It is now established that an environmental management audit based on processes is the best way to go, and yet many organizations and some auditors still rely on audits based on the individual points of the ISO 14001 standard and on the requirements extrapolated from the environmental system, risking losing some important elements of the process that could - instead - be easily identified.
The process-based audit is designed to explore the connection between different functions and between different activities within the processes and within the organization. The process approach requires both a systemic-level investigation of each process that makes up the environmental management system and the application of the so-called Deming cycle or PDCA cycle (Plan – Do – Check - ACT). The systemic component of the audit collects data on the process, and at each stage of this analysis, the auditor follows the PDCA cycle of the process, its components, and its activities to ensure that all elements are functioning effectively.
The first step to start an audit of a certain level is to plan it to be able to dedicate time to it.
The process audit follows the history of the process and uses the turtle diagram as the main tool. Attention! The turtle diagram is not a form used for control but a real process and, therefore, should only be used by auditors trained to use it and derive benefits from it.
The turtle diagram and the checklist are only part of a process-based audit. Preparation is important because certain elements need to be determined. It starts with determining the scope of the audit, which is expressed in answering the following questions:
- "Where does the process to be checked begin? Where does it end?"
- "What does it include?"
- "What does it not include?"
- "What criteria will be applied to this audit?"
- "Are there any specific customer requirements?"
- "What is the purpose of the audit?"
- "What is the physical location for the audit?"
- "What products, product lines, goods, or services are included in the audit?"
It will then be necessary to check the performance and compare it with recent management review activities. Particular attention should be paid to customer satisfaction.
The performance may be good (in this case the audit will focus on changes to employees, documentation, objectives, and opportunities for continuous improvement projects), poor (the audit will focus on finding the causes that contributed to the poor performance), or fluctuating with a process that works well most of the time but that, sometimes, creates significant problems (in this latter case, the audit will focus on finding the causes of these intermittent problems).
Make a list of potential weak processes. Moving on to the examination of the documentation, it is necessary to review the environmental system documents relating to the process to be verified. Focus specifically on the supporting documents of the parts of the process associated with potentially weak areas. Make a list of the steps in the documentation that, if performed incorrectly, could cause the type of problems identified in the performance review.