logo
logo
Sign in

Managing a Management System Audits Program

avatar
Encompass Safety
Managing a Management System Audits Program

An Internal Management Audits System is a building block to an effective Quality Management System. The purpose of an internal Management audit is to assess the effectiveness of your organization's quality management system and your organization's overall performance.

Internal Audits of weak or high-risk areas give you time as a company to decide how you will address this before it arises during a regulatory inspection. Having a plan of action in place will instill confidence in your regulatory inspector that you are in control and that you are continuously improving your operations.

Let’s look at some of the components required for managing an Management System Audits program:-

1. Audit program objectives 

 

Audit program objectives can consider the following:

  • Management priorities
  • Commercial and other business intentions
  • Characteristics of processes, products, and projects and any changes to them
  • Management system requirements
  • Legal and contractual requirements and other requirements to which the organization is committed.

 2. Internal Audit Program Manager

 

 This position is responsible for managing, planning, organizing, and coordinating the functions of the Internal Audit Program (IIAP) which is governed by an Audit Committee. The Program Manager will serve as the city's independent and objective liaison to the Audit Committee. The focus of this position is to aid the city in accomplishing its strategic objectives by facilitating a systematic, disciplined approach. It can evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes.

 3. Managing Audit Resources 

 

Obviously human resource management is key to the audit process, but how many audit program managers continually have explicit processes for skill development and succession planning? What hardware and software would allow better management of individual audits and the audit program, whether it be for conducting virtual audits, trend analysis of the level of risks related to nonconformities, or analytics for helping to proactively identify areas where risks are increasing.

4. Monitoring the Audit Program 

 

Program monitoring can be done at multiple levels, including the performance of individual auditors, how well audit results compare to management system performance as measured by organizational-level KPIs, and the efficient use of audit resources. Feedback from auditees, process owners, and senior leadership can also inform the audit program manager whether the program is perceived as value-adding or simply a resource sink.

collect
0
avatar
Encompass Safety
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more