Since kids, we were used to keep things clean and in order.   But – on certain occasions like Xmas or a far away relative visiting our family – we had to make them more clean and orderly.

This imprint is deeply rooted within us, when we are at school, in the army, on our work place, when we are at our own home.  Can it be named the inspection day syndrome?

I remember when, just married, my parents and parents-in-law came to my home.  My wife and I cleaned and polished everything we could see and smell, made ready for unquestionable meals.  But, there was always that suspicious look in the mothers’ eyes … until the first bottle of wine was over, then everything was all right.

Let’s be honest.  In many cases, we have made audits a commerce, more than a trade or a business.

In the biblical sense of the word.

TRUFFLE TRACING AUDITORS
I don’t mean that a would-be truffle tracking auditor would smell the fresh ink on the documents – not always un-forged …  printed the day before.   I mean that a traditional dutch or german housewife going around wearing white gloves will certainly find – sooner or later – some blameful speck.

Be it product audit, process or system audit, the risks are always the same.   It would be a wise thing to ask the auditee for its audit procedure and schedule (and performance …),  Just like an athlete trains himself or herself not only in the week before a competition but all the year long, between one competition and another.

I may be writing to blind, speaking to deaf people, but audits are not a question of once a year.  ISO put this requirement very wrongly when we compare it with its obstinacy for continuous improvement.

How can any organization continuously improve if not by continuously auditing itself?

PROCESS-BASED, RISK AUDITS
It’s mere nonsense.

According to increasingly loud market rumors, management system audits are now going out of fashion, gradually being replaced by process based risk audits and even by product audits.

In 1984 – thirty years ago – I was doing product inspections and rumors were such that they would soon be replaced by system audits focused on – product quality assurance.

Where did this all go?

We’re now focusing on risks.  The business horizon is so wide that it goes from product to finance to reliability or credibility.  So, how can we focus our audits to add value?

Will an inspection day in a bank look at the room tidiness or at the accounts soundness?

The chemical industry is blamed for being one of the most polluting and what about transportation?

And oil-saving energy sources like nuclear power stations, wind turbines, solar panels?

What will the auditors look to on their “inspection day”?

Let’s not confuse an audit where troops are on the parade ground only on show, only to demonstrate how perfect they are to the visiting general who can pass by and approve them just as if it were a fashion show.

Audits have to find out – actual or possible – faults, failures, specks, risks, and determine their relevance for the intended “use” of the auditee.