Planning and fulfillment control through global audit management
Audits are inspection processes. They are used to detect deviations in processes, products or systems and to identify potential for improvement. The spectrum ranges from mini-audits, which are carried out at every shift handover, for example, to very extensive audits in which the entire company is checked. Global audit management consolidates audits of all kinds on one platform and presents complex issues in a simple way.
Audits are used to regularly check whether legal, contractual and internal rules are being adhered to with regard to compliance, performance or process quality. The more numerous the audits and the more extensive their scope, the more difficult it becomes to implement comprehensive planning and compliance checks, largely automated business processes and end-to-end documentation.
An audit management system ensures that all audits are mapped digitally and in multiple stages right from the start. With the corresponding benefits for analyses, reporting and documentation.
Control and evaluate “mini” audits at every shift handover
Sometimes “audits” are an expression for regular checks that take place anyway. For example, when the shift supervisor ticks off the most important points in his mind or on paper at the end of a shift. What is habitual can be used directly for a cross-shift and cross-plant quality and improvement process via audit management.
This is shown by the use case “Audit at shift handover” at one of our customers: This customer has established a dynamic audit process for its plants. At the end of their shift, each shift supervisor answers 30 questions on topics such as machine, material, method and people with “ok”, “sufficient” or “not ok”. The questions are selected at random from a standardized pool of around 340 questions, which is maintained centrally.
The questionnaire is “intelligent”. It reacts to the shift supervisor’s answers, asking, for example, about the causes of “not ok” and what measures have been taken. It checks information for completeness and plausibility and automatically triggers single and multi-stage workflows as required.
Texts can be integrated as well as associated photos, which in turn also provide security for the person filling out the form if questions arise later. Over time, these shift handover audits generate a lot of data that can be collected, aggregated, analyzed and summarized into meaningful reports across shifts and plants. In this way, weak points in production can be identified and improvements initiated.
Plan, control, carry out and export very large audits
If, on the other hand, an entire plant or value chain is audited, the audit is less regular, but all the more extensive. The same applies to audits within supply chains where certain (social) standards need to be complied with. Such audits consist of thousands of individual questions, each of which must be answered in a sustainable manner and documented in a comprehensible manner.
The worklist is available in the form of thematically or process-related structured task and open item lists, which are processed one after the other in different areas. Sub-areas are created and managed as digital question catalogs within the system and can be assigned to different areas for processing thanks to the support of multi-level workflows. Communication is automated, even without direct access to the company network. The audit participants do not have to fill in anything by hand, but can check off the points directly on their computer or smartphone.
Once the audit has been completed, the lists are finalized and all individual steps are already available in digital form and can be transferred to other IT systems such as reporting, ERP/SAP, etc. at any time. In addition, the audits are consolidated on the user-friendly audit management platform, including all audit notifications, agreements, condition tracking and documentation. It provides a transparent overall view of all audits and at the same time simplifies complex issues for users. External audit participants such as inspectors or suppliers can be digitally integrated into the audits in this way.
Integration with ticket and reporting systems
If questions remain unanswered when processing the audits, the user will find an open item list at the end of the list of questions, the points of which flow directly into a ticket system. The tickets are forwarded to the responsible departments for processing, and their responses are checked on an ongoing basis. In this way, comprehensive planning and fulfillment control of all sub-project-related activities is possible via a central dashboard, including sustainable and traceable documentation of each individual work step.
Your added value
- End-to-end digitalization of all types of audits as part of structured audit management
- All types of audits are supported: Process, system and product audits, multilingualism of questionnaires
- Platform capability, integration into a wide range of systems, such as asset management, project management, ticket, reporting, shift book systems, etc.
- Mapping of dependencies and links: A question catalog comprises a complete review, it is cross-process
- Simplification of complex issues for users, personal user interface with the audits relevant to the user, question catalogs are always available in the latest version
Get in touch!
Would you like to know more about our solutions? Then please write us using the contact form. My colleagues and I look forward to exchanging ideas with you.
Dominik Weggler
Head of Sales Germanedge