Internal audit of management systems as a tool of the management process improvement

Summary

Case study of the experience of SUE «Vodokanal of St. Petersburg» demonstrates the importance of carrying out internal audits of the environment management and quality management systems for the improvement of the management process. The advantages that the enterprises are gaining upon having introduced and certified the management systems are presented. The process of internal audit is proposed and described in details. It is shown how the internal audit provides for the add-on value in the enterprise activities. The add-on value of the audit is considered as an aggregate of three components: administrative component (supplying top managers with the information on the capability to reach the set objectives), production component (identification of problems elimination of which can improve the efficiency of the enterprise and, consequently, improve the satisfaction of all the stakeholders), and economic component (resource optimization). Internal audit of the management systems is a tool for determining and analyzing «bottlenecks» in organizational processes, in the development of timely correcting measures for the improvement of the enterprise activities. The priorities in audit execution are shown. Examples of using the audit results in the improvement of the management processes are set.

Key words

quality management system , ecological management system , internal audit , system approach , audit criteria , audit certificates