WHAT is quality AUDIT?

QUALITY AUDITING SECTIONS

WHAT IS QUALITY AUDIT?

The term of quality audit is commonly used in field of quality management system. However the terms are always mixed or confused with accounting auditing terms i.e. quality in auditing. Some scholar actually discussed on quality of internal accounting audit instead of quality audit. Hence, it is important to define the term of quality audit in order to avoid unambiguous in using the term of quality audit. The term was split audit and quality terms in order to define the term of quality audit.

What is different between audit, inspection,

assessment, survey, check, spot-check,

verification, validation etc?!!

The term of audit often used in ACCOUNTING. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary (1990) and Longman Contemporary English Dictionary (2001) defined audit as “examination of accounts or financial record. Due to definition of audit is biased toward accounting or financial audit, it is important to define the term audit for quality audit. It is also important to understand the definition of audit before any audit is initiated to avoid confusion on how the audit should be conducted (audit method) and selection of the auditor. 

AUDIT DEFINED

According to ISO 19011 (2002) and ISO9000 (2005), "audit is a systematic, independent and documented process for obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which audit criteria are fulfilled".  The definitions of audit in table 2.1 can be associated with examination, verification, evaluation, assessment and check activities. ANSI and ISO define audit shall be conduct independently which others is not define. The ISO definitions of audit can be used in any type of audit except it imposed independent auditor. Different type of audit, have different type of audit criteria. Hence, the definitions of audit can be associated with examination, checking, evaluation, observation or assessment process to obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which audit criteria are fulfilled. Audit criteria can be set of policies, procedures or requirements used as a reference.

Table 1: Comparison of audit definition

Source	Definition	Comments
ANSI/ASQC (1986)	Systematic examination of the acts and decisions by people with respect to quality in order to independently verify or evaluate and report degree of compliance to operational requirements of the quality program, or the specifications or contract requirements of the product or service	Used term verify and evaluate degree of compliance to: <!--[if !supportLists]-->-          <!--[endif]-->Operational requirement of quality program <!--[if !supportLists]-->-          <!--[endif]-->Specifications <!--[if !supportLists]-->-          <!--[endif]-->Contract requirements
IEEE 1028 (1988)	An independent evaluation of software products or processes to ascertain compliance to standards, guidelines, specifications, and procedures based on objective criteria that include documents that specify the form or content of the products to be produced; the process by which the products shall be produced; and how compliance to standards or guidelines shall be measured	The definition emphasize on evaluation of compliance to: <!--[if !supportLists]-->-          <!--[endif]-->Audit criteria
Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary (1990)	examination of accounts to see that they are in order	The definition used the term examination.
ISO 12207 (1995)	Conducted by an authorized person for the purpose of providing an independent assessment of software products and processes in order to assess compliance with requirements	Used the term assessment and conducted by authorized personnel
Longman Contemporary English Dictionary (2001)	To officially examine a company’s financial record in order to check that they are correct	Used examine and check terms
ISO 19011 (2002)	Audit is systematic, independent and documented process for obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which audit criteria are fulfilled	Used term evaluate

QUALITY DEFINED

For quality definition,  eventhough there are many definition of quality, the actual meaning and concept is same. Hence used of standard definition from ISO9000 (2005) was recommended. ISO9000 (2005) defined quality as degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements. The requirements include need or expectation whether is stated, generally implied or obligatory. Commonly the need or expectation refers to customers. 

Woodhouse (2003) stated that the quality has been applied to a number of characteristics such as excellence, value for money, conformance to specifications, transformation, and value added. This definition is more related toward the accomplishing the purpose of the organization where it is consider that if the organization has any of these characteristic is believed to has quality if it is performing necessary act to achieve its goals. On the other hand, Goldgberg and Shmilovici (2003) define quality as the ensemble of features and attributes which characterize a product or a service, and indicate its capacity to provide an implicit or explicit need. This explain that quality is about creating desired physical attributes of the products or services.

QUALITY AUDIT DEFINED

From the various definitions of audit and quality discussed, the definitions of quality audit in this article has been constructed as an examination, checking, evaluation, observation or assessment process to obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which quality audit criteria are fulfilled. In a simple definition it is about doing a planned process of checking whether the organization fulfilled or exceed the agreed standards by referring to the available evidence. The quality audit criteria are about meet or exceed customer requirements and further discuss in next section. While the evidence is any information available in the organization such as documented procedure, and observations through physical examination. 

Furthermore, Goldberg and Shmilovici (2003) defined quality audit as one of the tools to evaluate the effectiveness of the quality system for obtaining the organizational quality goals. They stated that the results of the quality audit are used for identifying weak spots, and unconformity to standards.

Edly Ramly

Quality Preacher

13 Oct 2012

Note: the full name of reference above available upon request.