How to Ensure Regulatory Compliance in Manufacturing Industry?

With ever-evolving regulatory landscapes and frameworks, staying compliant is more of an ongoing effort today. Compliance programs keep an organization abreast with the changing regulations so as to avoid any legal implications. Therein lies the need, but compliance is a lot more than just following regulation and minimizing corporate misconduct. The very fabric of a compliance program is woven into daily business operations. It lays down principles and ethical standards, which influence the organization’s policies and continues in a loop, affecting risk management, oversight, monitoring, and corrective action.

After Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, has come forward with the accusation that Facebook puts profit before the safety of people, the platform’s reputation has gone down the tubes. In another example, the 2016 account fraud scandal tarnished Wells Fargo’s reputation, and it faced tremendous backlash from shareholders and customers. Wells Fargo was considered one of the most reputed brands in the US till the account fraud scandal came out in 2016. The bank had to pay around $3 billion to settle its probes and fines.

Company policies, though variegated in content, work towards protecting and improving an organization on a handful of essential fronts. Experience indicates they are business-critical and legal lawsuits show they are unavoidable. However, as a course or principle of action, a policy isn’t to be reduced to a tool intended to placate strict regulatory bodies and maintain an untarnished public image. As much as it guides decision-making, a policy shapes the future and carries the power to effect change. Therefore, growing organizations do well to invest in better mechanisms for drafting, implementing, and updating policies.

Over the years, technology has become a critical part of the compliance ecosystem. AI and machine learning have redefined the approach and made it more efficient.
Through this blog post, you will see the benefits of compliance technology and how to choose the best technology for compliance management.

Assessing compliance is an important step in formulating and creating a cohesive compliance management system within your organization.

Policies and procedures are the underpinning elements by which an organization establishes its rules of conduct. Both serve to drive compliance, but do so through starkly different methods. One puts to paper the guidelines and rules that every organization expects its employees, and every other person connected to the company, to follow. The other, procedure, presents a step-by-step process for any company specific tasks and activities, thus establishing standards.

It is said that change is the only constant, and in the context of an organization, a crucial catalyst of change is policy. Company policies promote and sustain change, ensuring that new standards and ways of working trickle down to every level of the organization. Moving from policy to practice, however, demands strategic communication. You not only need to reach out to the right persons at the right time but want to get all aboard and rowing in synchrony.

The consequences that come with being non-compliant is huge. Considering the stringent regulatory requirements, internationally agreed on industry standards, and the need for internal efficiencies, it is imperative that organizations are proactive about compliance. But, staying on track with changing laws, regulations, and standards is a tedious process. Compliance automation can help solve these complex problems – streamline business processes, automate routine tasks, generate arduous reports in seconds and most importantly… improve overall organizational efficiency.

A remote audit or virtual audit came as a boon to audit teams during the unprecedented covid 19 crisis. It is a method of conducting an audit remotely using technology. Just like an onsite audit, it covers interview with management and employees, verification of documents and reports.