Quality culture vs quality theatre — what inspectors actually notice

I’ve been on both sides of audits and inspections enough times to tell which companies have genuine quality culture and which are performing for the auditor. To be fair, the distinction isn’t always black-and-white — teams can be sincere but under-resourced — but inspectors are remarkably good at spotting theatre. In practice this means they look for repeatable behaviour, not polished slides. Why the difference matters (beyond "tick-box" compliance) Quality theatre gets you a tick on a checklist