PROCESS AUDITSProcess audits evaluate value chain processes against internal business objectives and external business benchmarks.
PROCESS AUDITS
Process audits evaluate value chain processes against internal business objectives and
external business benchmarks.
The power of process audits is that they can evaluate effectiveness of all businesses from any project, operational set of activities, supply chain, and an ISO 9001 – 2000 quality management system.
For example, the major question in an ISO 9001 - 2000 assessment is how to conduct a process audit and audit for ‘effectiveness?’ Most quality and ISO pundits think that an effectiveness audit will be some type of process audit. There is still much confusion and little standardization on how to conduct a process audit, however the following are commonsensical steps:
 | Identify business objectives |
| Flowchart processes |
| Identify critical process input and outputs |
| Evaluate process procedures, records, and documentation against ISO 9001 – 2000 requirements |
| Evaluate process metrics against meeting business objectives |
| Analyze metrics to determine process stability and then improvement over time |