Quality audits: their status, prowess and future focus

Purpose - To explore the current status, prowess, and future of quality audits, which would help both researchers and practitioners to adopt quality‐auditing practice for achieving the objectives of continuous quality improvement (CQI) models like total quality management (TQM). Design/methodology/approach - The literature on quality audits was collected from the Emerald‐insight library. The most appropriate papers dealing with quality‐auditing practice and its closely related topics were excavated. These papers were classified into six categories and their contributions with inferences drawn have been presented. Findings - Quality audits are not only meant for checking the systems for their compliance with quality system (QS) standards, they can also be used for exercising CQI and reaching the benchmarks of TQM. The conclusive finding is that identification of a legitimate quality audit standard and its financial accounting system shall be the future focus of research in this arena. Research limitations/implications - In comparison to the volume of QS certifications that have taken place throughout the world, the number of papers on quality audits and its closely related topics excavated through literature mining exercises was less. This may aberrate the findings and inferences of literature mining on quality audits. Practical implications - The findings and inferences drawn by conducting the literature mining on quality‐auditing will be useful to the practitioners for orienting quality audits toward achieving the goals of models like TQM. This will ensure the cost effectiveness of quality audits and reaping larger benefits out of them. Originality/value - This paper shows a future focus of research which would help the researchers working in TQM arena to work in this direction in consultation with practitioners. This would witness the development of performance measurement metrics and financial accounting systems pertaining to the conduct of quality audits.