QMS Questions answered: Audit frequencies

Within the QMS system the core business processes and the supporting 9001 standard requirements procedures/processes have been identified and separated with the specific intent of auditing them at different intervals within the 3-year cycle.

For example, the core business processes will be audited either weekly/monthly/quarterly/bi-annually/annually and the supporting 9001 standard requirements procedures/processes will be audited once within the 3-year cycle because the risk of change is considered low.

Should the auditing of the standard requirements take place each year within a 3-year cycle?

The periodicity of internal audits is not regulated by the requirements of ISO 9001:2015.

Therefore, any audit cycle is acceptable. However, the frequency greater than 1 year may cause difficulties in conducting annual supervisory audits to prove that the QMS is maintained.

A good and most common practice is to audit every process once a year.

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