To guide and document their inspections and audits, many companies create their own checklists—often nothing more than copied sheets of paper stapled together.

“So what?” you might be thinking. If it has the items on it that need to be checked, what difference does it make whether we’re using a “do it yourself” checklist or a professionally produced checklist?

Attitude Change

To some degree, it’s simply a matter of perception. I think of a Japanese restaurant that’s become a favorite of mine—it always had good food, but I was never fully satisfied with my experience there. It just didn’t quite feel like a top-tier restaurant.

Then one day, I gave it another try—and to my delight, the servers were now uniformed and the restaurant had been spruced up.  My perception immediately improved, and I enjoyed my meal much more.  Even the food was better. The restaurant was taking pride in itself—and not only did that seem to make the staff perform better, it made me feel better about giving them my business.

If you give your personnel “do it yourself” checklists—or even poorly designed “professional” checklists—their perception is going to be that inspections aren’t really that important. They’ll feel like they’re eating at a “one-star” restaurant. However, if you supply them with well-designed professional checklists, they’ll get the message that “one star” isn’t good enough.  And the great thing is—they’ll like that! Most people prefer to be part of a quality operation rather than a sloppy one.

I’m not just speculating on this—I’ve seen it happen many times. When companies give employees The Checker and a nice storage pouch to carry their checklists books in, they develop a more-positive attitude and begin to take pride in doing the process correctly. That same thing happens if you use The Checker’s electronic checklists, which allow personnel to conduct inspections on mobile devices.

When personnel see this level of professionalism, inspections and audits become more of a “professional responsibility” in their minds—and so they conduct them better.

This attitude shift is critical because no inspection/audit program will be successful without buy-in from personnel. The benefits of proper inspections and audits are many, including lower safety/health costs, less liability exposure, and reduced maintenance expense. But if the people doing the inspecting aren’t doing them right, those benefits won’t be gained.

Best Practices

Well-designed inspection checklists aren’t just about perception, though. They also take into account inspection/audit best practices to guide personnel in how to properly check equipment, processes, or anything else that needs checking—so that their newfound motivation can be put to best use.

At the top of the list of best practices is checklist specificity. Whether produced in-house or purchased, if a checklist doesn’t provide enough specific detail about whatever’s being inspected, there’s no way it can be adequate. That’s why The Checker produces more equipment-specific checklists than anyone—and why we gladly offer customization of print or electronic checklists for a company’s specific needs.

We also focus on making our checklists user-friendly, which is another key best practice. By applying our years of practical experience in how checklists are actually used, we design them for maximum efficiency, while ensuring that everything is checked that needs to be.

Conclusion

“Do it yourself” or generic checklists won’t get the personnel buy-in that’s essential to gain the benefits of a strong inspection/audit program. The Checker, on the other hand, will encourage a professional attitude that results in personnel wanting to do inspections and audits the right way—while providing them with a checklist that’s easy to use and sufficient to ensure that all necessary items have been checked. 

Image courtesy of Klearchos Kapoutsis, Creative Commons.