Is your production in line with current requirements? How do you cut down on production expenses and avoid going bankrupt due to unforeseen emergencies or acts of God? Technology audit (TA) is able to provide answers to these and many other burning questions.
The efficiency of a company may go down over time for whatever reason. Typically, it is triggered by unbalanced equipment operation, lack of due technological maintenance, ineffective technological processes, low staff competency etc.
Generally, technology audit allows to check company’s technological state, degree of all vital processes organization by using established criteria, as well as reveal production’s strengths and weaknesses.
Vasyl Martynenko, Manager of Property Monetary Valuation Projects, employee at AIM has an extensive practical experience in this field. Here’s what he has to say: "Typically, large companies with uninterrupted production cycle suffer the biggest losses. Metallurgical plants, in particular, are one of these. In case an insured event occurs at a metallurgical plant which produces great quantities of metal, a shutdown - even a temporary one - can result in large losses.
Here’s a hands-on example: due to the fire, the work at Ukrainian company’s production facility has stopped. As a result, the said company suffered losses amounting to approximately 1 billion hryvnia. This could have been prevented, had the technology audit professionals timely inspected production’s technological state. In order to mitigate the risks, the amount, the size of which pales in comparison to the losses caused by disaster, should have been included in the pre-insurance process."
Who Performs Technology Audit?
Technology audit is a peculiar type of activity which can only be efficiently performed by engaging outside consultants. Involvement of the company’s top management and staff, especially at the initial stages of the process is absolutely essential. It is possible to get an unbiased picture specifically by means of cooperation between auditors and company’s employees. TA won’t be as effective as it can be unless the top management shows genuine interest in it and the staff is duly informed.
Objectives of the TA
1. Following successful TA, it becomes possible to bring the company’s premises and production shops into compliance with applicable requirements and norms, as well as to find the ways to improve industrial safety at production facilities associated with potential life hazard. This means that a successful technology audit performed in a timely manner can ensure operation safety at manufacturing site.
2. Having assessed all of the risks and actual state of the production elements by engaging professionals, you save money and prevent huge costs if the risk materializes.
3. Having identified the flaws and the weak spots, serving as a litmus test of the company's technological health, TA allows enhancing the efficiency of the company's operation, cutting down on further expenses exponentially while ensuring manufacture of high-quality goods within the required timeframes.
4. The results of the technology audit offers a clear picture of whether it makes sense to invest in a company at this point, which again saves your money.
5. Technology audit alone cannot address the outdated fundamental issues of the corporate customer. That being said, it is a kind of ground zero for the company’s further development. Following completion of the audit, the strategy aimed at efficiency improvement of further business activities is developed.
6. TA allows getting overall characteristic of the company’s innovative potential, determining the company's status with respect to innovation-driven development, needs and opportunities existing in the area of innovative technologies (innovations) application and business scalability.
7. Thanks to the TA, the corporate customer is able to develop a strategy for generation of profit resulting from innovative activities.
The procedure of technology audit includes information collection (list of technologies and methods), analysis (implementation of a checkup according to the benchmark test), synthesis (recommendation development), and report preparation. The complexity of technology audit largely depends on the size of production and specific nature of the business activities.
Once the TA is successfully completed, the report and all the recommendations contained in it are thoroughly discussed with the top management of the company/organization. Based on the results thereof, a decision is taken and a relevant action plan for their subsequent implementation is duly approved.
Technology audit is a key element for building up efficient and profitable production.
Take the step towards bigger success - have an independent audit carried out by the world-class experts! Please feel free to contact us in a manner which is most convenient for you.
