My Reading on ASQ CQA HB Part IV

Charlie Chong/ Fion Zhang
Part IVB4
4. Emerging Roles Of The Auditor
No one knows for certain what changes will occur in the auditing field in the next decade. Trends suggest that
assessment will continue to be an important management oversight tool. Changes in the formation of audit
groups, through joint audits or round-robin (taking turns) consortiums, will ensure greater auditor independence
and result in a cross- fertilization of ideas among industries. Standards, such as AS9100 and ISO 19011, have
been created and old ones revised to address societal and global needs. Advances in communications
technology and the increase in the internationalization of businesses will lead to many ongoing changes. In the
1970s, the primary purpose of auditing was compliance. Auditing in certain highly regulated fields, such as the
nuclear industry, is likely to remain compliance oriented. The current direction of the international standards
groups is to make all management system standards more compatible.
Some standards, such as ISO 9001, have de-emphasized required procedures and refocused on continual
improvement and customer satisfaction. Combining the management system audit guidelines (ISO 19011) has
emphasized conformance- riented auditing.
Internal process auditing and system auditing are expected to focus more on effectiveness and improvement as
they become more performance based. Rather than focusing just on adherence or compliance to a certain
standard, companies are assessing their operations against those of world leaders by using benchmarking or
by comparison with criteria such as those for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award or ISO 9004. As
there is a shift from compliance to performance, organizations will see the viability of using process and system
audits as a management oversight tool to monitor, promote, and sustain continual improvement.
Meanings:
ISO 9004:2018, ―Quality management – Quality of an organization – Guidance to achieve sustained success‖