3 - Jacobs University

could be more efficient than having a larger team size. Given the usually limited resources in
the real business world and the large amount of work, such practice increases the efficiency of
the auditing units and saves costs. Volkswagen auditors for example perform supplier quality
evaluations individually and sometimes in teams of two. The audit teams rarely exceed two people.
By contrast, quality audits of Porsche are conducted by larger teams reaching in some cases up to
five or six people.
Furthermore, Parsowith (1995) suggests that in order to keep the objectivity of the audit and
avoid biasing of conclusions, consequent audits within a certain area to be performed by different
auditors. Wealleans (2005), by contrast, argues that assigning the same auditor for subsequent
audits saves time, since the auditor will already be acquainted with the audited area and will need
less time for preparation. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that if a particular auditor runs audits
within the same area or organization too frequently the auditing procedure would become stale.
Volkswagen pursues the strategy to build strategic audit competence, meaning that Volkswagen
quality auditors develops specific process know-how and each auditor performs audits mainly in
his area of competence (usually no more than two or three audits in a row at a particular supplier
are performed by the same auditor). This approach enables Volkswagen to have a large number of
experts possessing profound knowledge of the state-of-the-art of strategic production processes.
After the audit team has been assembled, its members will have to gather all required information
and get acquainted with the areas and processes, which have to be evaluated (Parsowith, 1995;
Green, 1997; Wealleans, 2005). The audit team has to collect information about the delivered products,
what contracts are currently in place, what the customer-supplier relationship at hand is, how
important the supplier is for the overall business of the customer, and what information is there
about past performance of the supplier (getting this information for new suppliers may not be fully
applicable), (Wealleans, 2005). Among the documents a Volkswagen auditor prepares for an audit
are technical drawings of the audited parts, specific testing requirements for the components (e.g.
flammability test (TL 1010) for interior components), applicable legal regulations and standards,
supplier’s quality performance record and current quality problems, etc. Wealleans (2005) recommends
further that even though gathering the information may start quite early in the preparation
process, the actual preparation to happen as close as possible to the audit itself. Going through the
relevant documents would help identify spots which need improvement, clarification, or in-depth
study. Preparation should result into obtaining detailed notes on the topics which need to be addressed,
which later on could be used to prepare audit checklists (Wealleans, 2005). Wealleans
(2005) does not recommend the use of standardized checklists, however, since auditors tend not to
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