by Shane Henson — July 18, 2012—Research and consultancy organization BSRIA (owned by The Building Services Research and Information Association) has made available Asset Management and Maintenance Audits, a new guide created to replace two earlier BSRIA publications: Operation and Maintenance Audits and Toolkit for Building Operation Audits.
As BSRIA explains, effective management of assets requires feedback. A well-planned audit will check management systems and maintenance to identify any deviations and make any necessary corrections. This combined publication consists of two parts: the first provides guidance on types of audits; the audit purpose, plan and process; and the role of an auditor, and the second part is a toolkit using Microsoft Excel.
The adaptable toolkit featured in part two can be used to plan the audit and then capture and report the audit results. This toolkit identifies the key functions of asset management and maintenance audits and the main activities in each area that should be audited. It also provides questions to be asked, documents to be reviewed, and a common scoring system. These, over a period of time, will give the opportunity to compare and assess similar sites or the progress of one site over time, says BSRIA, and the results can be used to improve asset management.
Chapters of the guide cover:
- Introduction
- Audits
- Management approach to auditing
- The audit function
- The auditor
- Reporting
- How to use the toolkit
- Toolkit guide
