AS9110 Process Effectiveness Assessment Reports are used to identify the effectiveness of a process. PEAR was developed to allow audit personnel to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of a process as performed by the organization. It takes the inputs, outputs, actual steps of the process and recourses and controls in account.

Turtle diagrams are often sued to depict PEARs. The PEARs are a tool to be completed by the auditor in their assessment of the AS9110 system. It is however beneficial to have the process owner complete one as this gives the process owner a good indication of how well their process is working and where, if any, improvements may be made. Often to ease the process for the auditor the internal quality manager will complete the PEARs and keep them prepared for the auditors. It is however not the role of the quality manager to do this and nor does it enable any improvement.

AS9110 asks organizations to conduct internal audits to assess the effectiveness of the processes and system. However, QMII at times finds that the audits are limited to determining conformity only. The PEARs come in handy here by enable a process-based audits and allows for due diligence to be done by the auditor. To identity that the resources and controls assigned are adequate to ensure that conforming inputs deliver conforming outputs while meeting the effectiveness goals of the organization through monitoring and measurement.

So how many PEARs do we need? The organization will need one for every key process it identifies within it system and this can run up to 15 to 20 at times depending on the size of the organization and perhaps even more. There is no preset minimal number of PEAR’s required from an audit. When an auditor is assessing effectiveness, the auditor is essentially measuring how well the organization does this. What metrics are they monitoring to know whether they are meeting objectives or not. What did they take into consideration in setting their objectives e.g., customer requirements, legal requirements etc.

The organization is then scored by the AS9110 auditor based on the guidelines provided in AS9101. AS9101 provides a Process Effectiveness Matrix that scores the organization across two axes. The first being process realization – the extent to which planned activities are realized and the second – process results – the extent to which planned results are achieved. Based on this scoring the lowest grade sates “(a) The process is not defined, implemented, and planned activities not realized, and (b) The process is not delivering the planned results and appropriate action is not being taken.” The highest score equates to “(a) The process is defined, implemented, and planned activities fully realized, and (b) The process is delivering the planned results.

Recommended Posts