Technical Challenge:

Safety Audit is a Risk Management tool for any organization and it is being an improvement too where is it is mandatory for HAZARDOUS Industries (as per IS 14489). The auditors experience and knowledge is vital to have a focus towards lack of control but not only viewing the issues relevance to non- compliance.

Purpose of doing Safety Audit?

Safety Audit is very important under various statutes in India. The general duties of the occupier specified under Section 7-A of the Factories Act, 1948, it become apparent that by carrying out a safety audit and doing the necessary monitoring/follow-up, most of the obligations under this section are fulfilled.

Also it is imperative that to undertake safety audit which is a systematic, critical appraisal of all potential hazards involving work personnel, plant, services  and operational methods in order to ensure that applicable / existing health & safety practices  fully satisfy the requirements stipulated by law.

When it should be done?

Safety Audit it is utmost necessary for the purpose of maintaining safety (accident free atmosphere) in industry that all system of work should be thoroughly checked from safety point of view at regular interval and deficiencies identified should be removed by due compliance of safety recommendations.

Normally an external or third party safety audit should be conducted once in year and an internal audit may be organized in every 6 month.

What is an Audit Scope?

The scope and depth of the audit should be decided as per auditee’s or client requirements. This should include:

• Which plants or areas to be audited.
• Which OS&H system elements to be audited.
• With what legal and other safety standards, rules or documents, the auditee’s OS&H systems should be compared. Benchmarking if any, should be considered.
• List of resources and evidences including workers and experts that will be available for audit.
• Within what time frame audit should be completed and with what other terms and conditions. A written agreement, if necessary, should be prepared and signed.

Approach / Methodology

Safety Audit Plan:

Audit plan should be finalized after consultation with auditee and should be informed to auditors and auditee in the opening meeting. This plan should include:

• Audit goals, objectives and scope as stated earlier.
• Name of audit team members and managements representatives.
• List of documents to be checked.
• List of legal and other standards to be followed during audit.
• Auditee’s OS&H policy and its other intentions.
• Time schedule of audit visits of each plant or location.
• Schedule of meetings to be held with auditee for the audit purpose.
• Expected date of issue of the audit report.
• Procedure or methodology of compliance of the report.
• Whether compliance audit will be required by the auditee and if yes, its probable time schedule, and method of communication.

Audit Techniques – How to conduct safety audit?

To carry out an effective audit, three key techniques should be followed:

Document review: The document which should be reviewed include: Health and Safety policy, Safety plan, Incident reports, Training reports, Emergency plan, etc.

Interviews: Interview key personnel in the organization, and randomly interviewing of staff could also be expository.

Workplace observation: Walking around the site to have a first-hand observation. This observation will mainly be based on compliance.

Safety Audit Procedure

The audit procedures follow five (5) simple steps:

• Prefer for audit: Here you will determine who will do the audit, the scope/objective of the audit, review applicable standards, and the result of previous audit.
• Conduct audit: As highlighted in the audit technique above.
• Create an audit report with recommendations: The report should highlight the findings. The findings should be both positives and negatives. The summary of the audit report should include recommended actions and areas that need improvement pointed out.
• Set priorities for corrective action: Recommended actions should be prioritized and execution time attached to it. Some may need immediate action while others may not.
• Publish the audit result: The recommendations and corrections should be adequately communicated. This will help everyone understand the necessary changes and how the change could affect them and their work..

Audit Findings List ( e.g)

Safety audit is a detailed and organized process. iFluids Engineering helps to provide competent, experienced, certified Auditors team to clients as per your customized need for various types of Audit requirements & deliverables…