THIRD-PARTY QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AUDITS: PERCEPTIONS, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDED IMPROVEMENTS

Third-party quality audits have been a continued practice within the manufacturing community since release of the ISO 9000 standard in 1987. In recent times, many within the manufacturing industry are questioning the value of the audit process. (Sayle, 1995, Sayle 1999, Douglas, 2000, Gordon, 2001, Dalgleish 2006) Consequently, a need exists to better understand the impacts and perceptions of the third-party auditing process. This research used a grounded theory approach to explore the following question: How do management representatives perceive the third-party audit process? Collection of data consisted of 25 in-depth interviews taken from management representatives within the North American automotive industry. Job titles of research participants included Quality Director, Quality Manager, and Quality Engineer. Results of the research include (a) the third-party audit process is adequate to assess an organization's quality management system against the ISO/TS16949 standard, (b) the third-party audit process fails to add tangible value for the organization, (c) the relationship between the auditor (registrar) and auditee (organization) represents a significant conflict of interest, (d) the continued audit cycle is redundant and offers diminishing value, and (e) mature organizations fail to benefit from the third-party audit process. Results substantiate the views offered by Sayle (1995 & 1999), Douglas (2000), Gordon (2001), Karapetrovic and Willborn (2002), Beckmerhagen, Berg, Karapetrovic, and Willborn (2004), and Dalgleish (2006). Furthermore, a final model is offered to depict the fundamental changes recommended to improve the audit process.