The main information gathering technique, in particular as regards ‘soft data,’ is the one-to-one interview, which is limited to a one-hour session. Additional interviews can be scheduled if necessary. To avoid interruptions, interviews are normally conducted in an auditors’ office which has been set up within the plant.

Interviewing technique varies from one auditor to another, but as a minimum the following requirements should be met:

–         The auditor should try to put the interviewee at ease, explaining who he is and what the audit is about, and asking the interviewee to discuss his own background and role.

–         The auditor should explain the way in which the interview will be conducted and what is required from it. He should point out that he will take notes and, where necessary, should seek permission to use a tape recorder.

–         The interviewee must be assured that all sensitive information will be regarded as confidential, e.g., that any information gained will not be attributed to its interviewee source.

–         At some point the interviewee should always be invited to identify any other problems or issues to which he thinks attention should be drawn.

Some difficulties that can be encountered during the interview are:

Resistance to giving information: Some of the personnel may jointly decide not to co-operate and provide little information. It is usually obvious when such collusion has occurred and it can mostly be overcome by identifying the leading ‘malcontent’—someone who is aggrieved about the way he has been treated, and who will provide the necessary information about departmental problems. Armed with this it will be much easier to break down the barriers to co-operation.

Lack of credibility: The interviewees often feel that outsiders suffer from a lack of knowledge about the company (which is true). So they do not believe providing information will do much good—they are cynical. The auditors can often overcome this by using their models to demonstrate their depth of understanding of the subject.

Prejudiced views: Maintenance personnel may give biased views about Production or Stores, and vice versa. It is important to interview enough people to get a balanced view.

The interviewee wants to push his own views and/or is too talkative: The auditor must bring the discussion back to his structured approach.

The other way to collect data is via an office or site visit: the former to examine systems (e.g., the drawings and manuals library), the latter in order to acquire a familiarity with the plant or to review the plant’s condition or level of housekeeping. These visits must be conducted with a member of the company familiar with the plant.

A Generic Auditing Procedure

The six main steps (A to F) of the audit procedure are shown in Figure 3–2. Figure 3–3 shows the constraints on on-site data collection, e.g., collection of work planning information needs to come after mapping of the resource structure.

FIGURE 3–2 Overall Audit Procedure

FIGURE 3–3 Data Collection Constants During Site Visit

This constraint diagram can be used to assist in the construction of the on-site data collection programme.