Audit processes are necessary in every organization to maintain quality standards and implement a culture of continuous improvement. A systematic approach is the best option for this type of activity and we suggest dividing them in phases for better results.
Steps
Selection Phase: The Critical to Customer (CTC) aspects in a product or service are used to determine the Critical to Quality (CTQ) steps of a process. Define what steps from your process are crucial to achieve quality of the product or service and maintain or improve customer satisfaction.
Planning Phase: Define the audit objectives and the methodology, gather information of previous audit results to set a starting point and create an audit plan, including frequency, samples and resources.
Execution Phase: Based on the methodology selected proceed to evaluate the procedures (and outcomes) against the process SOPs. Test transactions and documentations.
Reporting Phase: Recording and communicating the audit results is an important process. Generally this report is drafted and distributed with relevant parties. A Corrective Actions/Preventive Action (CAPA) plan is generated out of it and added to the final report.
Follow-up Phase: A new audit of the process will determine the effectiveness of the CAPA in place. At this moment the expectation is to have a more efficient process that has less deviation in its execution.
A great way to start is to check out our Create a Basic Audit Template located in the Manual section of your Dashboard under "Create your Own".
Customize the template based on your needs following the guidelines below:
Update the Title and Purpose of the checklist. For the Title try to be as clear as possible with the the name of the process you will use the Activated Checklist for. Under Purpose provide instructions of when and why this template should be use and how to start an instance of the Activated Checklist.
As you have previously defined the important or mandatory steps in the process, add each one of them in the Audit Criteria fields. The Activated Checklist is provisioned with 10 fields to add steps but this can be increased or shortened depending on the steps required.
In the Explanatory Text field located on the Instructions Panel, provide clear instructions on how the step should be executed to be considered successful.
When performing an evaluation, determine if the collaborator complied with the required steps. Determine whether the criteria was met or not by selecting Pass or Fail
If the criteria was not met when executing the step, it is necessary to apply corrective actions in the short term and preventive action to mitigate the risk of failing again (CAPA). Enter your CAPA and details in the field: Actions to resolve the issue
Repeat this process with each step, set the frequency of the audits and verify the improvement of the collaborator.