1. When to use it
- Your stage 1 or stage 2 certification audit is booked, and this is your first time.
- Your last surveillance or recertification audit raised major nonconformities and you can’t afford a repeat.
- A customer has announced a supplier audit, a VDA 6.3 process audit or an onboarding audit against its own checklist.
- You’ve changed a lot since the last audit: a new site, a new line, new management or a new standard.
Book it four to eight weeks before the real audit. Any earlier and the findings may be out of date by the audit date. Any later and there’s no time to close them.
2. What we can rehearse
| The audit you face | Rehearsed against | Typical on site |
|---|---|---|
| Certification audit: stage 1, stage 2, surveillance or recertification | ISO 9001, IATF 16949 with customer-specific requirements, ISO 14001, ISO 13485 | 1–3 days |
| Your customer’s supplier audit | The customer’s checklist, supplier quality manual or specific requirements | 1–2 days |
| Your customer’s VDA 6.3 process audit | VDA 6.3:2023, rated and classified as the customer’s auditor would | 2–3 days |
3. Pre-audit, gap assessment or internal audit?
| Service | Best when | You get |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-audit (B5) | A specific audit is booked, usually within two months | Findings graded as the real auditor would grade them, and what to close first |
| QMS gap assessment (B3) | Certification is months away and the system is still being built | A clause-by-clause gap register and closure plan |
| Internal audit (A7) | Your own internal audit programme needs audits carried out | Internal audit records for your certification file |
4. How it runs
- BeforeBriefYou tell us the audit date, the standard or checklist and the scope, and send your previous audit reports. If you have the real audit’s plan, we build the rehearsal around it.
- OpeningOpening meeting, as the real one will beWe run the day to the real audit’s timetable, so your team practises presenting under time pressure.
- On siteInterviews, floor walk and recordsThe questions the real auditor is likely to ask, put to the people who will answer them. Records are sampled the way an auditor samples them.
- ClosingClosing meetingFindings with their evidence, graded major, minor or observation, or rated under VDA 6.3. We also give you a frank view of how the real audit would likely go.
- AfterReportTarget: within three working days, because the audit date is getting closer. A prioritised list of what to close before it.
5. What you receive
- Findings with evidence, graded on the scale the real audit will use
- A prioritised list: what must be closed before the audit, and what can wait
- A short evidence checklist for the day: the records and people the auditor will ask for
- On request, a short return visit to check the closures (CAPA verification, A6)
6. Limits and independence
We don’t certify, and we can’t guarantee the result of the real audit. A pre-audit is a sample at a point in time, like any audit. We’re not your certification body, and we have no say in its decision.
Nothing from your pre-audit is passed to your customer or anyone else. If your customer later asks us to audit your site, the auditor who ran your pre-audit isn’t assigned. Both rules come from our independence policy, sections 3 and 8.
7. Who performs it
An auditor qualified for the standard you face: an internal-auditor or lead-auditor qualification for ISO audits, and a VDA 6.3 qualification for a VDA rehearsal. Where we can, we choose someone who has been through the same kind of audit from the auditee’s side. All our auditors go through verification before they’re proposed.
8. Price
From S$1,800 for one day on site plus reporting. Your quotation adds hotel and transport at cost, travel time, and anything specific to your audit, such as more processes, shifts or sites.