What will an auditor look for?

ISO 9001 is often summarized as "Say what you do, and do what you say". (See 12/5/07 post: "Explaining your project...) Auditors are looking to make sure that you are doing what you say. Everyone should be on the same page so that an auditor can walk into your facility and ask anyone"WHY they are doing a particular task, and HOW they know to do it this way".

An employee should be able to say: I was trained on this procedure/task/work instruction (and there should be a record of it) on 4/11/06 (for example) I have a document (that the employee can quickly reference) that outlines the procedure/task/work instruction next to me/in my filing cabinet/on my PC

And, the procedure should be clearly marked with the current revision when compared to the master list in the QMS.  These may seem nit picky, but it takes complete alignment to keep your company working as a system of interlinked processes.

ISO 9001 is also about being consistent – if your processes are designed to meet certain goals/objectives, then if followed they should meet them every time. By making sure everyone is following the same recipe each time, then the company will realize consistent results.  This is what an auditor will look for.