Operational audits are necessary to reach your company’s goals, and most audits can be done at the departmental level. However, when it comes to processes that significantly affect company performance, a layered process audit helps you ensure success. Moreover, by decentralizing your process audits, you gain a clearer picture of what is working and what is not. In addition, this approach empowers teams across different levels to identify issues earlier and implement corrective actions faster.
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Download this free layered process audit form to set up the criteria and schedule for your audits.
What is a layered process audit?
A layered process audit (LPA) is the procedure of verifying proper implementation of a process at multiple levels within a company. By involving frontline employees, managers, and senior leadership, you can lower the risk of major impacts to performance, such as:
- Safety incidents
- Production slowdowns or stoppages
- Product recalls
- Regulatory citations
- Public relations missteps
- Marketing blunders
Essentially, you can apply these audits to any process that has the potential to impact the company in a big way. In fact, LPAs are very common in the manufacturing sector as a tool for auditing high-stakes production processes. However, you can just as easily apply them to other areas of the business, like:
- Approving major marketing campaigns
- Making changes to internal processes
- Introducing new products to market
- Incorporating hazardous processes or materials to your operations
Doing a layered audit is about the same as doing everyday audits, except that you do it at multiple levels. Once you’ve got the concept down, you can start applying it to those essential processes within your company.
The different audit levels
The term “layered” refers to the different levels within the company that contribute to the process audit. So, there’s no specific number of layers to follow. It just depends on your company’s hierarchy and how you organize teams.
If you don’t have a certain set up in mind, you can stick with these three layers:
Layer 1: Frontline workers
This includes anyone involved in the day-to-day labor activities that generate products or services. Examples of people in this layer would include:
- Machine operators
- Customer service representatives
- Quality inspectors
- Project coordinators
Layer 2: Middle management
This second level includes anyone in a supervisory role that isn’t a part of the executive team. Here are some people who here:
- Shift supervisors
- Area managers
- Operations managers
- Regional directors
Layer 3: Senior leadership
The last layer of your audit is the senior leadership team, which includes people in these roles:
- President
- Vice President
- Directors
- Chief Officers (CEO, COO, CMO, etc.)
Moreover, these stakeholders work together to verify that all elements of the process operate correctly. In addition, they perform staggered audits at routine intervals. As a result, the company maintains constant oversight of critical processes.
Set the audit criteria
Start by identifying the process you want to audit and answering these questions:
- What elements or variables of this process do we want to audit?
- Who will perform the audit?
- Who will oversee the completion of the audit?
You’ll want to have an audit checklist specific to each process. Your team will use the criteria in this checklist to conduct the audit and note any abnormal or unsatisfactory results. Documenting your audits is essential if you want to be able to investigate any issues or incidents down the line.
Once you’ve determined your criteria for a process audit, you’ll need to determine how often you want each layer to do it.
Frequency of layered process audits
Each layer in the company conducts their process audits at different intervals. This ensures that the company never loses sight of important areas of performance.
It’s up to you how often you want each group to do their audits, but here’s a guideline you can follow:
- Layer 1: Daily or weekly
- Layer 2: Weekly or monthly
- Layer 3: Quarterly
For high-stakes processes, you should not stretch review frequencies beyond the quarterly interval. After all, a quarter is already a long time to go without evaluating a major process. Moreover, waiting any longer risks leaving senior leadership out of touch with operations and may even increase the chance of an incident.
Schedule layered process audits
When you know how often each layer must complete its audits, you need to schedule them in advance. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to try to conduct LPAs without planning them first. Moreover, if you fail to make scheduling a priority ahead of time, daily operations will interfere and prevent audits from happening as intended.
You can use audit software to easily schedule a layered process audit. Software makes this easy by allowing you to schedule a different audit interval for each group involved. That way, senior leadership has their quarterly audit date set well in advance. Meanwhile, the frontline workers will make the process audit part of their standard work.
If you don’t have software, you can do this manually with an old-fashioned calendar or spreadsheet. When taking the manual route, just make sure to have a way to remind yourself when audits are upcoming (e.g., phone notifications, digital calendars, etc.).
Layered process audit example
After deciding the criteria and frequency for your audits, you should have everything you need to start conducting them. Here’s an example of what this looks like.
A meal kit delivery service must ensure that its products do not cause a foodborne illness outbreak. Therefore, the company needs to carefully monitor the temperature of meal kits at every step in the process. For example, this includes controlling the temperature of raw ingredients, monitoring conditions during packaging, and verifying safe temperatures all the way through delivery at the customer’s doorstep.
To ensure product safety, the company will implement a layered process audit. The audit will include the following levels:
Layer 1: Frontline employees will check and document the temperature of product batches every two hours. In addition, they will attach these records to the batch lot code in the system.
Layer 2: Shift supervisors will audit the temperature logs twice per shift to confirm that workers are completing their checks. Moreover, they will ensure that any temperature variances are addressed appropriately so the products remain safe.
Layer 3: Department managers will review temperature logs each week. Furthermore, they will discuss any concerns with their teams to determine whether process changes are needed.
Layer 4: Senior leadership will discuss new process changes that address product safety during their monthly meetings. In addition, they will review potential recalls or customer complaints related to product safety. Finally, they will determine whether to take additional action based on these discussions.
From this example, you can see how an LPA helps maintain the integrity and effectiveness of a process. Each layer can address concerns before they cause problems. The key is to fully commit to your audits. If one group doesn’t perform their audits on time or consistently, it will impact the overall outcome.
Have an accountability system
You need to hold everyone accountable for their role in the layered process audit. In addition, if you track all your audits with action tracking software, you can easily see who is assigned to complete each task and when they take action. As a result, you no longer have to rely on a paper checklist to gather all the information you need.
Specifically with layered audits, using a digital version of the audit data improves visibility for everyone involved. As a result, senior leaders can quickly review all audit results from a software platform instead of waiting for updates from managers. Furthermore, for decentralized operations or organizations with many locations, a digital approach reduces the risk of missing audits. In addition, digital tools make it easier to track progress, assign accountability, and ensure timely follow-ups. Finally, by centralizing audit records, you strengthen consistency across the entire organization.
Frontline ACT audit tracking software
Frontline ACT is an easy-to-use action tracking software solution that you can use for all your operational audits. It allows you to:
- Generate action item reports
- See the status of all your audits
- Schedule and assign process audits
- Keep detailed logs of all audit tasks
- Build custom audit checklists and forms
Because Frontline ACT is a tracking system, you can apply it to pretty much any area of your operation. Aside from audits, you can use it for other events like recalls, inspections, and safety incidents.
To learn more about Frontline ACT audit tracking software, check out the webinar below or book a demo with our sales team.
