Handbook · 19 chapters, free to read online

The Internal Audit Execution Kit Handbook

A complete internal audit program for aerospace suppliers: plan it from risk, audit processes the way they really run, write findings that hold up, get responses that fix causes, and walk into external audits with nothing to hide and nothing to hunt for.

Start reading: chapter 1 The kit's tools

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The problem it solves

In many small and mid-sized aerospace shops the internal audit program exists to satisfy the registrar. Audits are scheduled by month and department, done from a clause list at a desk, and written up as 'no findings' or as a handful of paperwork minors. Real problems wait for the customer or the registrar to find them, and the program costs time without returning anything. This handbook is the operating manual for the Internal Audit Execution Kit. It sets out one program from planning to follow-up, who does what, which tool to use at each step, the weekly and monthly rhythm, how to prepare for external audits, and how to set it all up in thirty days.

Who it is for

Quality managers and directors who own the internal audit program, the internal auditors who carry it out, and the general manager who sponsors it.

When to use it

When your audits keep coming back clean while customers and registrars find problems; when you take over an audit program; when you build your first one; or six months before a recertification audit.

How to use this handbook

Read chapters 1 and 2: why programs stop finding things, and the workflow this kit runs.
Agree the roles in chapter 3 with your general manager, including who audits the quality team's own processes.
Follow the thirty-day setup in chapter 14, using the tools named at each step.
Run the rhythm in chapter 12 from the first month, and measure the program as in chapter 13.
Give your general manager the one-page summary in chapter 16.
Read the worked example in chapter 15 to see every tool used on one real-looking audit, and keep the quick reference in chapter 17 at hand.

The chapters

Aegis Insights: how we approach this work

Aegis Insights are our own guidance: how we approach this work and why, from years inside aerospace quality systems. They are not requirements of any standard or customer.

Definitions

Term	What it means here
Internal audit program	The audits planned for a period, with their scope, frequency, methods and auditors.
Process audit	An audit of one process from its inputs to its outputs, following real work through it.
Clause-based system audit	An audit organized by the clauses of the standard across departments.
Interval	Months between audits of a process, set from its risk.
Factors rated High	The count of the four risk factors rated High for a process; a plain count, not a score.
Lead auditor	The auditor who plans and leads an audit, runs the meetings and signs the report.
Independent	Not auditing your own work or your own area.
Audit trail	A line of questions followed from one record or object into the ones it depends on.
Objective evidence	Records, observations or attributable statements of fact.
Major nonconformity	A missing or broken-down process, or nonconforming product reaching or likely to reach a customer.
Minor nonconformity	A limited lapse in a process that otherwise works.
OFI	Opportunity for improvement: met, but could work better.
Observation	A condition that could become a nonconformity if it continues.
Escape cause	Why your own controls, including audits, did not find the problem first.
Follow-up audit	An audit that checks the actions on earlier findings are in place and working.
Contract auditor	A qualified auditor from outside the business, used where no internal auditor is independent.

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Intervals, timings and sample sizes here are starting points; set your own in your audit procedure. Your registrar and your customers may set requirements for the program, auditors or responses that go further, and theirs come first.

A management aid, not certification or a registrar audit. Using it does not by itself show conformity to AS9100D or any other standard, and your customers' requirements may add to it.

Clause numbers refer to AS9100D (SAE AS9100 Rev D) unless another document is named. The standards' text is not reproduced here: use your own licensed copy.