Key Takeaways
- Regular manufacturing audits ensure quality products, efficient operations, and satisfied customers. They help identify areas for improvement and ensure companies meet the regulatory guidelines.
- Audits in the manufacturing industry are of various types – process, product, and system – focusing on specific aspects of production.
- Digital tools, like GoAudits, streamline audits and improve their effectiveness. They automate collecting audit data, generating reports, and implementing corrective actions, thus saving time, paperwork, and other resources.
While industry and regulatory standards help businesses reduce errors, deliver quality products, and optimize processes, manufacturing audits ensure your workers adhere to them.
Read on to learn more about factory audits and explore their benefits, types, and implementation. Furthermore, discover how digital audit tools and checklists streamline manufacturing and production audits.
What is a Manufacturing Audit, and Why Is It Important?
A manufacturing audit, also referred to as a production or factory audit, is a thorough assessment of all stages in a company’s operations, from raw material procurement to final product delivery.
The primary goal is to check if the company meets the manufacturing SOPs and regulatory guidelines required for high-quality production.
Regular audits can directly impact the bottom line as they help companies identify inefficiencies and potential risks that could lead to expensive downtime, reorders, or legal issues. Furthermore, they can optimize manufacturing processes, enhancing operational efficiency and boosting profits.
Who Conducts a Manufacturing Audit?
Depending on resources and complexity, manufacturing audits can be conducted internally by the company’s quality control team or outsourced to third-party auditors with expertise in relevant industry standards.
Sometimes, customers can initiate audits to ensure their suppliers comply with regulatory standards and follow adequate manufacturing processes.
Types of Production Audits
Manufacturing or production audits can be categorized into several types, each focusing on different aspects of manufacturing.
- Process Audits: They assess the operational aspects to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and non-compliance from a quality and safety perspective.
- System or Quality Audits: This type of audit verifies the implementation and effectiveness of the QMS across the company, such as ISO 9001 standards.
- Product Audits: Auditors inspect the finished product to check if it meets all the quality specifications, regulatory standards, and customer requirements.
- Capability Audits: Conducted by the customer, they ensure that the supplier can manufacture the required product within the specified timeframe.
Benefits of Auditing the Manufacturing Process
Regular manufacturer audits offer insights related to operational efficiency and compliance that can be used to enhance quality and processes.
Here are the key benefits of manufacturing audits:
- Improved Product Quality: A manufacturing audit inspects every aspect of the production process, thus ensuring products meet the quality standards.
- Enhanced Efficiency: The manufacturing audit process helps identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas of improvement. Addressing them can lead to a significant increase in efficiency.
- Reduced Costs: Eliminating wastes, reorders, and unnecessary processes found during the audit can help reduce operating costs.
- Improved Supplier Relations: The manufacturing audit process facilitates a transparent exchange of information about capabilities and expectations with suppliers.
- Streamlined Manufacturing Processes: The audit of a manufacturing company highlights potential issues before they become serious problems, ensuring they get addressed on time and don’t hamper output and quality.
Here’s how digitizing audits fetched added benefits to HTS, a metallurgical heat-treating service:
Digitizing our audits was the biggest no-brainer for our quality system in the past couple of years. No need to enter data into spreadsheets, the clarity we have gained – this has been a game changer!
Katie Day, Quality Assurance and Metallurgy Manager, HTS
Free Manufacturing and Factory Audit Checklists
Here are some free factory audit checklists that you can fully customize to help you get started:
Manufacturing Audit Checklists
General production checklists that will help you carry out the audit on the shop floor.
- Manufacturing Audit Checklist
- Gemba Walk Checklist Template
- Hot Work Permit Checklist
- Cold Work Permit Template
- Contract Permit to Work Checklist
Manufacturing Standard Audit Checklists
These checklists are based on industry standards and best practices.
Manufacturing Process Audit Checklists
These checklists will guide you in auditing the manufacturing processes in your organization.
- Near Miss Log
- Process Audit Template
- Layered Process Audit Checklist
- Process Safety Management Audit Checklist
Manufacturing System/Quality Audit Checklists
They will help you assess the quality control measures at various stages of production.
- Production Quality Control Checklist for Manufacturing
- Vendor Quality Audit Checklist
- GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) Audit
- Audit Supplier Checklist
Manufacturing Checklists: Fully customize the above checklists or create your own with GoAudits’ 14-day FREE trial!
Manufacturing Audit Process: How are Production or Factory Audits Conducted?
Factory or manufacturing audits can take a variety of forms, depending on whether you are conducting a standard manufacturer audit or a technical audit.
The former includes assessing ownership, legal operations, facility location, business size, and general production capabilities. A technical manufacturing audit, on the other hand, involves auditing the manufacturing processes, quality system assessments, management capabilities, and more.
Irrespective of the type, the audit of a manufacturing company typically involves a series of steps that are as follows:
Step 1: Select the Factory Audit Type
The first step is determining the type of audit based on the business objective you aim to achieve. For example, a system audit would be ideal for enhancing the overall QMS of a company. Whereas, if the focus is to identify and fix the deviations in the finished goods, then a product audit is the best option.
During this phase, you also need to set the standard benchmark against which the processes would be verified and identify the resources required to complete the audit.
Step 2: Prepare Checklists and Schedule the Audit
Checklists guide auditors during the factory audit process and ensure no information is overlooked. A manufacturing audit checklist specifies the areas to be inspected, the standards or regulations to be verified, and what information needs to be gathered.
Depending on the type of audit, the items on the factory compliance audit checklist would vary. For example, a system audit checklist would include questions related to quality control measures, ISO standards, process flow, and organizational structure.
A process audit checklist would have questions related to documentation protocols, resources, execution, monitoring, and process improvement.
Once the audit checklists are in place, scheduling the audit is the next step. It involves determining the date, time, and the audit site and notifying all the stakeholders – auditors, area personnel, etc.
Learn More: How Nissin Food leveraged checklists to streamline quality control in food manufacturing.
Step 3: Conduct the Audit
As the name suggests, this is where the auditor visits the factory shop floor to perform the audit. Auditors may implement Lean Manufacturing strategies like Gemba Walks.
An effective manufacturing audit involves gathering all the data related to processes, SOPs, best practices, inefficiencies, workplace environment, and everything that fits within the scope of the audit.
For effective auditing, introduce best practices like:
- Using manufacturing audit software that allows auditors to access checklists on their mobile/tablet devices
- Taking photos of non-conformances and annotating them
- Adding comments/notes
- Assigning corrective measures in case of non-compliance that need to be addressed on priority
Auditor App: Conduct streamlined digital audits online and offline on phones and tablets anywhere, anytime, with no paperwork.
Step 4: Document Findings
Once the audit is complete, auditors have to meticulously compile all the findings – non-conformances, areas of improvement, staff performance, workflow assessment, etc. – into a report with clear actionable steps.
Comprehensive documentation helps businesses devise strategies aimed at improving manufacturing processes. They also offer insights into the impact of the previously implemented measures.
Furthermore, manufacturing audit reports also serve as a historical record against which you can measure your current and future audit results.
Inspection Report Software: With a digital audit app, you can generate pre-populated standardized audit reports in just one click.
Step 5: Determine and Implement Corrective Actions
After you have collated all the audit findings, analyze them to determine the necessary corrective measures. Thoroughly assess the audit reports to pinpoint the areas falling short in meeting the organizational, quality, or regulatory standards.
Based on the analysis and discussion with your team, develop a strategy to assign and resolve identified issues. The resolution process may involve
- Updating the manufacturing processes to optimize production
- Redefining a particular stage of quality control to ensure the finished goods meet the standards
- Revising the structure of the organization to enhance accountability
After determining the corrective measures, you are required to execute them systematically. Apart from delegation, the management should have a system to monitor the execution status of the corrective actions. Furthermore, the system should allow managers to take follow-ups and reassign the task in case of delays.
👉 Did You Know: With GoAudits, you can assign corrective actions to external parties, like contractors or vendors, for no extra charge.
» Get Started: Book a demo or start a 14-day free trial to explore GoAudits.
Step 6: Schedule Follow-up Audits
A follow-up audit will help you assess the impact of the corrective actions undertaken after the initial audit.
It will help you determine how effectively changes have been implemented and if they are fetching the expected results.
Besides assessing the effect of the previous action plan, a follow-up audit will also help you identify areas of further development, thus making manufacturing audits a strategy for continuous improvement.
Streamline Manufacturing and Factory Audits With GoAudits
With GoAudits, you have an easy-to-use tool to streamline manufacturing audits and promote continuous improvement. Besides simplifying auditing the manufacturing process, with GoAudits you can:
- Schedule audits at your preferred frequency
- Create instant audit reports in one click, customized to your brand
- Delegate corrective actions to individuals in your team or outside your organization
- Use Analytics Dashboards to identify improvement opportunities and make data-driven decision
- Scrutinize the production process to ensure your products meet the quality and factory audit standards
With a rating of 4.8 stars on Capterra, GoAudits is trusted by some of the biggest names in the manufacturing industry.
» Customer Success Story: How businesses leverage GoAudits to save time and improve operations.
