My Reading on ASQ CQA HB Part I-IA~IE-s

Part IB
Management also needs factual information to stay competitive and to allocate resources. The need for
system and process audits may also include:
• Monitoring risk treatments
• Identifying risks
• Improving organization performance
The words effectiveness, efficiency, and performance are related because they are linked to
management’s interests to stay competitive and achieve budgetary goals. Public sector organizations
are interested in effectiveness, efficiency, and performance so that they can meet budget requirements
and use resources efficiently, whereas determination of compliance and conformity is more closely
linked to meeting requirements and maintaining the status quo. Experts state that if a process is
meeting output objectives, it is an effective process. Management determines the goals and objectives.
Audit evidence should indicate whether the process owners are measuring results against the stated
objectives/ goals. They should know whether the process objectives are being achieved. A first- party
audit may be needed by management to ensure that procedures are adequate and utilized, and to
provide for early detection of a problem, which gives management the opportunity to identify root
causes of problems and take corrective action.
The tasks of management at whatever level in the organization are to identify possible sources of
problems, to plan preventive action in order to forestall (act on advance) the problems, and to solve
them should they arise. If this were not the case, managers would not be needed. When reduced to
fundamentals, the vast majority of the problems are, in essence, quality problems. They are problems
concerning the quality of work being performed, the quality of work that has been performed, the
quality of items being received, the quality of information being communicated, the quality of available
equipment, the quality of decisions made. All quality problems have a cost associated with them. It,
therefore, follows that the avoidance, prevention, and resolution of these problems equates to the
prevention and reduction of unnecessary costs.
Charlie Chong/ Fion Zhang