Phew...

Here comes the weekend, and not a moment too soon!

We have just finished a tough 3 day Quality audit from one of our customers. This is not an audit where they come and look at the books, and balance the chequebook - Oh-no, this is a kill-or-be-killed approach, where the auditors pour over the Quality system and documentation to international accredited standards, such as ISO9001, ISO14001, OSHAS18001, TS16949 etc (Yes,we are accredited to all of those standards!.

We have to first say what we do in a rather large and cumbersome manual, of which ours is database type but still no eaasier to access, and then prove we do what we say. Sometimes there is a mismatch between the two, and this upsets auditors big time!

Think of auditors as small rat-like dogs, the kind, which if allowed to get hold of your trouser leg between their teeth, are unlikely to let go until they either get booted off, or get a taste of blood.

What makes the audits intense, is that even if you dont have a particular clean answer for them, you can usually bull-shit your way through to an compromise (I am told I'm good at this, but I dont beleive a word!) , but in Korea, getting a straight answer from the shop-floor operators or even the managers can be vexing! Remember some blogs back I talked about how the Koreans LOVE to tell a little story, before you actually get anywhere about what you actually asked for! It becomes even more complicated because I have to use a translator to work between us all. A non-technical translator can be a nighmare!

So, audit over, and a few minor non-conformances to deal with, we can now suply all global locations of our customer. A small headache has appeared in my frontal lobe, and I can feel the muscles in the nape of my neck tensing. Methinks a tot of nice Famous Grouse will help remedy those tonight - if I had some! Damn you Korea - where can I buy my favourite tipple?...