(57cg) The Art of the Audit: Being Audit Ready, Everyday

Have you ever made an appointment for an annual physical and suddenly join a gym? We all know we should be exercising every day, but it becomes more important before going in for that checkup. In reality, not exercising has consequences to your health and not your doctors, so why do we do this? To impress them, instead of doing it to take care of ourselves? This phenomena of doing things you do not normally do in preparation for an event is unfortunately how too many of us treat audits. We hear an auditor is coming and end up running around trying to organize paperwork, convince the operators to clean up the plant, and everyone in management becomes much more attentive. Does this behavior really set the proper tone to develop a safety culture? Auditors are there to check up on our compliance of rules that benefit only us to follow, particularly in the field of safety.

A successful operation will be ‘Audit Ready’ every day. ‘Audit ready’ means that operations are in compliance with rules, personnel are safe and exhibit safe behaviors, and all of the team members understand why they perform the functions of their job. Compliance tools, personnel awareness and routine self-audits are three key topics in becoming ready for an audit every day.

Personnel awareness is among the most vital areas to ensuring safe and effective operations, as well as successful audits. Audits involve people from across almost all departments, and as such mirror the requirements of multifunctional teams in everyday operations.

Compliance tools are important to track work that is being completed, and create convenient locations to store data which proves compliance. This can include tracking the progress of MOCs through weekly notifications, using databases to track when procedures need to be reviewed, and more. Visibility of what needs to be accomplished is important.

Routine self-audits help us to find gaps in compliance, and reduce complacency. These can include a simple spot check of one area of compliance, or be more comprehensive, and there are pros and cons to both. A spot check keeps everyone on their toes and takes a short enough time such that they can be done more frequently.

Ensuring sustainable records and checking everyday habits will go a long way to creating a safe operating environment, and with that a workforce that is audit ready, every day.