Industry data show that most manufacturing quality issues are caused by poor process control or by a failure to follow the appropriate procedures.

Effective management of procedures, processes, capability, requires the identification of sources of both special and common cause variation. Once the sources are identified, corrective actions designed to address them must be effectively implemented and sustained.

Employees/suppliers do not refer to instructions or procedures before every step of a process; they often complete the processes by memory, which comes from repeating and practicing each step many times over. Once necessary process changes are identified, employees must re-learn and adjust. However, it is very easy for employees to return to the old, familiar methods.

The Big, Three, and Other Automotive QEM's, required different process review approaches, including different approaches for Internal/External Audits. It was recognized that Audit methodology was not unique to any particular company, hence, under the auspices of the Internal Standard/Technical Standard Audits were adopted..

One of the principal purposes of industry standard practices is to address commonly observed issues that are not isolated to any one company, commodity, or process within the industry. Validation of procedures, processes, and improvements and corrective actions is one commonly observed industry issue that can be directly improved by the use of Audits.