The best software for quality and risk management.Audits: many organisations experience them as a chore. They often think ‘There you have another person coming to tell you what’s not going well’. However, audits are important for your organisation to improve the quality and safety of your products and services, and to create a uniform and reliable way of working. What types are there? For what purpose are they performed? And how do they help your organisation move forward? You will read about it in this article.
An audit is a periodic or one-off examination of some aspect of an organisation, usually based on certain reference standards such as NEN or ISO. These investigations are done by a person or party specialised in conducting audits: the auditor.
Using checklists or questionnaires, the auditor examines whether the reality within an organisation corresponds to the way of working described in the standard. If there are any deviations, the auditor determines how serious they are. At the end of the investigation, the auditor hands an audit report containing all the findings of the investigation to the client.
First, let’s refute the idea that auditors go through your organisation like policemen and only point out what things are not going well. Audits are meant to improve your organisation in positive ways. What does go well? And how can you ensure that certain processes are even better? An audit provides insight into the functioning of your company, process, product or system in relation to the opportunities and threats in the market and any legislation you have to comply with. This provides your organisation with the following benefits, among others:
An internal audit is conducted by an auditor employed by your organisation. Here, the focus is often on process improvement or risk management. The initiative lies with the organisation itself. Audits are an excellent way to continuously improve your business activities. They reveal risks and opportunities and provide handles for improvement. Examples of internal audits are operational, IT and quality audits.
An external audit is carried out by an external, independent party. For example, do you want to certify your organisation to an ISO standard or do you have an obligation to comply with specific legislation? Then periodic external audits are part of it. These are commissioned by external organisations, e.g. regulators. Examples of external audits are financial audits, AVG/GDPR audits, health and safety audits.
Both internal and external audits can take place at three levels:
In a system audit, the auditor looks at the extent to which an existing system meets the needs of users. The auditor tests whether system requirements are being met by quality management and looks at whether the system is operating effectively and properly.
In a process audit, the auditor looks at how a particular process works by going through it step by step. At each step, the auditor tests to what extent the reality on the shop floor matches the process description.
A product audit assesses the output of the processes: the products or services. Here, the auditor mainly pays attention to the features and characteristics that customers consider important, such as safety, user-friendliness, quality and sustainability.
We understand better than anyone that the audit process does not always run smoothly and that it can be difficult to get the most out of it. Therefore, here are five tips that will help you make the audit process in your organisation run smoothly and ensure that employees enjoy it:
By involving other employees in the audit process, you create new energy. These employees look at the audit with fresh eyes. Thus, you create new enthusiasm.
Auditing should be done accurately, so make sure there is enough time for this. This way, you also motivate the auditor to check everything accurately.
By not hiding away in a little office but rather putting the auditor among the employees, he or she has the opportunity to ask questions. That way, the auditor can do his or her job better and employees get the chance to share their experiences.
Auditing with insufficient knowledge is neither fun nor effective. Make sure auditors have the right knowledge and are challenged.
Process-based auditing is more valuable than random auditing. Therefore, schedule audits regularly so that you stay up-to-date on the latest status
By audit management, we mean the way the conduct of audits is organised. In practice, many auditors have to gather their information from loose documents and systems. And sampling too is often done using Excel files or simple questionnaires. While good audit management can ensure that your audit process itself is also more effective and efficient.
Audit management software, such as Zenya CHECK, helps you digitise and streamline the preparation, set-up, planning and execution of audits. Whether you want to better comply with guidelines and laws or regulations or, for example, conduct employee or customer satisfaction surveys, it is important that audit software fits how your organisation works.
With our low-threshold audit management system Zenya CHECK, you can easily create and periodically complete checklists and questionnaires. Not only does this make the audits themselves faster and more efficient, it also makes reporting and assigning and monitoring follow-up actions based on the findings much easier.
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