[Audit Procurement Feiyang] My Experience and Insights as an Audit Team Leader

Not long ago, I received an audit notification and served as the audit team leader for a home appliance company in Jinan. This project was a QE re-certification audit, with team members including Teacher Sun and Teacher Cai. After receiving the on-site audit task for the quality and environmental management systems, I communicated with the company to finalize the audit arrangements and the audit team's itinerary.

Just as the audit team members were about to book tickets, I received a call from dispatch. A few cases had appeared in the company's location, and with different outbreaks occurring across the province, considering the possibility of virus transmission, the group headquarters did not approve auditors from outside the area to conduct on-site audits in Jinan. After extensive communication and coordination, we finally reached a consensus on a "combined on-site and remote audit."

After changing the audit task, I began to communicate with the company through media, company documents, and modern communication tools to understand the industry and the company's basic situation. Through communication, I found that the company's organizational structure had been adjusted, and the organizational chart, function allocation table, and department responsibilities could not correspond. After multiple verifications and communications with the company, the departments and responsibilities were finally determined based on the actual situation. Through thorough preparation, combined with standards and the company's reality, a document review report was prepared. The audit task was comprehensively planned, and an audit plan was developed to effectively utilize resources and reasonably allocate audit tasks to team members. A WeChat group was established with the company and the audit team teachers, where arrival and departure times, transportation methods, and notes on on-site plus remote audits were posted to remind everyone.

On September 16, 2022, Teacher Cai and I arrived at the company as scheduled. Teacher Sun, responsible for the specialty, provided us with remote professional training, explaining the process, professional characteristics, and key points.

At the first meeting, I introduced the audit purpose, scope, criteria, and division of work; confirmed the registered location, business location, and production location of the auditee; and clarified the precautions for the combined on-site and remote audit, requiring the company to closely cooperate with the remote auditor's requirements, provide audit screenshots, and extract audit evidence. The company's management representative made a brief speech on behalf of the company.

After the first meeting, we conducted on-site and remote audits according to the audit plan. Teacher Sun, responsible for the specialty, remotely audited production, inspection, and design development using ICT (Information and Communication Technology); Teacher Cai audited procurement, sales, production, and other non-specialty content; I audited content related to top management and office and finance. Through the audit, we learned that the company's current products are mainly sold to Europe and America. The company has established quality and environmental management systems based on GB/T19001-2016 and GB/T24001-2016 standards, formed management system documents, and can provide stable and qualified products according to standards and customer requirements. Important environmental factors have been identified, updated, and effectively controlled, meeting applicable quality and environmental laws and regulations.

However, some issues were also found during the audit, and two nonconformities were issued: one concerning product protection; the other related to the lack of environmental monitoring evidence.

Before the final meeting, we internally communicated in advance, summarized the audit situation, and issued a nonconformity report. At the final meeting, each teacher reported on the audited departments, praised the highlights found, and had in-depth communication and exchanges with the company on shortcomings. I expressed heartfelt thanks on behalf of the audit team for the company's support and cooperation. The auditee's leadership sincerely accepted the auditors' suggestions and the issued nonconformity report. They highly praised the audit team's skills and professionalism and thanked the teachers for their hard work on behalf of the company!

The experience as an audit team leader made me feel that auditing is both an independent process and a process of close cooperation and communication with other teachers and the company. As the audit team leader, it is important to ensure internal communication within the audit team. The purpose is to exchange information among team members so that the leader understands the operation of the auditee's management system and provides a basis for making audit conclusions. At the same time, timely and effective communication between the leader and the auditee can largely prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance mutual understanding of issues, clarify misunderstandings, and avoid misjudgments, misunderstandings, and conflicts. The audit team leader must emphasize the auditors' code of conduct. If every team member works according to the code, the team can standardize behavior and complete tasks cooperatively.

After the audit, the leader should integrate the opinions of all team members, unify thoughts, prepare communication matters and materials in advance, and communicate the issued nonconformities and observations requiring discussion with the company's leadership. For the issued nonconformities, the leader should propose corrective suggestions to shorten the closure time.

Regarding audit records, the leader must review them carefully to avoid missing audit clauses, insufficient content, or inadequate sampling, minimizing the trouble of subsequent remedies and the embarrassment of repeatedly requesting evidence from the company.

The audit team leader must have the ability to coordinate and summarize various opinions within the team, form evaluation opinions and audit conclusions on the auditee's management system, and finally prepare and complete the audit report, taking responsibility for its content.

The audit team leader must hold the opening, closing, and leadership communication meetings according to audit procedures. Conducting these meetings seriously makes the company take the audit more seriously.

In addition, the audit team leader should be humble in learning and good at communication. If something is unclear, they should learn and communicate with professional teachers and auditors. This helps avoid detours, improve audit ability, achieve value-added audits, and establish a good image.

In short, the audit team leader should focus on learning, comply with accreditation standards and company regulations, fulfill responsibilities, improve personal qualities, enhance management and professional abilities, and coordinate communication well to become a competent audit team leader.

United Intelligence (Jinan) Certification Co., Ltd.

Auditor: HanZhenYuan