For spotting issues and improving quality levels across the board, audit management offers a very useful tool for companies. It is very hard to know how every single employee, department, goal, project and outcome is performing, unless you have super powers that allow you to know everything. Audits are able to act as your eyes and ears by spotting competency gaps, under performance and any other issue that may either already be a problem or could become a problem in the future. Much like financial audits are essential to keep things on track in that area, quality audits are also important to keep things going across performance areas. This is where audit management tools come in to provide much help. To give you an idea of just how vital such tools can be, consider a medium sized company that employs a number of people across various departments. How easy would it be for a company like that to know when something is working or not working? What would happen as a result if issues were left unseen and unresolved? When you get your mind around that potential impact, you will soon see the value of audit management and how it might help your company. But if you’re still not sure, let’s take a look at some benefits that these tools have to offer.
Benefits of Using Audit Management Tools
The main aim of auditing tools is to make it simpler and more cost-effective to create and schedule audits. In this way, you can also track changes in performance over the long haul. The main advantages of these tools are as follows:
- Maintain Organisational Standards. If you are trying to achieve ISO standardisation across quality management strategies, you need a reliable auditing process that helps to uphold standards affordably and within time constraints. Expertise and accountability can be achieved through a clear audit history, helping to inspire customer confidence and therefore repeat business.
- Minimise Compliance Budgets. As audits can be scheduled simply and quickly, with checklists that can be reused, the process is far less prone to human error. Important items are less likely to be left out, and previous results can be used as a reference point when creating new checklists. In this way, the entire audit process is made more streamlined and efficient.
- Track Progress and Quality Improvements. Another tangible benefit is the ability to track audit results. These can be compared against your standards, with Pass/Fail results set to show achievement over a designated time frame. Graduated results can also be tracked to identify trends. Under-achievements can be spotted easily, and future audits can be set depending on results.
- Promote Continuous Improvement. Audit manager tools are meant to assist a number of ISO standards, from quality all the way to health and safety. Consistency plays a very big role in the process, and an effective system that provides a reliable way to run audits goes a long way in achieving this level of continuous improvement.
The ‘old school’ auditing approach involved far more paperwork, man-hours and effort. Luckily, today’s tools are much simpler. Automating your audits is not only the best way to ensure that your company is able to get the most from audit results; it is also a great way to cut the stress factor from the process.
