Do you need an inspection or an audit?

Inspections and audits are common activities in many work environments but for many the distinction between the two is often vague. Both are effective tools in monitoring products, processes or systems so why is further clarity needed?

Well, understanding the purpose of each is critical to using either effectively, particularly when the two are used in conjunction to deliver value to the organisation.

Using these tools relies on a clear understanding, so let’s begin with an explanation of each;

What are inspections?

Inspections allow you to check that your planned work is effective in live work environment.

It may be a Health and Safety inspection – checking the machine guards are secure.

Or maybe a Quality inspection – checking that products meet dispatch criteria.

Or many other examples in many other environments but the purpose of the tool is the clear; to check effectiveness, often visually, in a bid to catch risks or errors and drive improvement.

Crucially, inspections are typically a spot check of current or past performance against a specified requirement.

What are audits?

An audit has the same purpose, to identify risks and drive improvement, so what’s the difference?

Audits are a more considered process with significantly more planning and a reporting system offering a clear definition of results – as opposed to the pass/fail output of inspections.

Audits provide a systematic examination, supported by evidence, of an organization's products, systems and processes. They can be independent or conducted internally and they will compare a process to a prescribed standard, such as an ISO standard.

There are first party, or ‘Internal’ audits, second party, or ‘Supply Chain’ audits or Certified organisations have independent audits, known as third party audits, conducted by Certification Bodies in order to verify that products, systems and processes conform to the requirements of the standard.

An audit considers the effectiveness of controls that a process may employ and may include an analysis of inspections carried out – are they undertaken as the schedule dictates, what are the results, were errors corrected or are there any performance trends?

Which do I Need?

An audit is clearly a more in-depth investigation than inspection but the two often support each other. With inspections satisfying routine checks for conformance there is then room for the audit to challenge the subject in a more rounded manner – looking not just at current or past performance but at whether the process presents a risk to future performance.

The need for either in your business and the method in which you use them depends entirely on your organisational need. What is an absolute, is the need for competence in planning their use and managing the outputs. At iqms Learning our goal is to ensure you have the competence in your teams to make good critical decisions. Through training, coaching, consultancy or tutored audits we will help you move closer to process and systems efficiency.

by iqms Learning LtdFeb 22 2024