Specifically, the standard requires us to document the actions taken to to enhance customer satisfaction, such as improvements to products and/or services. This means that continual improvement must be a management mindset, centered around creating procedures and processes that grow into day-to-day practices that are carried to completion time and time again.
This process is dependent on effectively collecting customer and employee feedback and applying those evaluations to products and services. One of the best ways to do this is to utilize software-based management tools that track point of contact communications with customers and vendors and encourage and facilitate strong record keeping practices that centralize customer feedback. Good response feedback should include open ended questions such as “Was the response successful?” or “What process should be improved?” Such data can be an invaluable asset when deciding what improvements can be made to any service or product. Beyond meeting the requirements, approaching the process in this way generates customer satisfaction and promotes long-term relationships. For more information on how Accupoint Software can help your business promote continual improvement efforts, please contact us today. Many service supply organizations are using internal audits as a method to improve operations and impact their bottom line. In addition to being required by API Spec Q2, an effective audit program will highlight potential problems areas, identify failure points, and determine the effectiveness of controls.
Internal auditing provides the mechanism that organizations use to examine business processes and evaluate compliance with both internal and external requirements. Successful auditing incorporates best practices and other tools to provide maximum impact. To that end, we have outlined five useful tips to help advance your next internal quality audit. 1. Strong Attention to Detail It is important for internal auditors to note and document evidence throughout the auditing process. These notes are used later to analyze events and reconstruct specific situations. This does not mean that auditors should focus on tiny, unimportant details through nit-picking, but rather components that are a part of a bigger issue that can be addressed. 2. Friendly Attitude Stress levels are already high when employees are dealing with an audit. If an internal auditor is aggressive, hostile, or difficult to deal with, employers often minimally engage and will not share as much. If an internal auditor presents with a friendly attitude and is open, they will be more likely to get feedback. The last thing an auditor wants to do is put an employee on the defensive or make them feel ill at ease. 3. Reporting Supported by Checklists Internal auditors use checklists to balance reporting and should ensure that they are clean and support numerical values and ratings. These checklists enable companies to report on growth as well as challenges that exist across various departments. These reports are essential and allow businesses to assess whether their improvement efforts are working, and what training is needed to reach their goals. 4. Generation of Auditing Teams Internal auditing teams can be very successful, especially with all the documentation that goes into completing an audit the right way. While a single auditor would be responsible for actively listening while documenting their findings, a team can allocate responsibilities to various areas such as recording, listening, and documenting. This way, all team members can collaborate to ensure no information is overlooked. 5. Looking at the Whole Picture When an internal audit is taking place, the auditor or team should be able to look at the picture as a whole, incorporating current situations as well as past audit results. Focus should take place on past issues to determine whether they have been corrected and closed before reassessments take place in the same area. This is a delicate balance that will prove most effective and time efficient. For more information on how Accupoint Software can help streamline your internal auditing program, please contact us today. Companies relying on the traditional spreadsheet to manage their QMS often find it to be overwhelming to manage as the data volume continues to grow. Those using spreadsheets have to contend with issues like how best to collaborate when working within the same sheet or how to maintain data integrity. Accupoint's quality management system can be advantageous for organizations that want to save time and improve productivity when managing compliance data.
Top advantages of a quality management software solution Companies are utilizing quality management software to answer the need for a better data management and process analytics. Both management and team members alike recognize the value in being able to better manage large volumes of data in order to improve their process information flow. Benefits of an Integrated System 1. Accupoint’s quality management systems can automate your program updates based on parameters set. This means that you don’t have to worry about changing and overhauling your system because the solution evolves as your business needs do. 2. Accupoint improves data integrity. Redundancy of data, entry protocols, system updates and records maintenance can all be done conveniently from within the software solution. Pulling accurate reporting is easiest when information is consolidated and entered uniformly. 3. Detecting emerging trends across different areas of the organization is simplified with Accupoint’s quality management solution. The information is securely stored within the centralized system, which makes all of the data is available for review in real-time. Accessibility to real-time data enables smart, quick decision-making across the board. 4. While spreadsheets can hold a large amount of data, keeping information secure and reliable as data continues to grow presents its share of challenges. Scalable quality manage systems empower teams to seamlessly expand their solutions to accommodate growing customer and regulatory requirements. 5. Accupoint’s solutions offer flexibility in how data is entered. Individuals can choose to enter data traditionally or through other methods such as scanning or geo-tagging. These options facilitate collaboration and reduce error rates among those handling information. 6. User-friendly methods to track a range of information are an additional advantage to transitioning to Accupoint’s solution family. Tracking training progress, quality standard updates, testing cycles, and auditing results can all be done conveniently through one single user interface. Cutting costs using accurate real-time data and improved collaboration are the most common reasons for making the switch to an Accupoint quality management software solution. Better reporting, collaboration, data integrity, and analysis become possible with the right system and solution in place. For more information on Accupoint Software or to schedule a platform demonstration, please visit us at www.accupointsoftware.com. An internal quality audit is folded into a company’s corrective and preventative practices. The audit takes a snap shot of the organization’s compliance procedures, and then analyzes that snapshot to identify potential problems. In the oil and gas industry, internal audits are an integral part of the quality management system.
To that end we have outlined 5 key steps to ensure that your internal audit process is effective:
Oil and gas concerns are usually multi-state and multi-location enterprises with hundreds, if not thousands of employees. The compliance audits for the oil and gas industries are exhaustive and complex. Effectively managing the audit function will ensure compliance to customer requirements, as well as related regulations and standards. For more information on how Accupoint Software can help improve your internal audit process, please contact us. Whether prepping for an audit, updating your company processes with new best practice information, or simply checking up on employee training, gage calibration (or lack thereof) should be taken seriously. Lack of compliance, regardless of which standards is being applied, can bankrupt a company. Gage calibration best practices really consist of 2 main parts, which should be checked periodically:
Of course, keeping on top of gage calibration can be tedious, and easily lost among other, more pressing issues. Having one system set in place that can handle all compliance management efforts streamlines the process and makes it easier for the whole company, as otherwise compliance efforts get split among different individuals and departments. This inevitably leads to something getting lost in translation, or through the cracks. For the best compliance management solutions that optimize your business practices while improving customer satisfaction, contact us today. |
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