A quality audit is carried out to ensure that the organization has clearly defined quality procedures and that it complies with these. The quality audit is a key part of the quality management system. An objective of a quality audit is to ensure continual improvement within the organization and to highlight areas of good practice.
Quality audits are typically performed at predefined time intervals and are carried out by independent internal or external quality auditors. The term independent is critical and is used in the sense that the auditor must be independent of the function or department being audited.
Audits can be both internal and external. Internal audits are typically carried out by a quality auditor within the organization, and external audits are carried out by an external auditor. External audits carried out will often be for regular accreditation in line with internal reference standards, and are carried out by approved independent certification bodies. Other examples of external audits are customer and supplier audits.
A quality audit is the process of a periodic, independent, documented, and systematic examination of a quality system, carried out by an internal or external quality auditor in order to ensure that the organization has clearly defined quality procedures, and that it complies with the defined quality procedures.