No matter what industry you are in, audits and inspections should be a necessary part of optimising your business. Sometimes however, they can feel like yet another hoop to jump through, leaving you questioning their need.
To tackle this question, read on to learn why audits and inspections are so important.
Inspections provide great preventative measures
While the terms "inspection" and "check" are often used interchangeably, they describe two different processes.
In general, inspections are conducted by more specialised bodies. Their objective is to check that everything within the scope is running as intended, and that there aren't any hazards or unsafe practices present in a workplace.
Inspections will reveal any problems in equipment, appliances, properties, or other tools that an organisation uses. By doing this, they will expose any malfunctions that could cause further problems down the line.
As they help you identify issues early so that you can resolve them before they become bigger problems, inspections are a great tool for implementing preventative measures.
Audits help you keep up with maintenance
When compared to inspections, audits are usually broader and will often incorporate results from various inspections. They provide you with a big-picture view of a field of operation. They are used in virtually every industry, from construction to retail.
Like inspections, audits aim to expose any potential hazards. However, they focus more on the processes and procedures your company uses to ensure health and safety.
This makes audits an incredible tool to keep up with maintenance. By checking off items in an audit, you can perform effective periodic checks of various operations within your organisation. For example, you can use audits to check machine functions, cleaning procedures and a number of other tasks to ensure everything is in working order.
Audits reinforce best practices to maximise HSEQ matters in the workplace. It’s not enough for things to run smoothly at the moment. You must also have the mechanisms in place to ensure that they will continue to do so in the future.
Audits and inspections ensure safe work environments
Both audits and inspections aim to ensure that your work environment is safe and healthy. Inspections, generally, will reveal any hazards that could cause immediate safety concerns. Audits, on the other hand, will reveal any root causes of these hazards and safety concerns.
While they work together to contribute to a safe working environment, they will also help ensure your goods and services are of good quality, ensure regulatory compliance and more.
Workplace compliance
Audits and inspections are conducted with stringent regulations and standards in mind. No matter what industry you are in, there will be workplace regulations and official standards set in place by public authorities with which you must comply.
Audits and inspections will reveal any adjustments that you need to make to ensure compliance with these. And, if you don’t need to make any adjustments, they will provide you with peace of mind that your workplace is safe and functioning optimally.
Final Thoughts
Audits and inspections are essential to ensuring a safe work environment and regulatory compliance. Make sure you implement both practices to cover different aspects of your workplace.
To get the best out of audits and inspections, you should consider having a tool that would enable you to get rid of pen-and-paper reports, Word documents and Excel spreadsheets.
Are looking for a mobile tool to help you conduct audits and inspections on the go? Falcony | Audit enables low-threshold reporting, automated analytics and follow-up actions.
We are building the world's first operational involvement platform. Our mission is to make the process of finding, sharing, fixing and learning from issues and observations as easy as thinking about them and as rewarding as being remembered for them.
By doing this, we are making work more meaningful for all parties involved.
More information at falcony.io.
