In fact the differences are not as great as one may at first imagine. Whilst the difference between Compliance Auditing and Performance Auditing is quite significant, the gap narrows considerably when looking at Performance Auditing and Safety Auditing.
A performance audit looks more at the organisations effectiveness for efficiencies and business results. A performance audit recognizes that all is not perfect, For example whist we do the best we can with the resources available, there may be un acceptable shortfalls.
In a performance audit the rules are challenged, whilst the underlying principles driving those rules are accepted and notĀ challenged – This type of auditing goes beyond compliance .
Performance auditing requires a deep understanding of the controls that are desired. it then examines the many methods being used to achieve those controls.
Performance audits examine the effectiveness of the organisations systems, challenging every element of the process, looking at ways to improve and optimize.
The Safety Management System as we should all accept is a Performance System, meaning that its behaviour is driven not directly by regulatory requirements but rather by organisational best practice and behaviour.
The key to a successful performance audit as we will see shortly is inclusion of the Business area owner or stakeholder. You cannot mandate improvements within a business area independent of the owner.
The key to successful Safety auditing is to look carefully at the potential risks and exposures which are identified within the business areas, to evaluate, analyse, measure and develop appropriate mitigation’s which are then passed to the business owner.
Safety audits look carefully at our weakness but in a way which identifies the worst case possible and how likely this scenario is, means how protected is the organisation. Any weakness identified becomes the basis for the development of a mitigation (proposed solution) which can be implemented in a cost beneficial way.
Such behaviour may support the reduction in costs providing not just an increase in the level of safety but a reduction in unnecessary expenditure as a result of a reduction in unforeseen events and other unexpected incidents.
So whilst performance audits look at the possibility of delivering improvements, Safety Audits look at the possible exposure across all elements of the business and view this downside analytically to understand how it can threaten the business in some way, as a step to developing proposed mitigation’s.
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Tags:
Aviation Safety, aviation services, Aviation Performance Auditing, Aviation Safety Auditing, Compliance Auditing
