When it comes to maintenance, there is a simple way to prepare serenely and to successfully complete your audits: adopt a CMMS that is agile and mobile. With the new solutions that have appeared thanks to technological progress, maintenance audits can now be understood as what they really are: a tool for continuous process improvement.
Audits are too often considered a stressful stage for the managers of the plants concerned, especially in the area of maintenance. Yet internal or external audits are an essential means of improving and guaranteeing the quality of the goods produced.
AUDITS AND MAINTENANCE
Audits can serve two functions: improve the company’s processes or aim for certification. These two objectives can, of course, overlap.
Internal audit of maintenance
An internal audit is an analysis phase during which a company itself analyses the positioning of the practices currently applied within it in relation to the best practices in its sector of activity. This makes it possible to identify areas for improvement, to set axes for progress, but also to validate good performance and virtuous practices already applied. Internal audit can also be a way to prepare an external audit.
External Audits, Standards and Certifications
External audits are generally carried out with the aim of obtaining certification. Maintenance may be concerned by the following standards.
The 21 CFR Part 11 standard
This standard applies to all companies wishing to enter the US drug, cosmetics or food market. It defines the rules to be respected in the use of industrial IT systems to meet the challenges of traceability of electronic records and signatures. It therefore concerns in particular the monitoring of maintenance operations.
Sector-specific standards
Certain business sectors are subject to specific standards. This is for example the case of the food industry, with IFS Food certification, which is an essential prerequisite for access to French, German and Italian mass distribution. Companies in this sector must also comply with the ISO 22000 standard, which concerns food safety management and requires them to use the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) method to guarantee food hygiene.
Food Hygiene and HACCP: Principles and Application, BTS Training & Consultancy
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR CMMS DURING AUDITS?
Computerized maintenance management allows you to prepare efficiently and serenely for audits, particularly those aiming at obtaining ISO or other certification. But not all CMMS solutions are the same.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Conventional CMMS
Using a conventional CMMS software is undoubtedly a step forward in the management of plant maintenance. Indeed, this type of solution allows you to manage the maintenance of machines and equipment more efficiently thanks to functionalities specifically designed for this purpose.
CMMS thus makes it possible to achieve better productivity and cost control, particularly through the monitoring and planning of interventions. It also offers better traceability, by facilitating the recording and consultation of interventions, and therefore greater transparency.
While this last point is particularly useful for maintenance audits, conventional CMMS software is, in practice, both costly and difficult to implement and use. Intuitive interface, lack of mobility, teams reluctant to use them… Their shortcomings too often make their adoption counter-productive, whereas the preparation of an audit requires the full support of all the maintenance players within the plant.
Adopt CMMS 4.0 to succeed in your audits
The next-gen CMMS, also known as CMMS 4.0, has ushered maintenance management into a new era. An application such as Mobility Work, for example, has been designed to facilitate the task of each operator and maintenance manager and thus win the support of all teams.
Mobility Work CMMS is based on a community of users who exchange and follow their plant’s activity thanks to the newsfeed
TRY OUR MAINTENANCE SOFTWARE FOR FREE
During an audit, you must be able to justify each intervention carried out on the machines, to inform the state of each piece of equipment, to detail the management of spare parts, etc. By encouraging teams to record each operation thanks to its intuitive interface and total mobility, and by offering numerous data and document management tools, CMMS 4.0 is the most suitable tool for preparing your audits.
TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL AUDITS WITH 4.0 CMMS
A 4.0 CMMS solution such as Mobility Work helps you gather all the information you need to prepare for an audit by gathering all the relevant data and providing an overview of the status of your assets and performance parameters. Some features are particularly useful for a successful maintenance audit.
Save all useful documents
All types of documents can be saved on the application: user manuals, photos, security procedures, intervention plans… Saving documents useful for maintenance allows you to check at any time that the procedures have been correctly put in place.
Generate data
With the Mobility Work application, you can collect machine data from sensors installed on the equipment and combine it with pre-existing data such as spare parts inventory to generate comprehensive reports that are useful for successful audits.
Mobility Work is provided with an analytic tool to help you analyze all your maintenance data and adapt your strategy
Guarantee quality and safety procedures
Thanks to 4.0 CMMS, it is possible to document each intervention in real time, then provide a set of data from which it is possible to ensure that all safety and quality inspections and tests have been carried out on time, and that all faulty equipment has been repaired and replaced.
Adopt preventive maintenance to anticipate audits
Preventive maintenance strategies are easier than ever to implement with Mobility Work. With them, you can ensure that you are always in compliance with the regulations imposed by the standards that apply to your industry.
Promote transparency
Thanks to Mobility Work’s easy access to the history of maintenance interventions, authorized persons can browse it at any time. In addition to developing a culture of transparency for successful audits, this allows for a detailed analysis of the breakdown history and the implementation of improvement strategies.
During an audit, you can also provide a complete history of your maintenance strategy and justify the plant’s compliance with ISO or other standards.
As you can see, CMMS is a very valuable tool for preparing and successfully completing your audits. But it is important to choose a modern and agile solution such as 4.0 CMMS, to offer your teams a high-performance and easy-to-use tool that will encourage them to get involved in a transparency process that will help make your audits a success.
