Work on reports by multiple auditors (Load report to merge)

Owned by D.Pachula
Last updated: 19.May.2024
5 min read

By default the IATF CARA Tool is single user application due to the avoidance of a centralized database. To comply with the requirements of an audit team, so auditors can wok on their own part of the report the application integrates a merging process. This process is established by the lead auditor providing a copy of his report to the co auditor. After the his entries the co auditor returns his report back to the lead auditor who can merge the co-auditors report with his.

This import/load function is designed to help to work with multiple auditors on processes while keeping data consistent. This function defines that only known auditors can actually add information to processes. Make sure that all auditors are part of the audit team and the report was exported from their own IATF CARA version activated using their ADP number. The ADP number is the identifier for all data entered by the auditors so the ADP has to be used the auditor wrote his report in especially if it has changed while in audit!

Some common problems in the merge:

  1. Make sure to define the correct ADP numbers watch for typos. If you change the ADP after you have defined the process audit team you need to set the auditor again.

  2. Make sure you have defined the process audit team responsibilities otherwise the processes won’t be merged

  3. IATF CARA has report copy function which will result in a copy of the same report with a different uuid (unique identifier). Because reports are all identified on this id a copy won’t merge with the original report until you correct that id using a text editor on the json/xml file.

How does it work

The primary focus of merging data are process details, while all other data is expected of being entered by the lead auditor. Starting from the audit data continuing with all sites and concluding with the result. To allow data to be merged the lead auditor has to enter for each process the responsible “process auditors”. For each process it is required to define the lead process auditor. A process lead auditor can be supported by process co auditors. The process lead auditor is responsible for all data entered for the process. Only data from co process auditors can be merged with the data provided by the process lead auditor. The main information about the process like the process data and process performance will be always imported from the process lead auditor. In some cases it might be possible that a process was overlooked on creation of the audit. In this cases IATF CARA will add a completely new processes to the lead auditors report.

Instructions

Please make sure that all auditors which will enter data to be merged are part of audit team and the audit team definition provided by the lead auditor is complete.

  1. It is very important to create the report by the lead auditor. The lead auditor must also be the registered user for IATF CARA.

  2. After creation the general data like audit details and organization information, including sites.

  3. Process names are entered by the lead auditor and the process audit team is defined. Only data from process co auditors will be merged for processes. Data for NCs and OFis will be added based on the difference of the Ids.

  4. After preparing the report template the lead auditor saves the report and distributes it to his co-auditors.

  5. These auditors work on their own part of the audit within the CARA Tool and return their reports after they are finished to the lead auditor who created the report.

  6. The lead auditor now loads the other auditors result to his report by using the “Load to merge” option.

Which data is merged

  • handled by process audit team definition for that process in the lead auditor report

    • processes (new co auditor processes are also added)

    • process audit details (with versioning of auditor and co-auditor entries)

    • process performance (KPIs) only new entries from co-auditor are added based on same name

    • process reference list data is set by process lead or audit lead (if no process lead is set) or imported from co auditor if it is new

  • handled by process lead auditor

    • previous NCs are imported and overwritten based on the process lead auditor information otherwise the creator of the previous NC is used

  • handled by creator and also replaced on multiple merges based on the creator

    • nonconformity's

    • opportunities for improvement

    • positive aspects

  • handled only if new by co auditor once added it can only be updated by lead auditor (since 1.2.3)

    • IATF OEM customer performance based on customer and KPI is unknown

    • All automotive customer(s) based on Customer name and Name of CSR document is unknown

The CARA Tool recognizes the merging reports on their unique ids only. Work can only be merged if the template report was exchanged beforehand.

The lead auditors data will be always extended with the data of his co auditors. If one of the co-auditors has found an additional process not added yet, this process will be added to the process list as is, even without a defined process audit team.

  1. Process performance information and process audit details will be started with the data of the process lead auditor.

  2. If the process has process co-auditors their result will be joined with the process lead auditors. The process performance values will be merged on Process KPI names. It is important to keep the same name. If a process KPI name is missing a new line will be added. Deleting values is no problem when the lead auditor rechecks the joined result. Process audit details are merged by having the text of the process lead auditor first and adding a marker of the co-auditors ids and than adding his/their text to a new text box. During print these text boxes are merged with a line break.

  3. All process reference list data for one process will be imported from the process lead auditors data. Though this data can be corrected based on added NC Management report data if the function is active, which will result in adapting these changes.

  4. Positive aspects, Opportunities for improvement, minor and major non-conformities from both reports are joined. This will result in adding missing positive aspects and opportunities checks to the selected IATF Clauses for a process in the process reference list and in correcting the amount of minor and major non-conformities. Values of IATF Clauses and processes which are not mentioned in the Non conformity management report will not be changed.

After the merge process the lead auditor can check and correct the merged data. All added data fields can be easily removed using the delete button (trash icon). This process can be repeated multiple times. The merged fields are identified by ids and not duplicated only corrected.