The Fourth Aspect of ISO 9000

James H. Burrill, 1/30/97

The telescreen could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely. The device received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.
Orwell, 1984, Harcourt and Brace, 1949
1984 has come and gone. The things that George Orwell warned about have not come to pass. At least not yet. Perhaps that is due in some small part to the image he so powerful drew in our minds. We keep alert and resist any efforts to monitor or control. And instead of the assembly-line automatons of 1984, a better metaphor might be to liken us to the molecules in a volume of gas.
The supplier shall establish and maintain documented procedures for planning and implementing internal quality audits to verify whether quality activities and related results comply with planned arrangements and to determine the effectiveness of the quality system.
ANSI/ISO/ASQC Q9001-1994, 4.17 Internal Quality Audits
The very word "audit" engenders negative feelings. No one wants to be audited. Not by the I.R.S. nor by some internal police group. Use of the word audit immediately creates an "us versus them" emotional response.

So, why do we need audits? Why does the ISO 9000 standard require them? How can we reconcile the requirement with our inate resistance to being monitored? Is the auditing requirement something that works in the rest of the world but is not appropriate in the United States? How can a libertarian, such as I, be a proponent of auditing?

The fourth aspect of ISO 9000 is auditing. A better term might be verification or validation. The other three aspects of ISO 9000 are

  • Commitment to give us a shared goal.
  • Communication to enable us to work in concert.
  • Continuous improvement to keep us focused.
    • Auditing is what keeps us on the road and making progress towards our goal. It shows our commitment to meeting that goal and makes that commitment accessible to the rest of the world. It points out where improvements may be possible.

    Whenever we travel some place, we monitor or progress towards our destination. If we go by car, we monitor our route, the time that we have been on the road against our estimates, the rate of fuel usage, the health of the vehicle, and whether the kids in the back seat can take another 30 minutes before losing their lunch. We decide to take I-84 the next time because of the construction on I-95. We buy a better car or new tires. We do these kinds of things for any journey whether by car or by the mind.

    Objectivity comes with not placing the blame for the problems on individuals. Aim the questions and probing at the job. The job is what failed, not the individual.
    Crosby, Quality is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain, Mentor, 1980.
    We need to keep in mind that the purpose of auditing is to let us see where the SYSTEM is failing or where improvements could be made. For example, if someone does not follow a procedure, why not? Did they deliberately decide to ignore it? More probably, they had a very good reason to do something different and it's the procedure that needs to be changed.

    Auditing is something that benefits us. It provides us with the means of knowing that we are succeeding and of making improvements in what we do. Unfortunately, being human, we find it very easy to overlook what we are actually doing and convince ourselves that we are doing something else. Therefore, it is better if someone else audits us. That's why my spouse keeps the atlas handy when we travel to Philadelphia.

    We certainly don't want BIG BROTHER to audit us. If we have to be audited, we want someone to do it who understands our circumstances. That someone can not be any outsider or separate group. It has to be us. We must audit each other.

    The people don't need to change, the process needs to be changed.
    Stratton, An Approach to Quality Improvement That Works, ASQC Quality Press, 1991.
    We all want to improve the process here. Auditing is one of the tools we can use to help us do that. You can help by learning more about ISO 9000 and preparing yourself to participate in the creation of and auditing of the procedures that are the core of an ISO 9000 quality system.
    Objectivity comes with not placing the blame for the problems on individuals. Aim the questions and probing at the job. The job is what failed, not the individual.
    Crosby, Quality is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain, Mentor, 1980.
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