Facility Inspection Checklist: How to Document Hazards, Repairs, and Corrective Actions

The use of a comprehensive inspection checklist at your facility will undoubtedly be among the most economical and straightforward methods for an organization to avoid problems becoming accidents, violations, or costly repairs. Whether you operate a warehouse, manufacturing facility, retail operation, or office space, conducting inspections will create a paper trail for your staff and management to see.

Why Documentation Matters as Much as the Inspection Itself

Most importantly, a checklist helps to keep track of all of the items inspected and the findings discovered. It is often easy to overlook or postpone items after an inspection unless they are properly documented. A checklist also serves as a reminder for future tasks, such as confirming that the findings are adequately resolved or adding items for future inspections based on the results.

A checklist can be useful for other reasons as well:

• It provides a means for ensuring that the inspection is conducted based on certain criteria regardless of who performs the inspection.
• It provides an opportunity for quick identification and further analysis of findings.
• It allows for an audit trail to be established.
• It ensures that nothing is missed.

The documentation is not only for internal use. In case of an OSHA audit, an insurance claim, or an investigation following a work injury, the history of inspections will demonstrate that the building was dealing with these hazards.

Core Categories to Include in Your Checklist

There are many categories that a proper facility inspection checklist should include:

• Building components. It is possible to inspect by examining damage to the floor, stairs, handrails, ceiling, and wall components, including cracks and moisture damage or any possibility of falling items. Electrical components.
• Certain electrical faults, such as overloaded sockets, exposed wiring, missing covers for panels, and problems with lighting, may be identified on inspection.
• Fire prevention equipment. These are things like smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, sprinklers, fire alarm systems, and escape routes that require routine inspection. Machinery. Guarding, emergency stops, and the condition of machinery all need to be checked to ensure that the equipment is being maintained and that all safety standards are being adhered to.
• Storage and housekeeping. Aisles, materials, and walkways being obstructed or not properly organized may contribute to many accidents in the workplace.
• Environmental factors. It is necessary to check ventilation and temperature control and possible chemical or fume exposure.

Turning Findings Into Corrective Action

One of the most important considerations when completing a facility inspection is the documentation of any corrective actions necessary to resolve the hazards or issues identified. Ideally, a company will have a systematic process for prioritizing the items inspected, assigned to responsible parties, followed up on, and completed. For example, while a chipped piece of wall trim may be low priority and able to wait until the next scheduled maintenance, a faulty extension cord may need to be replaced immediately.

Apart from the identification of the corrections needed, the following should be included in all facility inspections:

• Priority or severity of each observation
• A person or section assigned the task of making the correction
• The time frame within which the correction should be made
• Confirmation of the completion of the correction
• Repeating problems

Building Consistency Across Multiple Locations

Companies with multiple facilities also benefit from using a standard facility inspection checklist, as it allows problems across sites to be compared, trends identified, and the opportunity to drive improvements in all facilities rather than single out individual areas for correction. Additionally, digital checklists provide a helpful way to ensure that similar facilities are inspected the same way, even when different inspection teams complete the process.

A checklist can also be used to verify whether all items present in the investigation have been included and followed through, and to aid during the required follow-up and escalation of the items to be correctly resolved.

Avoiding common pitfalls

A facility inspection checklist should be completed on a regular and consistent basis, should follow the same schedule for each team member, and should ensure accountability at all levels.

Although inspections are one of the vital elements of a safety program, they are most useful when used in combination with the follow-up and resolution processes. Those organizations that conduct a safety inspection but fail to do the follow-ups on the identified areas will be as good as conducting nothing at all.

Facility inspection as an ongoing process

The best facilities view inspections as an ongoing part of their operations process rather than a compliance activity that only happens once per year. Integrating a facility inspection checklist into regular workflows, daily, weekly, or monthly based on the area’s level of risk, allows one to catch minor problems. At the same time, they are still relatively minor, rather than waiting for them to develop into safety accidents or expensive repairs.

Using Array means you can access a set of applications that have been designed to help a building and facility team perform the inspection with consistent procedures, collect photographs and handwritten notes documenting the issues, and monitor actions undertaken as part of the resolution, starting from the issue identification stage, through to when the repair has been done, all without leaving the platform.