BowTieXP Complete - Audits

What is Audit?

Audits is our audit and compliance feature, available in BowTieXP Complete. The tool is developed to close the “Plan-Do-Check” circle (Deming circle). After defining the barriers in your safety management system (the plan stage) and implementing them (the do stage), the Audit feature is used to check and monitor the quality and effectiveness of the barriers.

Questionnaires can be compiled and easy to fill-out surveys can be composed in the software to assess the actual working of barriers. By importing the filled-in surveys into the software the results can be easily visualized on the bowtie. The visualization shows which barriers score either well or poorly.

When BowTieXP Enterprise is used, it is also possible to directly assign surveys to persons and have the questions answered via a user-friendly web interface with the results automatically collected.

Create questions on different bowtie levels

With AuditXP, questions can be generated that directly relate to barriers defined on the bowtie diagram on three levels.

Barrier level

On the barrier level, an audit manager might question whether the integrity of the barrier meets the predefined requirements (e.g. is the fire system working? Do the employees use the personal protective equipment?).

Management system level

On a management system level, the underlying management system elements (such as safety critical elements or tasks) can be assessed. This level covers activities such as training and maintenance, but also whether documentation is up to par (e.g. manuals, procedural documents).

General observations

The third level covers general observations. These do not directly refer to an element described on the bowtie but cover more generic remarks that apply to multiple levels. Examples of this can be topics that are out of the scope of the current audit or subjects that an auditor finds noteworthy (e.g. the way personnel communicates or the state of housekeeping).

Generating Excel fill-out surveys

After the surveys have been composed by assembling relevant questions, an Excel fill-out survey can be automatically generated. This sheet consists of all the questions, criteria and answer keys defined by the user and provides a quick drop-down menu. The auditee can simply select the applicable answer key for each question. Once the audit manager has retrieved the completed surveys, they can be imported back into AuditXP for quick analysis of the results.

Visualizing audit results

As the audits are linked to barriers on the BowTieXP diagram, the results can be visualized on the diagram. This provides the user with a quick graphic overview of the barrier status, based on the audit results. The visual representation facilitates expert judgements on overall barrier quality. It also provides up-to-date feedback on the current barrier status.