Efficient Maintenance Management with a Single Platform

Caner Bulut

Caner Bulut

Founder & CEO

21.09.2024

maintenance audit

A maintenance audit is a formal process for collecting and evaluating objective data to determine whether your maintenance processes are meeting your expectations.

Through this process, you can see if:

  • You are complying with internal and external requirements
  • You are applying the right strategies for each asset
  • You are executing your programs properly

In short, a maintenance audit is your opportunity to see if the correct programs are in place and if the maintenance team is following them.

The insights you gain will help you identify what is working and what needs to be changed or optimized.

What are the types of maintenance audits?

While it’s possible to define maintenance audits in broad terms, you can also look at more specific types, each with its own unique goals.

Mandatory Audits

In these types of audits, government agencies responsible for regulating the industry examine your facilities and assets to ensure that you comply with relevant regulations.

It’s likely that auditors will evaluate maintenance programs as part of a broader examination of company policies and procedures.

For example, representatives from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) might come in for a safety audit, and as part of this, they could examine how frequently the maintenance department schedules preventive maintenance inspections on equipment guardrails.

Additionally, they may also assess the types of personal protective equipment (PPE) you provide to maintenance technicians.

Voluntary Audits

Many organizations undertake projects to obtain voluntary certifications, such as the asset management standard ISO 55001 or the green building standard LEED.

Although obtaining these certifications is not mandatory, companies pursue them due to the competitive advantages they offer.

Regardless of the type of certification, most involve both initial and ongoing audits, many of which include systematic reviews of your maintenance programs.

Internal Audits

Generally, internal audits are part of ongoing improvement efforts.

They are conducted to ensure that your company’s processes are correct and that the team is following them properly.

The goals of these audits are fundamentally the same, but the standards and key performance indicators (KPIs) are set internally by the company.

Why are maintenance audits important?

Maintenance audits

Maintenance audits are important because of the value they provide, including visibility, protection, and accountability.

Undergoing an audit helps you gain a clearer understanding of how your maintenance programs look in theory and how well your team is actually implementing them. This gives you the opportunity to fine-tune everything from schedules to standard operating procedures.

Additionally, audits can help protect your company from legal penalties and lawsuits related to safety issues.

The objectivity of audit results also helps establish accountability across the department. When the team fails to meet maintenance KPIs, you will be better informed to ask why and take corrective action.

What should you cover in a maintenance audit?

While it’s essential to audit as many areas as possible, you should also focus on the most critical aspects. Each audit varies depending on who conducts it and why, but generally, a maintenance audit includes the examination of:

  • Safety
  • Planning
  • Scheduling
  • Training
  • Documents
  • Policies
  • Practices

During a maintenance audit, you can review the documents you have on hand, assess how current they are, how securely they are stored, and how easily your team can access them.

These documents can include everything from operation and maintenance manuals, schematics and diagrams, to written standard operating procedures (SOPs) for common maintenance inspections and tasks, maintenance checklists, and even warranties.

You also need to evaluate how well your team is implementing your maintenance program, which involves reviewing both on-demand and scheduled work orders, as well as your inventory.

How does enterprise asset management help with maintenance audits?

The combination of a centralized database and robust reporting features in an enterprise asset management (EAM) solution can assist you at every stage of a maintenance audit.

Provides Traceability

A good asset management solution simplifies audits significantly because all the data you need is stored securely and is easily accessible in one place. Instead of wasting time searching for warranties, checklists, or old inventory purchase orders, everything you need is already at your fingertips.

If you discover missing documents during the audit, you can add them to the system, ensuring they won’t be lost in the future.

And because all your data is stored in a centralized database in digital format, you won’t need to waste time switching between different formats.

Facilitates Easy Tracking

An enterprise asset management system is the ideal location for all your policies, procedures, and programs. However, this only covers the “what should be” aspect of your maintenance efforts. During an audit, you also need to focus on “what was done,” which includes all your historical work orders, regardless of the maintenance strategies applied.

With the built-in reporting module of enterprise asset management, you can quickly and reliably turn raw data into maintenance metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). These indicators help you understand whether your maintenance programs are working as they should.

For example, your failure metrics can show how quickly your team responds to failures and how long their repairs last before the assets fail again.

Collectively, your work orders can show which assets cost you the most to keep operational and how well your team is keeping up with scheduled inspections and tasks.

An Enterprise Asset Management System Tailored to Your Goals

A unified platform, such as an enterprise asset management solution, is a valuable investment for conducting maintenance audits.

By centralizing all relevant data—such as policies, procedures, work orders, and performance metrics—an enterprise asset management system streamlines the audit process and provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your maintenance programs.

Girin helps businesses optimize their processes with innovative solutions in maintenance audits and enterprise asset management.

These integrated solutions within a single platform enable more efficient management of maintenance processes, extend asset lifecycles, and improve operational efficiency.

The smart systems offered by Girin allow companies to save both time and costs while ensuring the sustainability and safety of their business operations.