CH AVE
ISO 9000. Q ualidade. Auditoria.
ABSTRACT
The ISO 9000 standard has been considered an im portant part of the im plem entation of
internal audits from Q M S (Q uality M anagem ent System ), to generate an assessm ent of
efficiency of the system .
This paper presents the results from an em pirical service, conducted in com panies from
Portugal and Spain, about the m ethodologies used at the internal audits from the Q uality
System , providing conclusions and recom m endations that aloud to im prove these auditing
and m anagem ent system s.
KEYW O RDS
ISO 9000. Q uality. Audit.
UTILIDADE DO SISTEMA DE GERENCIAMENTO DA QUALIDADE DAS AUDITORIASINTERNAS. LIÇÕES DE UM ESTUDO EMPÍRICO
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USEFULNESS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INTERNAL AUDITS. LESSONS FROM AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
INTRODUCTION
The ISO 9000 standard has alw ays considered
the obligation of im plem enting q uality
m anagem ent system (Q M S) internal audits, w hich
are one of the m ain elem ents in the qualitym anagem ent m odel em bodied in such regulations,
oriented to self-evaluate the system efficiency,
objectively and on a regular basis.
According to the ISO 19011:2002 definition,
an audit is an indep en den t, docum en ted
system atic process designed to obtain auditing tests
and to evaluate them in an objective m anner, in
order to determ ine the extent to w hich auditing
criterion are m et.
The potential of internal audits as tools for
continuous im provem ent is noted by authors such
as Karapetrovic (1999), w ho points out that the
objective of the sam e should be “to identify areas,
processes and products that can be im proved”,
w hile Russel and Regel (1996) m aintain that this
approach should find problem s, ensure that they
are understood and check that the solutions w ork”.
Sakolsky (1 99 4 ) con siders that process
im provem ent can be aided by identifying w eakpoints in the chains in the process. M o and Chan
(1997) also note that the ongoing internal auditing
process of the system is certainly accom panied by
a genuine com m itm ent to establish corrective
actions linked to the sam e, is an authentic TQ M
tool. Arter (1994) states that internal audits, apart
from m any other facets of ISO 9000, are tools for
im provem ent.
N evertheless, as w ith m any other elem ents in
quality m anagem ent, errors are often m ade in theirim plem entation that decisively com prom ise the
system ’s efficiency. O ne of them is through using
these audits solely as a preparation for the external
auditing of certification, checking the points to be
exam ined by the external auditors. This should not
be the objective (KARAPETRO VIC, 1999). Authors
such as Beeler (1999), consider that internal audits
do not, in them selves, provide continuous
im provem ent, but if they are orientated correctly,
they can m ake a contribution. In other w ords, it is
essential to use a suitable m ethodology to optim ize
the results of internal audits, otherw ise they w ould
becom e a m ere procedure w ithout contributinganything to im provem ent. This opinion is shared
by others, such as W illborn (1990), Barthelem y
and Zairi (1994) and Peters (1998).
Addey (2000), in a very interesting w ork, covers
this issue by dism antling internal audits as tools
for identifying problem s and opportunities for
im provem ent, as they are usually orientated,
stating, am ong other considerations, that they are
“retrospective”, “sam ple based”, “usually carried out
by staff external to the w orking area”(in term s ofthe ISO 9000 requirem ent on this point); and the
m ajority are “im posed rather than agreed and are
scheduled to cover all the business”in a typical
period of one year, instead of being “targeted at
areas of key business risk”, and restricted to
ensuring com pliance w ith the requirem ents,
w ithout really evaluating the quality system (pp.
681-682).
This paper presents the m ain results of an
em pirical study, conducted on com panies in Spain
and Portugal, dealing w ith the m ethodology used
in Q M S internal audits and the use, from the
com panies’view point, of such practices. Said
results, along w ith the com m entaries of the
m anagers responsible that w ere interview ed in the
study, and the experience of the authors in
collab oration w ith com pan ies in quality
m anagem ent, m ake it possible to obtain certain
conclusions and recom m endations to im prove the
quality of the Q M S internal audits and, therefore,
their use for the organizations concerned.
THE EMPIRICAL STUDY. METHODOLOGY AND
MAIN FEATURES
The em pirical research w as developed by a
team in the O rganization Engineering G roup (G IO )
at the U niversity of Vigo (Spain), from June 2002
to M arch 2003. The aim of this research w as to
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FACES R. Adm. · Belo Horizonte · v. 7 · n. 1· p. 11-23 · jan./mar. 2008 13
Arturo J. Fernández-González, José Carlos Prado
determ ine the current situation and outlook for the
future in quality m anagem ent im plem ented in
com panies w ithin the Euro-region com prising G alicia
(autonom ous region in N orthw est Spain) and the
N orth Region of Portugal. M easuring and analysis
practices applied to client satisfaction w ere one of
the key aspects in this research.
The em pirical study was conducted on a random
sam ple of 305 ISO 9000 com panies, em ploying 10
or m ore w orkers, belonging to the industrial and
service sectors. The follow ing conditions w ere
im posed: the com panies should have been certified
before 30th June 2001, in order to guarantee a
certain level of m aturity of their quality m anagem ent
system ; they should be located (at least one plant)w ithin the territory of the Euro-Region (regardless of
their nationality), and they should have autonom y in
their quality m anagem ent (that is to say, they should
not totally depend on the directives of a person
responsible or central departm ent located outside
the Euro-Region). The firm s w hich fulfilled these
conditions turned out to be 1,675 in total (1,001 in
G alicia and 674 in the N orth of Portugal), after the
prelim inary inventory carried out by the investigating
team , for w hich different resources were consulted,
such as the certifying bodies operating in the zone
and other secondary sources of inform ation.
D ata w as gathered by personally interview ingthose responsible for quality m anagem ent at the
com panies. The com panies to be interview ed w ere
random ly selected. The 305 com panies that w ere
finally interview ed w ere nearly 20% of the total,
consisting of a representative sam ple w ith a 5.18%
m argin of error at a 95.5% confidence level and
p= q= 0.5.
Table 1 sum m arizes the basic typology of the
com panies interview ed. In the case of sm all and
m edium -sized com panies (SM Es), w e have used theEuropean U nion definition of SM E. A division by
sectors of econom ic activity is recorded in Figure 1.
The com panies that carry activities both productive
and services, have been classified w ithin the sector
that gives the largest turnover, according to the
com panies interview ed. Construction com panies
have been included in the category of service
com panies.
TABLE 1
Basic typology of the sample companies
FIGURE 1
Sample companies classified by sector of activity
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USEFULNESS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INTERNAL AUDITS. LESSONS FROM AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
G eographically, out of the 305 com panies, 205
belong to the territory of G alicia (Spain), and 100
to the region of N orth of Portugal. The distribution
of the com panies by the standard of certification
(at the tim e of carrying out each interview ) turned
out to be the follow ing: 38 com panies (12.5% )
w ere ISO 9001:1994 certified, 59 com panies
(19.3% ) w ere ISO 9001:2000 certified, and 208
com panies (68.2% ) w ere ISO 9002:1994 certified.
RESULTS
The m ain results of the study, in term s of Q M S
internal audits in the com panies studied, are
presented below .
Importance of internal audits
The average evaluation m ade by com panies
on the im portance of Q M S internal audits is 4.16
(on a 1-5 Likert scale), the replies being distributed
as show n in Table 2. This table points to the fact
that Q M S internal audits are m ore im portant in
the large com panies, in production firm s and in
com panies in N orth Portugal than in SM Es, service
com panies and com panies in G alicia, respectively.
TABLE 2
Importance of conducting QMS internal audits
Methodology used in conducting internal audits
This section looks at three basic aspects of the
m ethodology used by organizations in conducting
Q M S internal audits; the characteristics of the
hum an resources em ployed in them ; theirfrequency and m aking the results know n.
Human resources
The hum an resources used by the com panies
for conducting Q M S internal audits are in-house,
in 50.5% of cases, external in 22.1% and both
types in the rem aining 27.4% , as show n in Table 3.
Exclusive use of in-house personnel is clearly
greater in large com pan ies, w hich hardly
subcontract internal audits, than in the SM Es,25.4% of w hich externalize them . Also, am ong the
Spanish com panies, it is notably less com m on
(57.6% ) than in the Portuguese com panies, it is
notably less com m on (57.6% ) than in the
Portuguese com panies (36% ) to use in-house
personnel, the latter m ost com bining in-house and
external personnel (46.0% ) as opposed to only
18.2% in G alicia). H ardly any differences are noted
betw een production and service com panies.
TABLE 3
Human resources used to conduct internal audits
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FACES R. Adm. · Belo Horizonte · v. 7 · n. 1· p. 11-23 · jan./mar. 2008 15
Arturo J. Fernández-González, José Carlos Prado
Table 4 analyzes the type of personnel used by the com panies that acknow ledge their use.
TABLE 4
Type of external personnel used in conducting internal audits
As show n in this table, out of the com panies
using external personnel to carry out internal audits,
the vast m ajority turn to external consultants or
professionals (94.5% ), w hereas the use of
personnel from other com panies in the sam e group
(10% ) or other com panies1 (2% ) is far low er.
Continuing w ith the hum an aspect in carrying
out internal audits, out of the 226 com panies using
in-house personnel and that provided a valid reply,
personnel training for conducting internal auditsw as as follow s: 46.0% exclusively by external
courses; 13.7% exclusively by consultants
contracted for auditing and, w here applicable,
subsequent system m aintenance, 5.8% trained in-
house, 22.1% trained in both external courses and
by consultants, 8.4% in external courses and
internally, and the rem aining 4.0% trained in other
contributions of these form ulas. This training
included auditing practicals in the com pany in
80.7% of the com panies concerned.
Interview ees w ere asked about their opinion
on if Q M S internal audits shoud be assigned to in-house or external personnel, or a com bination of
the tw o. The replies are show n in Figure 2.
FIGURE 2
Type of personnel that should carry out internal audit s
1 A case to take into account is of com panies hosting specialized personnel from the com pany itself, personnel norm ally
belonging to an auditing service centralized in a quality departm ent that is also centralized. In the com panies studied, since the
entities lacking autonom y in quality m anagem ent w ere ruled out, this is not reflected w here the com pany is directed by a
m anager or quality departm ent outside the plant in the Euroregion. Such entities passed us on to a central departm ent for the
interview .
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USEFULNESS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INTERNAL AUDITS. LESSONS FROM AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
Figure 2 show s an im portant diversity of
opinions since the percentage of com panies
inclined to in-house personnel is very sim ilar to
those that prefer to use external personnel (both
in the region of 30% ). This is slightly higher than
TABLE 5
Type of personnel that should carry out internal audits
The table above show s that, although the joint
option is the m ost com m on in all the categories ofcom pany involved, the large concerns are m ore
likely to use in-house personnel (38.0% as
opposed to 24.7% ) of the SM Es w hich, in their
m ajority, opt for subcontracting this practice). Also,
the Spanish com panies put a greater value than
the Portuguese com panies on using external
personnel. The com panies in the N orth Region are
m ostly m ore convinced of counting on m ixed
personnel to carry out this practice.
It is clearly noted that both SM Es and large
com panies w ould rather count on in-house
personnel to a lesser extent than they do at present.
In other w ords, the trend appears to be to
externalize this activity (either totally or partially),
and if this is not m ore w idespread, it is probably
due to the cost involved.
FREQUENCY
As regards the frequency or intensity w ith w hich
com panies practice Q M S internal audits, Table 6show s the replies from the interview ees2. The
period of reference is one year.
the percentage of those w ho consider it ideal to
have a com bination of both types of personnel
(42.4% ).
Table 5 show s these results, differentiating
betw een types of com panies.
2 It m ust be taken into account that som e com panies have given m ore than one opinion as an answ er, so that the percentages
per group m ay add up to m ore than 100 .
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Arturo J. Fernández-González, José Carlos Prado
TABLE 6
Amount of internal QMS audits conducted in the year
As can be seen from the table, the norm al trend
is to have a full auditing of the quality m anagem ent
system once a year, a practice carried out by 54.2%
of the com panies. The next m ost w idely used
option is to conduct several partial audits,
equivalent to a full annual audit, as practiced by
28.6% of the com panies. This second option is
m ore com m on am ong the large com panies
(38.0% ) than am ong the SM Es (26.7% ), am ong
w hich single annual audits are the m ost com m on
(55.4% as opposed to the 48.0% in the large
com panies). This option – a single audit once a
year – is also especially com m on in the com panies
in N orth Portugal (63.3% as opposed to 49.8%
in G alicia).
W hen coupling these results w ith the opinionsand com m ents of several interview ees in the w ork
field, w e noted a strong link betw een the internal
audits and the audits carried out by the certifying
bodies w hich, in m ost cases, carry out audits on
an annual basis. M any of the interview ees provided
the fact that their internal audits are carried a short
tim e previously and in preparation for the external
audits, or to ensure satisfactory com pliance w ith
the requirem ents prior to being subject to them .
MAKING THE RESULTS KNOWN
As far as m aking the results of the internal audits
know n, and taking for granted that this w ill alw ays
be the responsibility (at least to a certain extent)
of the head of quality m anagem ent (either throughdirect intervention in the audits or as a direct
interlocutor w ith the auditors w hen they are
external), and the responsibility of those involved
in the non-conform ities detected, it w as interesting
in the investigation to see w hich other parties in
the organization received inform ation on the results
of the sam e. Table 7 show s the results obtained.
It is noted that the m anagem ent is inform ed of
the results on the internal auditing in 69.4% of the
com panies (m ore in the production com panies than
in the service com panies), such percentages being
very close to 70% in all categories. The m anagerial
staff is inform ed in 38.0% of the com panies (m ore
in the Spanish than in the Portuguese); the
interm ediary positions, by 21.3% and the inform ation
reaches all personnel in 16.2% .
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USEFULNESS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INTERNAL AUDITS. LESSONS FROM AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
TABLE 7
Organization personnel in formed of the results of the in ternal audits
The em pirical study m ade it possible to note,
on the one hand, that 155 com panies (50.8% of
the total) have a form ally established Q uality
Com m ittee. O ut of these com panies, in 87.7% of
cases, the Com m ittee analyzes the results of the
internal audits.
RESULTS OF THE INTERNAL AUDITSRESULTS OF THE INTERNAL AUDITSRESULTS OF THE INTERNAL AUDITSRESULTS OF THE INTERNAL AUDITSRESULTS OF THE INTERNAL AUDITS
The results of the internal audits in the
com panies are analyzed from different points of
view . O n the one hand, the typology of the actions
arising from said audits is analyzed; on the other
hand, the use that the com panies m ake of the
audits, as they are accustom ed to doing. Thirdly,
an analysis is m ade of the extent to w hich thecom panies use these internal audits as a tool for
im provem ent.
TYPOLOGY OF THE ACTIONS ARISING FROM
THE INTERNAL AUDITS
O ne im portant aspect to be considered w hen
evaluating internal audits is the typology of the
actions arising from the sam e, as show n in Table 8.
Table 8 show s that m ost of the com panies
determ ine corrective actions based on the results
of the auditing, relegating preventive actions to
second place. So the percentage of com panies
that state that they establish actions that are w holly
or m ostly corrective rises to 76.3% of the total.
TABLE 8
Actions arising from QMS internal audits
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Arturo J. Fernández-González, José Carlos Prado
This fact, w hich is com m on to all the types of
com pany analyzed, occurs m ore intensely in the
SM Es, in service com panies and in the com panies
in G alicia: out of all of these, m ore than 20%
acknow ledges that internal audits only help them
to establish corrective or non-preventive actions.
USEFULNESS OF INTERNAL AUDITS
The interview ees w ere asked to evaluate the
usefulness of the internal audits practiced in their
com panies. The average evaluation w as 3.95, the
replies being shared out as show n in Table 9.
TABLE 9
Usefulness of the QMS internal audits
In view of the results in Table 9, it is noted that
the large com panies and the com panies in N orth
Portugal obtain a greater usefulness to internal
audits than the SM Es and to the com panies in
G alicia, respectively.
The usefulness of internal audits can be
analyzed in term s of tw o variables of interest:
· The type of personnel used in carrying out
the audit
· The intensity involved in carrying it out
a)U sefulness according to type of personnel
Table 10 show s the usefulness according to
the personnel carrying out the internal system
audits. These results seem to point to the use of
external personnel (generally consultants), both
exclusively and in com bination w ith in-house
personnel being m ore useful to the com panies
than the exclusive use of in-house personnel. To
confirm this, an AN O VA test w as run w ith the
results, as show n in Table 10.
The results show that there are significant
differences betw een the three groups under
analysis (p= 0.028), although to determ ine exactly
betw een w hich, 2 against 2 need to be subjected
to the corresponding contrasts. O nce this is carriedout, the result is that the differences betw een the
groups using in-house and subcontracted
personnel (not m ixed) are not sufficiently significant
(p= 0.111). N or are there sufficient differences
betw een the groups using subcontracted and
m ixed personnel (p= 0.487), although there are
betw een the group using solely in-house and the
one using com bined personnel (p= 0.011).
Therefore, it m ay be concluded that the best
solution to im prove a high perform ance from the
internal audits is the com bination of in-house and
external m eans, w hich gives better results than the
use of in-house personnel. This result is coherent
w ith the m ajority opinion of the com panies, as
noted earlier. The use of exclusively external
personnel also gives better results than the use of
exclusively in-house personnel, although there is
no significant statistical difference.
b)U sefulness acco rding to intensity of
conducting audits
Table 11 show s the usefulness according to
the intensity w ith w hich the audits are carried out.
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USEFULNESS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INTERNAL AUDITS. LESSONS FROM AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
TABLE 10
Usefulness of the QMS internal audits according to type of personnel carrying them out
TABLE 11
Usefulness of QMS internal audits according to the intensity of carrying them out
These results do not perm it us to draw clearcut conclusions as to w hich is the best frequency
or intensity for carrying out internal audits, since
no appreciable differences are noted in the use
m ade by the com panies in term s of the use of
one or other m ethod. Follow ing an AN O VA test
for one factor, it is confirm ed that the non-existence
of a significant relationship betw een said intensity
and the use of internal audits (F= 0.696 and
p= 0.500).
INTERNAL AUDITS ARE TOOLS FOR
IMPROVEMENT
Interview ees w ere enquired as to w hat extent
the internal au dits are used as a tool for
im provem ent, i.e., as an instrum ent for detecting
strengths, w eaknesses and opportunities for
im provem ent in quality m anagem ent. The average
evaluation w as 4.00, m eaning that the com panies
find a considerable use for the internal audits as atool for im provem ent in their quality m anagem ent.
The distribution of the replies is show n in Table
12, w here it can be seen that the com panies in
N orth Portugal give a fairly higher m ark than the
Spanish ones, this being quite hom ogeneous in
the other cases.
TABLE 12
Use of the QMS internal audits as a toolfor improvement
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Arturo J. Fernández-González, José Carlos Prado
In com m on w ith the analysis of the use of
internal audits, the extent to w hich they are used
as a tool for im provem ent can be analyzed in term s
of the type of personnel used. Table 13 show s
the extent of use given by the com panies accordingto the personnel carrying out the internal system
audits.
TABLE 13
Extent to which QMS internal audits areused as a tool for internal improvement,according to type of personnel carrying
them out
These results appear to indicate that the use
of subcontracted personnel help the com panies
m ore to interpret the internal audits as a tool for
internal im provem ent, particularly w hen com bined
w ith in-house personnel. N evertheless, on the
contrary to the case of the use of internal audits
explained above, in this case, the AN O VA test
provides no significant differences betw een the
average values (F=0.954 and p= 0.387).
CONCLUSIONS
In view of the results from the em pirical study,
w e can conclude that organizations do not m akethe best for them selves in conducting Q M S internal
audits, although it is prom ising to observe that the
m ajority of the organizations lay a good deal of
im portance on such a practice, and that the
m anagem ent is involved in a high percentage of
them .
O ne of the m ain w eaknesses noted is the
som ew hat abusive use m ade of in-ho use
personnel to carry out internal audits. Approxim ately
half of the com panies carry them out solely using
in-house personnel, w hereas 22% subcontract
them in their entirety while 27% com bine in-house
w ith external resources. W e are not against theuse of in-house personnel as an internal auditor,
but for this to be successful, great care needs to
be taken w ith theoretical and practical training for
said staff. O ur experience as collaborators w ith
num erous certified com panies tells us that, as a
general rule, this is not the case and that it is norm al
to rely on in-house personnel, often lacking and
w ith a superficial training. W hy is this the case?
G enerally, to avoid extra costs for contracting
consultants or specialist personnel in this type ofauditing. Furtherm ore, on num erous occasions,
especially in the SM Es, audits are entirely carried
out by personnel directly linked to quality
m anagem ent (e.g., the quality m anager), only
partially com plying w ith the requirem ent of
independence set by the ISO 9000 standard.
The results of the study have dem onstrated
that the com bined use of both types of audits (in-
house and external) appear to be the m ost
satisfactory option. It can be clearly appreciatedthat the use of internal audits is greater w hen
carried out by a com bination of subcontracted and
in-house personnel (4.14) than w hen only w ith
in-house staff (3.80). Certainly, the com plem entary
factor betw een training in quality m anagem ent,
know ledge of the regulations and the m ethodology
applied by the consultants subcontracted, on the
one hand, and the know ledge of the processes
and of the organization input by the internal
personnel, on the other, give the best results. In
an interm ediate situation (4.03) lies the use of
internal audits carried out w ith exclusively external
personnel, w hich is better in results than that of
exclusively in-house personnel and slightly w orse
than the com bination of both (although these
differences are not sufficiently significant, from the
statistical view point). It is interesting to note that
these results confirm the opinion expressed by the
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USEFULNESS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INTERNAL AUDITS. LESSONS FROM AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
com panies as to w hat type of personnel they w ould
prefer to carry out internal audits.
Also, w hen analyzing the use of internal audits
from another angle, that of its contribution to
con tinuous im provem en t as a tool forim provem ent, it is also observed that the
usefulness is greater w hen external personnel is
used (4.05) than w hen in-house personnel is used
(3.92), and especially w hen both are com bined
(4.11). N onetheless, in this case, no statistically
significant differences could be found betw een the
three options.
A second relevant w eakness is the excessive
orientation tow ards corrective action as a result of
the audits. The vast m ajority of the com panies,
over three quarters, adopted solely and particularly
corrective actions as a result of the sam e. O nly
one com pany out of all those studied confirm ed
adopting solely preventive actions, and those
adopted m ore corrective than preventive m easures
am ounted to less than 5% . This points to the
notion that the orientation tow ards m ore preventive
rather than corrective actions is extrem ely lim ited,
largely confirm ing the opinions of Addey (2000).
This is probably due to the fact that internal audits
are, in turn, excessively biased tow ards detecting
non-com pliances w ith the quality m anagem ent
system requirem ents, and very little tow ards
preventing and detecting o pportunities for
im provem ent. The participation of m ore personnel
in the auditing sessions, both internal (e.g., groups
of helping or observer auditors, groups for analyzing
the results, etc.) and external (e.g., consultants)
m ay help to correct such a bias.A further w eakness, that w e consider to be
im portant, is the lack of repercussion of the auditing
results on the m anagerial staff and interm ediate
posts in the organizations concerned (except on
those directly affected by the non-conform ities
detected). O nly in these com panies w here there
is a Q uality Com m ittee, norm ally m ade up of this
type of person, is there a high degree of inform ation
on the results. Furtherm ore, the personnel in
general is not inform ed of the results of the audits
(this only occurs in 16% of the com panies). In
our opinion, the auditing results are w orth being
given the attention of all the departm ents in theorganization since they reflect the general state of
health of the quality m anagem ent system and can
help to im prove its understanding and the extent
to w hich it is im plem ented. Such a w eakness is
strongly linked w ith the em inently corrective nature
of the actions arising from the audits, as m entioned
earlier, and to the lack of participation of personnel
in approaching solutions or im provem ents to the
deviations found. The use of the results of audits
as m aterial for training personnel is also highlyrecom m endable, both from the point of view of
corrective and of preventive m easures, although
this is barely used in the organizations.
Conversely, no statistically justified relationship
has been found betw een the frequency w ith w hich
these audits are carried out and their use. But, in
our opinion, carrying ou a single internal audit each
year is not the m ost suitable. Inevitably, the
tendency is to carry it out shortly prior to the auditing
conducted by the certifying body, and an annual
frequency helps for it to becom e just a necessary
procedure, w hich alm ost alw ays leads to haste and
m ethodological deficiencies. W e consider that it is
preferable to plan the internal auditing of the quality
m anagem ent system , breaking it up into a series
of sessions throughout the year (or the auditing
period chosen), each one for one of the different
sectors or areas to be audited – w ith m ore regularity
in those sectors w ith a w orse level ofim plem entation or w here m ore deficiencies are
detected, as proposed by Addey (2000) – so that
the results can be analyzed, m ore gradually, by
groups of personnel (in different stages of the
hierarchy and from different areas) and contribute
to solving the problem s.
By w ay of a general conclusion, although the
use of internal audits is high (3.95), in the opinion
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FACES R. Adm. · Belo Horizonte · v. 7 · n. 1· p. 11-23 · jan./mar. 2008 23
Arturo J. Fernández-González, José Carlos Prado
of the com panies (w hich dem onstrates their
potential to help in im provem ent), they can be
im proved upon if the w eaknesses observed are
gradually corrected. >
REFERENCES
Recebido em: jun. 2007 · Aprovado em: dez. 2007
Arturo J. Fernández-González
Organization Engineering Group (GIO)School of Industrial Engineers
Business Organization and Marketing Dept.University of Vigo
Campus Lagoas-Marcosende, c/Maxwell s/n - 36310 Vigo
(Pontevedra), Spain Tlf. (+34) 986 812 220 Fax (+34) 986 812 385
e-mail: [email protected]
José Carlos Prado
Organization Engineering Group (GIO)
School of Industrial EngineersBusiness Organization and Marketing Dept.
University of VigoCampus Lagoas-Marcosende, c/Maxwell s/n - 36310 Vigo
(Pontevedra), Spain
Tlf. (+34) 986 812 220 Fax (+34) 986 812 385e-mail: [email protected]
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