Articles and Presentations Library
Your personal EMS audit scope
On a recent Advanced EMS Auditor training course, there was particular interest from delegates in exploring the issues relating to the personal scope of each auditor. The case study required each delegate to work within a tightly defined area and this restricted their range of questions and confined their audit trail investigations. The area was defined by location and also by the element of ISO 14001 and this was included within the timetable. This narrowing of the scope of the audit concerned some delegates, who believed that they should audit anything and everything in that location.
“If we are in the production hall, why not audit aspects, legal, responsibilities, training, communications, operational procedures, emergency planning and finish off with monitoring and measurement?”
The answer is that you only have a limited amount of time and an audit should take a representative and relevant sample of the management system in that area. This guidance can present a challenge. Many distractions can be provided by the auditee (intentionally or otherwise) and one or two of the delegates found themselves spending most of their allocated 15-minute simulated interview auditing an entirely different issue to that required by the timetable. The ‘time-out’ called by the trainee lead auditor enabled the interview to regain its direction.
In real EMS audit situations, where the auditor is well aware of the scope, audit trails may lead you away from the element or topic that is presented in the timetable. Let’s say that the auditor is required to investigate the degree of legal compliance (4.5.2. of ISO 14001) of effluent plant operations. During the course of this investigation, the auditor discusses legal requirements with the operator and supervisor and it emerges that there is little understanding of the EMS by these persons. Training now becomes the focus of attention, and the auditor moves away to view training records and competency assessments in the HR department.
The experienced auditor will ensure that all issues relating to legal compliance in the effluent plant have been examined and that clear answers relating to this topic have been obtained regardless of anything else that is found. It is likely that most of the time allocated to the effluent plant investigation will be taken up with these questions and that the training issue will need to be investigated later either by the same auditor, or another team member if that proves to be a more sensible option.
Timetabling and scoping disciplines placed on enthusiastic delegates within the training environment ensures that a more systematic and professional approach continues into the real world of EMS auditing.
John Marsden (FIEMA)
info@marsden-international.com
John is an independent management system auditor who works for a number of international certification bodies.
