062: The Difference Between a Safety Inspection and Safety Audit

<p><span>Powered by</span> <a href="https://ireportsource.com/?utm_source=SafetyPro%20Podcast&amp;utm_medium=SafetyPro%20Blog&amp;utm_campaign=SafetyPro%20Inspection%20vs%20Audit" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">iReportSource</a></p> <p><strong>Safety Inspection or Safety Audit?</strong></p> <p>This issue has come up before, and I want to tackle it in this episode. So some coaching is going on in this episode. First, let's get the definitions out of the way:</p> <p><strong>Inspection</strong>: Physical checks for acceptable conditions conducted at the direction of regulatory requirements, guidelines, policies, procedures, etc. outlined in your overall safety manual or as a part of a safety management system.</p> <p><strong>Audit</strong>: An independent review of the effectiveness, implementation, and compliance with established regulatory requirements, guidelines, policies, procedures, etc. outlined in your overall safety manual or as a part of a safety management system. It is important to note that independent does not necessarily mean from an outside organization. Independence means not being responsible for the activity being audited or free of bias and conflict of interest, which means you cannot audit your own work.</p> <p>So think of an inspection as a specific physical check to see if a tool, vehicle, machine, etc. are in safe working condition. Like a forklift inspection; before each shift operators are required to conduct an inspection to ensure it is in a safe condition. Always provide adequate checklists to ensure consistency of inspections and to allow a trend analysis to be developed t look for areas of improvement during any program audits.</p> <p>An audit is a review to see if inspections are being done and to check the quality of the inspection results. Or, inspections are tactical, and audits are strategic. Most folks focus on the tactical activity of performing inspections. They have checklists, cards, etc. Our industry needs to place more emphasis on the strategic review of safety as well. I would encourage you to go one step further and apply a management system approach to these activities.</p> <p>To help illustrate the importance, I will use the ANSI Z-10 Standard for Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (OHSMS) as an example. The OHSMS cycle ANSI lays out entails an initial planning process and implementation of the safety management system, followed by a process for <em>checking</em> the performance