Select six of the activities that are specifically required by ISO 17021-1 as part third-party (Certification Body) surveillance audit processes.
"A set of interrelated or interlacing elements of an organization to establish policies and objectives, and processes to achieve those objectives" is the definition of a/an:
During a third-party surveillance audit, the auditor finds that the management review meeting minutes record that the improvement actions set by the previous review have not been completed for a second year running. It states that a new Quality Manager has been brought in at the middle management level to rectify the situation. You learn that top management is not involved in the QMS other than being copied into the minutes of the management review meeting.
The audit reveals that the new Quality Manager was given responsibility by top management to:
a) take accountability for the effectiveness of the QMS,
b) select, approve, and monitor improvement actions without involving and reporting to top management,
c) promote the improvement of the QMS, and
d) make efficient use of the limited financial and personnel resources allocated for the QMS by top management.
The auditor considers whether there is a nonconformity against clause 5.1.1 of ISO 9001:2015.
Select two options of the evidence required for such a nonconformity:
You are conducting an ISO 9001 audit of a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF). The organisation processes
waste plastics into raw materials for plastic bottle manufacturers. You reach the manual picking line where operators are removing contaminant materials from incoming products, such as plastic bags, plastic film and badly contaminated items that would compromise the recycling process. You interview the line supervisor.
You: "Why are these plastic items being rejected at this stage?"
Auditee: "They do not meet our processing standards."
You: "What is the reason for that?"
Auditee: "These items are likely to damage the machinery down the line. They can also compromise our
quality standards. We need to protect our reputation for good quality output materials."
You: "What happens to the rejected items?"
Auditee: "Some get melted down in another process later on and some are disposed of as waste products that cannot be recycled."
You: "What happens to the waste products?"
Auditee: "I'm not sure. I suppose they go to landfill."
Which two. of the following actions would you take to investigate further?
In the context of a third-party management system certification audit, which two of the following statements are correct?
You are carrying out an audit at a single-site organisation seeking certification to ISO 9001 for the first time. The organisation offers warehousing and export services to customers. Customers are invoiced for the time stock items are stored in the warehouse. Transport to and from the warehouse is controlled by the organisation and approved subcontract transport services are used. The organization does not have its own transport vehicles. Stock items are not purchased by the organisation.
You have gathered audit evidence as outlined in the table. Match the ISO 9001 Clause 8 extract to the audit evidence.
An organization has decided to implement a QMS based on ISO 9001. What should they consider when determining internal issues?
Scenario 6: Davis Clinic (DC) is an American medical center focused on integrated health care. Since its establishment DC was committed to providing qualitative services for its clients, which is the reason why the company decided to implement a quality management system (QMS) based on ISO 9001. After a year of having an active QMS in place, DC applied for a certification audit.
A team of five auditors, from a well-known certification body, was selected to conduct the audit. Eva was appointed as the audit team leader. After three days of auditing, the team gathered to review and examine their findings. They also discussed the audit findings with DC's top management and then drafted the audit conclusions.
In the closing meeting, which was held between the audit team and the top management of DC. Eva presented two nonconformities that were detected during the audit. Eva stated that the company did not retain documented information regarding its outsourced services for an analysis laboratory and regarding the conducted management reviews. During the closing meeting, the audit team required from DCs top management to come up with corrective action plans within two weeks. Although the top management did not agree with the audit findings, the audit team insisted that the auditee must submit corrective actions within the given time frame in order for the audit activities to continue.
Once the action plans were evaluated, the audit team began preparing the audit report. Eva required from the team to provide accurate descriptions of the audit findings and the audit conclusions. The report was then distributed to all the interested parties involved in the audit, including the certification body Based on the report, the certification body together with Eva, as the audit team leader, made the certification decision.
Based on the scenario above, answer the following question:
According to Scenario 6, the audit team required DC’s top management to submit corrective action plans within two weeks. Is this action acceptable?
Scenario 1: AL-TAX is a company located in California which provides financial and accounting services. The company manages the finances of 17 companies and now is seeking to expand their business even more The CEO of AL-TAX, Liam Durham, claims that the company seeks to provide top-notch services to their clients Recently, there were a number of new companies interested in the services provided by AL-TAX.
In order to fulfill the requirements of new clients and further improve quality, Liam discussed with other top management members the idea of implementing a quality management system (QMS) based on ISO 9001. During the discussion, one of the members of the top management claimed that the size of the company was not large enough to implement a QMS. In addition, another member claimed that a QMS is not applicable for the industry in which AL TAX operates. However, as the majority of the members voted for implementing the QMS. Liam initiated the project.
Initially, Liam hired an experienced consultant to help AL-TAX with the implementation of the QMS. They started by planning and developing processes and methods for the establishment of a QMS based on ISO 9001. Furthermore, they ensured that the quality policy is appropriate to the purpose and context of AL TAX and communicated to all employees. In addition, they also tried to follow a process that enables the company to ensure that its processes are adequately resourced and managed, and that improvement opportunities are determined.
During the implementation process, Liam and the consultant focused on determining the factors that could hinder their processes from achieving the planned results and implemented some preventive actions in order to avoid potential nonconformities Six months after the implementation of the QMS. AL-TAX conducted an internal audit. The results of the internal audit revealed that the QMS was not fulfilling all requirements of ISO 9001. A serious issue was that the QMS was not fulfilling the requirements of clause 5.1.2 Customer focus and had also not ensured clear and open communication channels with suppliers.
Throughout the next three years, the company worked on improving its QMS through the PDCA cycle in the respective areas. To assess the effectiveness of the intended actions while causing minimal disruptions, they tested changes that need to be made on a smaller scale. After taking necessary actions, AL-TAX decided to apply for certification against ISO 9001.
Based on the scenario above, answer the following question:
As stated in scenario 1, AL-TAX tested the effectiveness of the intended actions as part of the QMS improvement through the PDCA cycle. Which stage did it perform in this case?
TESTED 24 Aug 2025
