In a new approach to its internal audit process, ASD metal services, the largest independent metals stockholder and distributor in the UK, has been using enhanced assessment methodology – with impressive results.

ASD has 40 locations throughout the UK, each offering a broad range of products and processing facilities. It had been the practice to undertakel internal audits in the traditional way, using existing personnel within each unit who have additional training for this task.

However ASD was not satisfied with the variable consistency and quality of data received from these individual internal audits and found it difficult to quantify it into group wide information it could act upon.

Said Rob Fisher, ASD's Business Improvement Manager, "It was a good decision to move to this new process, we still undertake the audits at a local level, but via a web interface. The data that we receive is consistent and comparable and has enabled us to accurately identify strengths and weaknesses across the group. We collect and collate the data directly at Head Office and we have been able to dramatically reduce the number of internal auditors we need."

ASD found the technology relatively easy to set up and just needed to 'tune' it to meet the specific needs of the company. At the beginning some employees found it difficult to move from paper-based questionnaires to on-screen input, but once those involved found out it only took fifteen minutes to complete the questionnaire, response soon picked up.

The results, when they were collated, proved significant. For the first time, ASD had meaningful consistent data that gave it a clear picture of how it was performing on a group basis. Rob added, "Whilst we are ISO 9001 certified, and were confident we knew our business strengths, the audit data identified areas where we were not performing as well as we had thought."

To their surprise, ASD found they were not communicating key policies such as credit control, IT, and health and safety in a way that were clearly understood. Key business issues also needed addressing, such as bringing new products into the marketplace more quickly and actively marketing them. The audit also identified that the company needed to be more focused in the way it dealt with environmental issues like waste management and minimization.

"This was the quality of information we needed to develop effective solutions to resolve these issues," continued Rob. "It meant we were able to implement a series of actions at unit level that would fit in with our overall group strategy and deliver measurable, enhanced group performance."

ASD also discovered there were immediate financial benefits in adopting enhanced assessment methodology. It estimated around £150,000 has been saved across the group. This was achieved by eliminating the costs of training 60 people and the disruption of temporarily taking them away from their key tasks within the business. Now ASD just needs a three-strong audit team to undertake all its internal audit work.

"For any company, this can only be a win/win situation", Rob concluded.