Using Internal Audits for Process Improvement

When used effectively, internal audits are a powerful tool for process improvement within an organization. Internal audits evaluate conformity to specified requirements, such as management system requirements and the organization’s own requirements. With defined audit criteria and scope, organizations can leverage internal audits to identify opportunities for improvement and potential actions to address those opportunities.

Along with determining conformity to requirements, internal audits should also be used for continual improvement of management systems and technical operations. Internal audits can

• Provide objective feedback on processes
• Identify gaps between requirements and practice
• Identify inefficiencies
• Highlight best practices
• Guide process improvements

Internal audits should not just be a compliance checkbox. Organizations should use internal audits to assess how well the management system is working to drive process improvement. When internal audits are conducted with a mindset of learning and improving, they become a diagnostic tool for organizations to enhance quality, improve technical competence and minimize risk.

In this free webinar, attendees will learn how to leverage internal audits for process improvements. Setting clear audit objectives, defining the audit criteria and scope, and using internal audit findings for process improvements will be discussed. Attendees will also learn how to link internal audit results to management reviews, key performance indicators, risk assessments and training plans

Key Takeaways

• Understand how to set clear audit objectives, audit criteria and scope
• Develop tools to use internal audit findings for process improvements
• Learn how to use internal audits to feed the continuous improvement cycle
• Discover how to link internal audit results to other aspects of the organization’s management system