(168a) Revitalizing Auditing Practices - One Company's Journey

Auditing can become a mundane and unsuccessful task when done repeatedly the same way by the same personnel.  Auditors can get ‘stuck in a rut’ and not dig deeply enough to identify the real root cause(s) of an organization’s PSM program issues.  It can be beneficial to shake things up and utilize innovative approaches for evaluating systems from a different perspective. This allows for improved identification of deficiencies and opportunities to share more best practices with sites.  It also can help a facility to be better prepared for a potential external or regulatory group audit should one occur.

Veolia North America has re-invigorated its PSM auditing process by revamping how it plans and conducts internal audits of its PSM-covered facilities.  These include aspects of pre-auditing sites, utilizing guest auditors, and infusing auditing teams with third-party support, among other approaches.  While the changes we have made are still ‘works-in-progress’, we believe these modifications will only strengthen our PSM programs. This presentation will share examples of how Veolia has modified these vital reviews to make them more productive while training additional personnel to serve as future audit leaders and enhancing the depth of its auditing team.