First and Second Party Auditing Services

First Party Audit - We assign an accredited third party registrar auditor to act as your internal auditor – reviewing your documentation, processes, procedures, records, and methods – and provide you with a professional audit report, detailing where we were, what we saw, and the degree of conformity to standards (and regulations, if applicable). You get the benefit of a registrar audit combined with the expertise of our consultants, who can not only tell you what we observed but suggest ways to improve – something that a registrar auditor is not allowed to do.

Our auditors provide on-site feedback on strength of the existing system, and any Opportunities for Improvement (OFI) that are observed, and can work with your organization to strengthen it from the inside out.

Second Party Audit - Our supplier auditors travel to your suppliers’ locations, and provide a targeted audit based on your requested focus.  You need to be assured that your suppliers’ are complying with requirements and adhering to policies and procedures. Sending an accredited quality auditor from The McDonald Group,  you can rest assured that any problems will be identified and you will be given a thorough and non-bias report of findings. We will also provide analysis on how your supplier can further improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations to better serve your needs. Previous requests for supplier audits have included:

• Ranking of suppliers from a quality perspective (rank order)
• Review of supplier quality systems (go/no go qualification)
• Improvement of a supplier — metrics, final product delivery, final inspection, etc. (supplier paid/ company mandated)

Supplier Audit Case Study:

McDonald Consulting Group was retained by a client who was having intermittent defects on their product.  We met with each of their suppliers, performing plant visits and audits as well as conference room meetings, and found that two of the six suppliers were not meeting the terms of their contract for product handling, resulting in product damage that was showing up as intermittent fails.  Once these were highlighted, the processes were corrected, and the intermittent fails disappeared, saving the client over $375,000.

Gap Analysis Audits

A comprehensive Gap Analysis Audit prior to your Management System implementation can save your organization hours of re-work, and preventnonconformances during registration. Scheduling a Gap Analysis early in the process will promote efficiency in all subsequent implementation activities.  Our experienced management system auditors will identify the most suitable implementation alternatives, guide your registration activities, and prepare you for the registrar auditor.

Combined QMS, EMS, and OHS Audits

An organization can get a high return on investment by taking advantage of the similarities between the three standards (QMS – ISO 9001, EMS – ISO 14001, and OHS – OHSAS 18001) to integrate their quality, environmental, and OHS management systems.  The benefits of integration include simplified systems, optimized resources and a common framework for continual improvement.

One of the most common pitfalls to maintaining an integrated system is using internal auditors who do not have the appropriate expertise in all the standards/processes. At the McDonald Consulting Group, our auditors hold Lead Auditor credentials by the Registrar Accreditation Board for QMS and EMS, and by individual registrars for OHSAS 18001, and QC 080000 (not within RABQSA scheme at present time). We are experts on each system individually and on integration.

Our Management System auditors will perform a full audit of your integrated system; identify the system processes that can be optimized by integration; and instruct you which of your processes can be further optimized.  We will also instruct you on how to effectively perform parallel audits on those processes to ensure they remain in conformance to appropriate standards.

Remote Facility/Offshore Audits

Are your employees spending more time in the air than they are at their desk?

Save your company the expense and hassle of sending employees overseas for inspection. We will provide        you with expert objective feedback on the state of offshore operations and relate it to current international industry standards.

While you tend to your business needs from your office, we can address any number of issues at your offshore facility. Some examples of how we can meet your overseas needs include:

•    Perform a quality, OHS, or environmental audit
•    Close a non-conformance or corrective action that’s been issued
•    Verify that changed procedures have been implemented at their site
•    Track down a yield issue or bottleneck (see Case Study above)
•    Train/qualify remote personnel
•    Ensure mandated changes are made throughout the supply chain
•    Provide training on Root Cause/Corrective Action, SPC, or other quality tools

We employ a Five Step Process that assures you will get the most out of our “Boots on the Ground” approach to your offshore issues.

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