Internal Audit and Self-Inspection Program
Scheduled internal audit and self-inspection program covering the annual audit calendar for every area and SOP domain, auditor selection and independence, checklists built from the SOP being audited, conducting audits by observing work as performed against work as written, grading findings by severity, routing findings into the corrective action process, verifying closure, trending results across audits, and reporting to management review.
- Audience
- The audit program owner, employees selected and trained as internal auditors, supervisors and zone owners whose areas are audited, and site leadership receiving audit results at management review
- Review cycle
- annual
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-17
- Revision
- 1
Internal Audit and Self-Inspection Program: what is in the procedure
11 sections. Regulatory language is fixed and passes through verbatim. Sections marked customized get rewritten around your facility, your equipment, and your job titles.
- 01
Purpose
FixedThis procedure establishes the facility's program for auditing itself: a scheduled...
- 02
Scope
CustomizedThis procedure applies to every scheduled self-inspection and internal audit at the facility, rolled up into one program: safety walks, process audits that check work against a specific written SOP...
- 03
Responsibilities
CustomizedThe audit program owner maintains the annual audit calendar, selects and trains auditors, keeps the findings log, verifies closure of findings, trends results, and presents the program's output at management review.
- 04
The Annual Audit Calendar
CustomizedThe program owner publishes an annual audit calendar before the start of each year.
- 05
Auditor Selection and Independence
FixedNobody audits their own area. An auditor must not audit a process they perform daily, an area they supervise, or records they themselves created; familiarity makes deviations invisible...
- 06
Building the Audit Checklist
FixedEvery process audit is conducted against a checklist built from the current revision of the SOP being audited, pulled from the controlled document source, never from a saved copy.
- 07
Conducting the Audit
Customized1. Open briefly with the area supervisor: state which SOP is being audited, roughly how long it will take, and that the audit measures the process, not individuals.
- 08
Grading Findings
FixedEvery audit result is graded into one of four levels, and the grade drives what happens next.
- 09
The Findings Log and Corrective Action
CustomizedEvery finding from every audit, internal or external, lands in one findings log maintained by the program owner.
- 10
Trending and Reporting to Management Review
FixedIndividual findings fix individual problems; trends fix the system.
- 11
References
FixedThe facility's controlled SOP register, from which every process audit checklist is built.
Best practice
Internal Audit and Self-Inspection Program: no regulation to cite
No public-domain regulation governs this procedure, so it cites nothing rather than inventing authority. It documents the process discipline customers, insurers, and auditors ask to see in writing.
Compliance checklist
Internal Audit and Self-Inspection Program: what an inspector looks for
An annual audit calendar is published before the start of the year, covers every physical area and every SOP domain at a defined frequency, and names an auditor and a month for each audit
Every scheduled audit is performed in its assigned month, and any skipped audit is recorded, rescheduled, and reported at management review
No auditor audits their own area, a process they perform daily, or records they created
Every auditor completed auditor training and at least one shadowed audit before auditing alone, and training records are on file
Each process audit uses a checklist built from the current controlled revision of the SOP being audited, with observation, interview, and records questions, and the completed checklist is retained
Audits include direct observation of the work as performed, operator interviews, and a random sample of required records
Every finding is graded conforming, observation, minor, or major, with immediate hazards controlled before the auditor leaves the area
All findings, internal and external, are entered in one findings log with owner, due date, and status
Minor and major nonconformances carry corrective actions in the facility's corrective action process, with root cause analysis for majors and repeat minors
Closure is verified by re-checking the condition, recorded with verifier and date, and never performed by the corrective action owner
Findings are trended across audits on a defined cadence and repeat findings are returned to root cause analysis
Audit performance, open and overdue findings, and trends are reported at management review on a fixed schedule
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This page is informational and is not legal advice. Have a qualified safety professional review any procedure before it goes into service at your facility.