ShenCai FeiYang | Walk with outstanding people to become outstanding yourself

　　"Do not plan for the future; life is unpredictable." Ten years ago, while working in corporate training, I accidentally came into contact with the ISO9001 quality management system and naively signed up for the auditor exam. During preparation, due to limited study time, heavy work and life pressures, and lack of guidance, reading the standards felt like reading an alien language. Fortunately, diligence makes up for lack of talent, and hard work pays off; I passed the exam successfully.

　　Afterwards, I went through finding an institution, registration, internship, formalization, and witnessing, overcoming many challenges along the way, and finally became a formal auditor, beginning a stumbling path in auditing.

　　Looking back now, I feel very fortunate to have become a qualified auditor. I met many excellent audit teachers, especially General Manager Ma Gang of the Shenyang branch of United Intelligence Certification Company, whom I deeply respect. He is both a teacher and a friend, guiding me when I was confused, clearing the clouds when I was troubled, and enlightening me when I hesitated.

　　The company I initially registered with had many auditors and was a bit far from where I lived, causing communication difficulties. They assigned me few projects, barely enough to maintain my auditor qualification, and even my environmental audit internship qualification was about to expire. My auditing path faced the risk of interruption.

　　By chance, I met a benefactor on my auditing journey—General Manager Ma Gang of the Shenyang branch of United Intelligence Certification Company. From then on, the gears of my fate began to turn. After learning about my difficulties, General Manager Ma proactively communicated with my original registered company to transfer me to the Shenyang branch, and immediately arranged audit internship projects for me. I passed environmental and safety audit internships successively, becoming a three-system auditor.

　　Before coming to the Shenyang branch, I had heard some auditors say: this place is full of hidden talents, especially Teacher Ma Gang, who was once a core member of the technical task force at Fushun Special Steel Co., Ltd. No matter what type of enterprise he audits, he can handle it effortlessly and skillfully.

　　If the auditing career is likened to the martial arts world, those who force enterprises to fit standards like ill-fitting shoes belong to the Shaolin sect; those who prioritize enterprise production and impose standards like ill-fitting clothes belong to the Wudang sect; Teacher Ma Gang, however, draws on the strengths of many sects to independently establish his own carefree sect. He understands production, masters technology, and is proficient in standards, perfectly integrating standards with enterprise production, earning unanimous praise from enterprises and peers. With solid knowledge and skills, he is employed as a management consultant at the Fushun branch of the Coal Science Research Institute, providing technical training and professional guidance to over a hundred medium and large enterprises. Working with such a "big shot" makes me both excited and nervous.

　　I still remember when auditing Jilin Xinye Renewable Resources Co., Ltd., Team Leader Ma Gang looked at my audit file and said: "The audit file is for others to see. It is a written material combining the auditor's audit thinking, standard clauses, and the actual situation of the audited enterprise. Making it understandable and clearly expressing the auditor's audit thinking is the core."

　　He asked me to readjust the audit file according to this thinking. I hurriedly opened my checklist and found that I hadn't even achieved the most basic neatness and tidiness. The WORD document layout and fonts were chaotic, with piles of blank space. I felt ashamed, especially when compared to Teacher Chen's checklist in the same group. I quickly revised my checklist, carefully checked the text content, and sent it to him, feeling anxious all day, afraid of being criticized again.

　　Why is there such a big difference between different auditors' checklists? With this curiosity and unwillingness to lose, I began observing, imitating, and summarizing the checklists of excellent auditors Ma Gang, Zhang Xiaohong, and Chen Si in the company. I first looked at the standard clauses starting from 4.1, then at the textual descriptions of clause 4.1 in different teachers' checklists, studying their audit thinking and learning their language expression methods.

　　Change happened quietly. Recently, I received a WeChat message from the company's headquarters review file teacher, asking for my opinion on whether my checklist could be kept as a template for reference and learning. The joy in my heart was indescribable. Being recognized feels wonderful. Continuous learning and running non-stop is the growth this profession has brought me. It is precisely because of the guidance from such excellent teachers and predecessors that my abilities have improved rapidly and I have grown quickly.

　　The first time I audited Luoyang Lier Functional Materials Co., Ltd., because the enterprise is a national model green factory and an intelligent production enterprise, using a fully automated batching production line, with robots performing molding operations and semi-finished product inspections, which is completely different from the traditional production line enterprises I had audited before. So this audit was a rare opportunity for learning and improvement, allowing me to truly understand and basically master the "audit thinking using process approach, risk-based thinking, and PDCA method."

　　Teacher Ma Gang said: In the quality management system audit process, whether traditional or intelligent enterprises, product quality stability is achieved by minimizing process variation, stabilizing raw materials, using appropriate production equipment, and having capable personnel operate or control. Therefore, during the enterprise audit, the focus is first on the department and clause responsibilities and process objectives assigned to me. To achieve this goal, the measures taken by the department and the risks and opportunities in the process of taking these measures are examined. Then, the planning documents of the process are requested and collected, and the compliance, rationality, and applicability of the planning documents provided by the auditee are audited. After confirmation, the implementation process operation is checked, including self-inspection, special inspections, and the establishment and implementation of improvement mechanisms. This also clarifies the key personnel capabilities in traditional enterprises and the risk of equipment management in intelligent enterprises, highlighting different audit focus points for different types of enterprises.

　　The application of process approach, risk-based thinking, and PDCA is not only used in the quality management system but also applies to the auditor's audit work. Watching the operation of this company, I repeatedly thought about the audit methods, knowledge, skills, and every problem discovery pointed out by professional teachers like Ma Gang, the communication with the enterprise, the issuance of nonconformity reports, and the focus points in the enterprise's actual operation. For me, this was a PDCA cycle of growth and improvement.

　　After nearly two years of becoming a three-system auditor, through my own efforts and guidance from teachers with rich management experience, professional expertise, and audit thinking in the company, I finally grew into an auditor qualified as a three-system audit team leader. I am fortunate to meet and walk with excellent people, striving for my dreams. Do not ask about the road ahead, just keep going far. Since I have chosen the distant path, I must brave the wind and rain.