Subpar products can damage your reputation and put you at risk of losing customers. You can recall products to limit this damage, but it comes at a high cost. According to a survey, the cost of rectifying a single recall ranges from $10 million to $49.99 million!
Thus, delivering consistently high-quality products and services is non-negotiable. A layered process audit is a great way to ensure this. It’s not just the manufacturing sector that implements these audits. Distribution, healthcare and other industries also use this technique. This article gives you a better understanding of what is layered process audit and how you can implement it.
What is Layered Process Audit?
A Layered Process Audit (LPA) is an auditing technique for quality control. This goes beyond quality control at the finished product stage. Instead, it focuses on observing products while they are being made. Identifying deviations at an early stage allows you to take immediate action. Thus, you can prevent it from snowballing into something bigger.
The key components of the process are:
Schedules
To be effective, LPAs must follow a regular schedule. Audit frequency depends on the closeness of an employee to the audited process/ area. The closer an employee is to the process, the more frequent the audits.
Schedules may also be set according to how complex a process is. For example, higher-risk areas may require more frequent audits.
Checklists
A checklist makes it easier to standardize audits. It tells auditors what to look for and provides metrics for evaluation.
Reporting
Documentation in the form of clear, actionable reports is a must for effective LPAs. This ensures accountability and transparency.
An LPA will include everyone involved in the manufacturing process. It defines roles for frontline workers, team leaders, managers, top executives and the quality control team.
Benefits of a Layered Process Audit
A Layered Process Audit has many benefits. This includes:
Consistent output
Regular LPAs by auditors at various levels make it easier to identify irregularities and the root cause of defects. This accelerates problem-solving and thereby limits the errors and inconsistencies in output.
Higher quality standards
Regular quality checks at different stages of production improve your overall quality standards. This means fewer product recalls and lesser rework. It also translates to higher customer satisfaction rates.
Lower costs
By reducing the rate of defects, an LPA system cuts down on the amount of raw material wasted and hence inventory required. It also lowers inspection and warranty costs as well as the cost of reworks. In addition, equipment maintenance teams can be more proactive. Thereby, it reduces the chances of equipment failure, and the expenses associated with it.
Assured compliance
Every company must comply with certain industry-specific regulations. Failing to do so could put the company at risk of penalties or even a shut down. Regular assessments make compliance easier and thus protect the company’s reputation.
Fostering a culture of continuous improvement
LPAs encourage employees at all levels to proactively assess their workflow and identify areas for improvement. Thus, it is a great way to build a culture of continuous improvement.
Roles and Levels in a Layered Process Audit
Employees at varied levels of hierarchy in an organization have defined roles in Layered Process Audits.
Operators
Employees involved directly in the manufacturing process are well-positioned to identify deviations from standard operating procedures. They are responsible for auditing their workstations, output and areas daily.
Supervisors
Supervisors and team leaders conduct weekly audits to monitor compliance with established procedures and operational quality as well as safety standards.
Managers
Mid-level managers are responsible for monthly audits. These are focused on more strategic aspects. This includes regulatory compliance, identifying systemic issues, training requirements and opportunities for improvement.
Top executives
LPA involves senior management in quarterly reviews. Their audits look into how existing systems are aligned with your organizational goals. These audits also focus on resource allocation.
Quality management teams
Your quality management team plays a vital role in coordinating overall audit schedules, collecting feedback, providing relevant training and taking corrective measures.
How to Implement a Layered Process Audit?
Here’s a roadmap to implementing LPAs.
Secure employee buy-in
LPAs are an ongoing process. Hence, before you begin conducting audits, you must educate your team about it. Talk about how it functions and how the technique benefits them. You must also define Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, And Time-Bound (SMART) objectives. This will guide your audits and measure their effectiveness.
Define priorities
Next, list all the processes of a product manufacturing cycle. Rank them according to the frequency of auditing required. For example, assembly line production may require more frequent audits as compared to inventory.
Create checklists
Streamline LPA execution as much as possible. For this, you need to ensure that all auditors use the same tools, formats and measurement metrics.
A checklist should include sections for auditing adherence to:
- Standard Operating Procedures
- Safety procedures
- Documentation
- Equipment calibration
- Quality checks and so on.
Designate auditors
Each person involved in an LPA must know their role and responsibility. Auditors must have access to the checklists and know the frequency of audits required at their level.
For example, managers may appoint the senior most operator as a team leader. Besides auditing his work, the team leader may also need to audit other operator’s workstations once a week.
Documentation
Observations from every audit must be documented in a standardized format. This makes it easier to track changes and identify areas that need improvement.
Take action
If an auditor notes a discrepancy, they must define corrective actions to be taken. If required, they may escalate the issue to a senior level or involve the quality control team.
Share feedback
Sharing audit reports, the actions taken and improvements seen keep the team motivated to follow the audit schedules. It also builds trust in the system.
Get Started Today
Now that you know what is layered process audit, you know it is vital for businesses in pursuit of operational excellence. Systematically auditing all the production stages and processes minimizes the impact of errors. In turn, this keeps the system aligned with your overall quality standards. That said, standardizing audits, streamlining communication and sharing insights is critical to its effectiveness. That’s where digital solutions like Fabriq come in.
Fabriq empowers organizations to conduct regular, transparent audits, track their findings and accelerate problem solving. It creates a visual representation of data collected by all auditors to track changes over time and identify underlying trends. When changes are made, it also makes it easier to see and measure the impact of these changes. Want to know more? Discover Fabriq
