
Companies are struggling to keep up with audits specifically Surveillance and Re-Certification audits across Canada and America. When standard is not treated as live document, it is difficult to keep the system running while complying with the paper requirements. Companies encounter most of the nonconformities during ISO 9001 & IATF 16949 Surveillance Audit.
Kadmar Consultants helps organizations to avoid ISO & IATF repeat failures during any audit and keep them audit ready throughout the year by strengthening their Quality Management Systems.
Outdated ISO & IATF Documentation
When documented information is not captured correctly and operations are not standardize, it becomes difficult to update documents as per requirements.
Common fallout are; Work Instruction, procedures, Control plans, PFMEA not integrated and linked with one another, Annual reviews missed, and document not gets updated after process change. These reasons become the main factor for audit failures.
Solution:
Kadmar Consultants understands the importance of surveillance audit and customer demand- We help standardize processes and documents the system keeps running.
Corrective Actions Are Not Closed
Another major reason for surveillance audit failure is ineffective corrective action or if corrective actions are not closed properly. The reason that leads to ineffective corrective action is poor problem analysis and investigation. Missing 5 Whys and 8D reports and missing the entire verification and validation steps also leads to corrective action failure.
Solution:
Kadmar Consultants provides integrated Complaint Handling System that helps with eliminating repeat issues and provides a structured approach for corrective action process.
Weak Internal Audits
Internal audits keep the system compliant and check the health of the Quality Management System (QMS). If internal audits are not planned, structured and does not follow the process approach they will not be able to give the intended result and eventually the QMS will fail.
Struggles with Internal Audits Companies Faces
Solution:
Kadmar offers ISO 9001 Internal Auditor Training and IATF 16949 Internal Auditor Training across Canada and America that strengthens your QMS and keeps system running. We also serve as QMS admin and drive your QMS so you can achieve operational excellence.
Management Review Gaps
The most common surveillance audit failures are due to poor management review process. Management review process not including all the inputs and outputs as required by the standard and poor evaluation and review process.
The common inputs that are missed are as below,
If these are missing — NC guaranteed.
Lack of Continuous Improvement Evidence
ISO and IATF are continuous improvement tool that help organization run in Plan Do Check Act cycle and continually improves the performance. Most organization that do not treat ISO 9001 and IATF as strategic tool have difficulties in improving its performance and are unable to show evidence of improvement.
Competence & Training Records Missing
Another major failure, not only for the audit but the organization as a whole, is missing the intend of the standard. If organization personnel are not trained, and competent- KPI will not be achieved, issues on the line will continue to increase, operator error will increase and organization will continue to run in reactive mode.
Supplier Management System Weak
Companies that don’t review their supplier’s performance and don’t assess risk, are caught during surveillance audit. Companies that ignores supplier audits, supplier scorecards and don’t tracked corrective actions will eventually lead into decline state and will lose customer trust.
Poor Communication
Poor communication is another reason of audit failures. When cross-functional teams from top to bottom don’t align on company’s scope and vision- The company’s performance will eventually decline. Employees are asset and must be trained on company’s primary processes and documents. Employees unaware of quality policy, ISO objective and IATF customer-specific requirements shows big gap in the QMS foundation and causes difficulty in successful audit.
Q1: Why do companies fail ISO & IATF surveillance audits?
Ans: All of the above reasons explained are the contributing factors of failing the audit.
Q2: How often are ISO and IATF surveillance audits conducted?
Ans: Every 12 months during the 3-year certification cycle.
Q3: What happens if a company fails an IATF or ISO audit?
Ans: They may receive major NCs, require immediate corrective actions, risk suspension, or lose certification.
Q4: How can companies prepare for ISO 9001 & IATF 16949 surveillance audits?
Ans: By following the above guidelines you will be able to pass your audits with no issue.
Q5: How does Kadmar Consultants help companies with ISO and IATF audits?
Ans: Through training, consulting, gap assessments, Internal auditor, corrective action support.
Book your ISO 9001 & IATF 16949 Internal Auditor Training Today and get 20% Discount.
Author: Asma Rashid
Kadmar Consultants helps Canada & America manufacturers achieve ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 certification through consulting, training & audit.
Want to Pass ISO 9001 & IATF 16949 Audit with zero stress? Manufacturing and automotive organizations in Canada face immense pressure when getting prepared for the audit. Many organizations focuses on achieving zero major nonconformance and passing the audit to maintain customer business and trust is correct but it overshadows the bigger picture — Organizations that implement the standard correctly and embed Quality Management System into their operations attract new business and sustain current clients.
No one wants the audit to be stressful and the solution to this problem is organizations have their system and team prepared 24/7 as a natural part of the operations.
Kadmar wants to help all the organizations across Canada to build a robust quality culture and mindset.
Customer satisfaction is the key to Pass ISO 9001:2015 & IATF 16949 Audit. Organizations can achieve customer satisfaction in no better way other than to eliminate quality repeat issues and expedite deliveries. Organization focusing on unfolding the true problem and eliminating the root cause are the real winners. A customer complaint is a representation of dissatisfaction towards the Quality Management System.
Kadmar Provides a structured, Integrated Complaint Handling Process that focuses on analyzing the problem before uncovering the root cause and developing corrective action.
The manufacturing area serves as the hub of any organization because it makes customer product directly and requires strong process controls at required stages of production. Organizations working on standardize process are capable of robust process that meets customer’s demand.
ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 both focuses on risk-based approach towards defining processes and anticipating risk involved in each phase and actions to mitigate it. Process Map helps organization standardize the processes and creates interlink between different processes to improvise overall organizations performance.
Internal Audit is more than a formal and mandatory requirement. It is a health check tool to evaluate Quality Management System gap. Organization should plan Internal Audits in accordance with the standard requirement to take full advantage of the tool. It is a real gap assessment alongside with Management Review.
Management Review validates if organization is continually achieving its goals and is aligned with the organizations scope. Management Review validates the effectiveness of the organization’s performance. All the processes revolve in a Plan Do Check Act cycle circle and Management Review is the key evaluator of it. Management review should be conducted at least once a year and drive changes throughout the organization to help it sustain in the competitive and unpredictable era. Quality is no longer the responsibility of the Quality Manager alone. It is the responsibility of organizations leader to reinstate quality culture where everyone is responsible to do the thing right first time every time and take ownership of their processes.
Employees are the most important and valuable asset of your organization. Workforce drives the success of the organization through their hard work and determination. Without employee empowerment, the Quality Management System will fail. Strong organizations are aware of the employee role and their effect on the key deliverables and working in growing and training their employees in the area of quality, defect prevention, and QMS principles.
Kadmar Consultants builds partnership with its clients as their business success is tied to our success. Our expert work diligently with all the clients ensuring all key deliverables are achieved. We don’t get organizations prepared only for paper certification we embed the guiding principles into the system, so they have a robust system, and Canada becomes quality hub for the entire world. Let’s embrace a culture where audit is not considered a stress, the standard is not a paper document, certification is not just a wall item, quality and delivery are not isolated process, leadership engagement does not stop at Mid management, saving is not just cutting expenses. Quality is a commitment of transparency and honesty and a guiding principle for the organizations.
Kadmar Consultants provides fast track certification services that helps organization to continue focusing on their business while we develop their Quality Management System. We have experts that understands your organizations needs and requirements and aligns with customer requirements. Our expertise include:
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Our aim is to make Canada the hub of business and operational excellence.

What makes Kadmar Consultants as Top IATF 16949 Consultant in the U.S.? Let’s first learn about IATF 16949. Getting IATF 16949 Certified is one of the strategic decisions that organization leaders take to become competitive. It helps organizations by aligning the internal processes with their strategic objective and all the members of the organization starts working towards a common goal. It fosters an environment where quality, engineering and production processes supports each other and works towards common goal instead of having different objective and working in their own trapped functions. IATF 16949 focuses on process approach than functional approach. It does not divide the organization into different functions but instead it develops processes linked to one another working towards common and interrelated goals. This makes IATF 16949 certification a necessity in the current era.
Many manufacturers across the U.S. still struggles with the certification and maintenance of the Quality Management System by not fulfilling the correct intend of the standard. We are your reliable resource in developing, implementing and maintaining a robust Quality Management System that does not only gets you qualified to get certification but also helps to fulfill the intend of the standard and make organization profitable by reducing Cost of Poor Quality and achieve On Time Delivery and be competitive across all the other organizations in the U.S.
Kadmar Consultants is driven from its core value and its main core value revolves around transparency and honesty. We work with organization not on project basis, but the aim is to build a relation that will for centuries. Kadmar develop partnership that starts from design and implementation to deliver certification and continue to resolve all quality and delivery issue. A North American consulting firm dedicated to excellence in Quality Management Systems (QMS).
Our mission is simple:
Kadmar Consultants was founded by driving changes and making adaption easy. Our roots trace back to implementing single-piece flow in traditionally batch-driven production environments—challenging the status quo and enabling leaner, more efficient systems. Today, we continues to reduce the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) for clients across industries, helping them stay competitive in an ever-evolving global market.
Why Choose Kadmar Consultants for IATF 16949 Certification
We build Quality Management System that will not only help with certification but will help to achieve operational excellence and survive in this competitive era this makes us Top IATF 16949 Consultant in the U.S.
What It Means for You
Years of experience working with OEM’s and Automotive industries we know the need and requirements of the customer voice.
Align customer requirement with standard and integrating into the organization processes.
Faster Certification in 45 days- Our proven roadmap shortens the certification timeline by focusing on priority areas.
Audit-Ready Systems around the clock.
North American Coverage- Whether you’re in Detroit or Dallas, we’ve got you covered.
Below are the 5-Steps we have outlined to help organizations get qualified for certification ready in 45 days.
Step 1: Gap Analysis and QMS Review
Review of current system against IATF 16949 requirements and Quality Management Principles.
Our detailed Kadmar Gap Analysis Model (KGAM) identifies your system gaps and align the strengths, weaknesses, and areas needing improvement with organizations scope.
Step 2: Process Mapping and Documentation
Our Kadmar Strategic Process Alignment Tool (KSPAT) defines and develops processes that aligns with the Quality Management System standard. It helps to develop Process Map with processes interlinking with one another. Define What is required for each process and how ill it be accomplished, who will deliver it, RACI and deliverables for the process. Develop procedures, work instructions, and KPIs aligned with standard requirements.
Our approach ensures every document adds value — not clutter.
Step 3: Implementation and Training
APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning)
PPAP (Production Part Approval Process)
FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)
MSA (Measurement System Analysis)
SPC (Statistical Process Control)
Step 4: Pre-Assessment
Before the certification audit, we carryout Kadmar Validation Test Model (KVTM) to validate effectiveness.
Step 5: Certification & Continuous Improvement
Kadmar supports you during your certification audit, helping clarify responses and ensure a smooth outcome.
Once certified, we continue to work with you on continuous improvement, corrective actions, and supplier quality development.
We partner with all the organizations irrespective of the region and geographical location.
Kadmar Consultants specialize in simplifying certification. Our experts provide:
Take the First Step Today
If you’re preparing for IATF 16949 certification, don’t go in blind. We build businesses and help them grow. We make sure Quality Management System is embedded in the organization that helps operational excellence. IATF 16949 and ISO 9001:2015 is not just a paper document but a living standard.