Layered process audits are a necessary tool for quality leaders and workers alike. Layered process audits can include hundreds of items and involve many workers and leaders to fully evaluate the process through which a product is created. The goal of an LPA is to turbo-charge quality and continuous improvement. At the same time, manufacturing companies that are still using paper or form filler software to churn through and find that the process can be riddled with errors because employees often mindlessly check through these hundreds of items without truly evaluating if the criteria are met. To get valuable data and quality improvements, leaders need to go digital for layered process audits to make sure compliance is met and data is captured in a meaningful, actionable way.
What is a Layered Process Audit (LPA)?
LPAs are what they say they are: a thorough audit and validation of the processes used to create products—not necessarily an inspection of the finished product itself. Because this is an audit of the processes, it necessarily involves nearly everyone, from every level, who is involved in the creation of that product line. As you can imagine, doing this on paper would lead to a lot of missed steps, and a loss of critical data. This is why LPAs really need to be done in a digital format that will keep quality assurance and compliance as a focus to everyone who completes this audit. That will, inevitably, lead to continuous improvement for the business.
4 Reasons to Go Digital for Layered Process Audits
Naturally, boosting quality in the end product is a prime objective for every manufacturing company, but it can be a struggle without the right data to work with. Here are 4 reasons why going digital for layered process audits will boost quality:
1. Unlock Critical Data at the Earliest Point Possible
Paper layered process audits can easily lose critical points where quality is not being met, or assistance is needed. What’s worse is that paper is not exactly an engaging way for employees to do LPAs, and may just mindlessly check things off to get them done, or pencil whipping. LPA software like Anvl is engaging, makes sense and helps everyone, at any level, to make critical process improvements at their level, giving them a sense of ownership in the process. It can also highlight valuable data, making it visible and analyzable for immediate insight into areas where processes can be improved.
2. Ensure process compliance
Anvl layered process audits help employees at every level to make sense of complex data sets to see process issues that could impact quality down the line. The guided workflow experience in the app is easy to use, helping keep everyone engaged and involved actively in the continuous improvement process.
3. Maintain Accountability at All Levels
The ease of use and engaging format of Anvl layered process audits keeps employees at all levels involved in the quality improvement effort. The system also records who is responsible for different parts of the workflow and tracks whether those items have been completed.
4. Ultimately Reduce the Cost of Quality (COQ)
The cost of fixing quality problems is 10 times larger after a product reaches its intended customers than if a quick employee using the right tools had been able to catch the problem before it got out. Anvl gives employees at all levels the power and data visibility to do just that through digital layered process audits. The cost of quality and the time wasted fixing problems and reassuring customers can drop significantly.
Anvl Layered Process Audits
It is time to go digital for layered process audits with Anvl – One platform for quality, safety, and operations insights to turbo charge continuous improvement. See how Anvl works, and contact our experts today to get started.
