Hi,
well, you really think that you are so unbiased that you can admit to weird habits within your operation? Probably not, if you are honest, which is why the audit system is in place.
The idea is to have some knowlegeable INDEPENDANT individual, who is monitoring what you do and does write up anything that appears not to conform to the way you laid it down (in writing).
Auditing is supposed to get department heads to think about the workprocess withing their operation (that's the ideal case).
They - the department heads - start observing, track frequent errors and omissions and put measures in place that are there to prevent these shortfalls. This is also commonly referred as your manuals (how do I, as a department head, suppose MY operation to run).
The bottom line will be, that the clearlier your procedures are setup and your folks obey to the rules, the better you'll be performing in an external audit.
The external auditor (should) read the manuals and observe the operation according to the procedures laid down therein. He should NOT judge you upon procedures he thinks are right (i.e. if the auditor is from some other airline, he shouldn't base the non-conformities on the operation there, but on your manuals). Of course, he can give you advise if he thinks something's majorly wrong.
In case a non-conformity is dicovered, you as a department head should go ahead and look at your ops, why your people weren't working according to the procedure. Most of the time the prime reason is, that some unknowlegeable person wrote down a procedure that was just sounding good on paper, but is impossible to be followed by the ones that have to obey it. So, in case you come across a non-conformtity for a non-conformity, I would strongly suggest to take a close look at the real world and find out where the discrepancies are.
Of course, this is all theory and I certainly agree that things go slightly different in the 'real world'. However, the bottom line is that quality systems, in general are a perfect tool to oversee the performance of your operation (even if you are just performing internal audits).
Cheers
fcit