CONTRACTED FIRST-PARTY INTERNAL AUDITS
Reach a new performance standard.
Stop problems before they start with unbiased internal quality assessments, supplier audits, and internal auditor training.
ISO 9001 / IATF 16949 / VDA 6.3 / ISO 14001 / 3RD-PARTY INTERNAL AUDITS
INTERNAL AUDITS
Don’t change your internal audits.
Change your internal auditors.
Internal audits are often the only insight companies have to spotlight quality issues, wasted resources, high costs, and lost time—before they become visible to customers and external auditors.
Stressful
People—even those with a reputation for quality and perfection—don’t want to write a finding on their friends or coworkers.
Time-consuming
Busy team members are often stretched too thin to accurately and regularly complete and activate quality audits.
Inaccurate
Standards change constantly and internal auditors have to stay on top of them, which is hard to do when you only do them a few times a year.
Ineffective
Coupled with poor follow-through, internal audits do not reveal systemic weaknesses, even with sub-par performance results.
Get the one thing every internal audit is missing—an outside perspective.
The Luminous Group offers third-party quality manufacturing system (QMS) audits that identify—and activate—opportunities for improvement.
When performed by our unbiased, certified experts, comprehensive system assessments and recommendations can:
Expose weaknesses that lead to waste, excessive scrap, lost time, unnecessary costs, and recurring quality issues.
Realign your leadership team on key objectives and performance targets.
Focus team energy and efforts on the highest-value opportunities.
Avoid registrar findings.
Reduce or eliminate management costs associated with unexpected or catastrophic events.
Activating these insights can quickly result in:
Improved customer confidence —and long-term satisfaction.
Maintained compliance with quality standards and Customer-Specific Requirements.
Prevent costly production problems before they start.
Increase your visibility. Protect your reputation. Close critical gaps.
“Your timing was impeccable… Not only did we have a looming supplier problem in Mexico and a current third-party auditing service that was inflexible but we also found ourselves in the midst of the COVID pandemic. We needed a local resource who could attack this problem quickly and correctly.
Tier One Electrical Supplier
6x repeat customer
TRUSTED BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE MANUFACTURERS AROUND THE WORLD
We are your continuous improvement partner.
Registrar auditors can’t tell you how to fix your manufacturing system issues or where to begin.
WE CAN.
The Luminous Group auditing team offers top-tier experience and effectiveness, with a people-focused, process-centric approach.
20+ years of experience in their field
ASQ Certified Quality Engineers
ASQ Certified Quality Auditors
Action-packed quality audit solutions.
Our live course facilitation is always customized to your situation, location preference, and the current skills of your team.
Internal Quality Audits
Internal team stretched thin? Our certified third-party auditors help you find gaps, fix problems, and lower your costs at every level.
We know industry-specific Standards inside and out, including:
● IATF 16949
● ISO 9001
● VDA 6.3
● ISO 14001
Supplier QualityAudits
Vet a new supplier or address ongoing quality issues with our supplier due diligence audit process.
Our comprehensive supplier audits include a detailed on-site review and an actionable improvement roadmap designed to help your supplier increase quality, output, and reliability.
Training for Quality System Auditors
Implementing or improving your own internal audit process is a powerful way to sustain processes and leverage improvement.
Learn how to find gaps, document findings and drive actions that will reduce costs, identify risks, and limit customer complaints with our hands-on training program.
Customize an audit solution that suits your needs and closes your gaps.
“It’s obvious you have a lot of experience as well as a talent for analyzing a process to find ways to streamline it.
Quality Manager
Why choose The Luminous Group?
We see what your internal auditors don’t.
We do what external auditors can’t.
Find the gap. Make the gain.
Our auditors know the standards—and the intent of the standards—so we can help our clients implement and execute the necessary improvements.
Your audits, done right, on time.
Learn from our industry experts.
See real issues with unbiased transparency.
Improve on your improvements
Quality Audits are just the beginning
For many of our manufacturing partners and automotive suppliers, internal audits are often the first step to making transformational process improvements throughout their organization.
STEP ONE
EVALUATE
STEP TWO
EDUCATE
STEP THREE
ACCELERATE
Armed with a post-audit action roadmap, you’re on your way to a better, stronger business—and a quality-first culture. Our team is available for support, ready with training, coaching, accountability meetings, and more.
Ready to put your audit to work? So are we.
The Luminous Guarantee
When we say we’re committed to your success, we mean it. If you’re not satisfied with our efforts, you’ll pay no fee. Period.
HIGH-PERFORMANCE PEOPLE. PROCESSES. PROFITS.
Feel like you’re missing something?
Internal audits are often the only insight companies have to spotlight quality issues, wasted resources, high costs, and lost time—before they become visible to customers and external auditors.
Our automotive clients typically use our audit services to pinpoint critical needs on their manufacturing floor. For more accelerated and focused problem-solving, please explore our process improvement consulting and our industry-leading process improvement training.
FAQs
We're falling behind with our QMS audits. How quickly can you help us?
We can arrive on-site to conduct Internal Audit support in four to six weeks. This gives adequate time to plan the audit with you, taking into account your recent audit findings, current customer scorecards, and your existing audit schedules. Click here to schedule your third-party quality audit.
Why should we outsource our internal audits? Won’t that be expensive?
If you’re asking if hiring a third-party auditor is more expensive than having a salaried member of your team complete your audits, the answer is yes.
That said, you should make that decision based on the expected result, not the cost.
If…
● Your internal audits are completed (mostly) on time,
● Auditors are up-to-date on industry and Customer-Specific Requirements (CSRs), and
● Audits uncover risks, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement (OFIs),
…then keep doing what you’re doing. However, if you think your audits are missing something critical that could reduce the risks of costly or embarrassing quality issues, then let’s have a conversation.
But the real question isn’t if we’re “more expensive” than your current process. The real question is the cost of an audit that isn’t done properly, accurately, or completely—especially if the following is true of your current internal auditing team:
● Are stretched too thin to do audits properly.
● Have fallen behind the current Standards.
● Wouldn’t give the audit the transparency and unbiased approach required to truly capture the information you need as a leader to make critical decisions about performance, processes, and profitability.
Internal auditors who can’t, don’t, or won’t write findings on coworkers, managers, or established processes do your organization more harm than good. By establishing a partnership with a third-party internal audit team, you’ll allow your team members to focus where they are most effective while giving them the added unbiased insight and resources they need to keep improving their performance.
We've tried to introduce new methods in the past, but our teams are highly resistant to change. How is your approach different?
Our auditor training program starts with the purpose of internal QMS audits, overviews the Standard, and imparts best-practice auditor behaviors. To practice the skills and develop confidence, there’s the option to do real, practice audits the day following the training. Click here to schedule internal auditor training.
We have concerns about some of our current suppliers. What should we do?
As the saying goes, trust (your concerns), but verify. Third-party quality audits for suppliers are a great solution if you don’t have the internal bandwidth to go to each supplier or don’t have an expert nearby.
At The Luminous Group, we’ll work with you to understand your concerns, and after receiving an introduction from you to the supplier, we’ll develop rapport to enable a win-win engagement. We start with an unbiased assessment, define corrective actions, and if you’d like, we can also monitor and verify the completion and effectiveness of their corrective actions.
We currently have auditors in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Click here to schedule a third-party supplier quality audit.
Once we complete our audits, can you help us tackle the action steps?
We can ensure quality audit findings are never ignored. We will work with you to review the insights, help uncover systemic root causes, advise on how to close the gaps, and if you’d like, we can monitor and verify the completion and effectiveness of those corrective actions.