Closing the Loop: How Audits and On-the-Job Training Work Together

Imagine during a routine plant floor audit, you find an operator unknowingly using an outdated procedure to perform a final quality check on an electronics assembly. You document the finding, verbally review the new procedure with the operator, and have them sign off on retraining.  

On paper, the issue looks resolved. 

A few weeks later, the same mistake shows up again — this time with a different operator. 

Why did it happen? 

You haven’t closed the loop. Without retraining in the right context, verifying that all operators understand the standard, and checking in to make sure the change stuck, you’ve just delayed the next failure. 

Here we explore how integrating audits with on-the-job training creates a closed-loop system that identifies the issue, provides targeted skill-building, and confirms that you’re holding the gain.

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When the Loop Is Broken 

When you don’t have closed-loop processes, it leaves room for problems to fall through the cracks. Examples include when: 

• Standards don’t reflect what’s actually happening on the plant floor, and you have no systematic way of capturing this information 
• Follow-up and retraining are delivered out of context, such as with computer-based learning management system (LMS) refresher training 
• Plants don’t verify training effectiveness, including with post-training assessments and ongoing verification programs like layered process audits (LPAs) 
• There’s no complete record that links what was found to how it was fixed, when, and by whom (and whether it worked) 

Closing the loop requires addressing the manual delays and breakdowns in the flow of information at the root of these issues, particularly around audits and training.  

How Audits and Training Work Hand in Hand 

Audits reveal where standards aren’t being followed, while training ensures operators understand the standards. The real power, however, comes from linking the two processes together and delivering the information where the work happens: on the plant floor. 

When an audit identifies a non-conformance, you need to do more than just document the issue and provide a verbal follow-up to confirm the procedure. Instead, imagine being able to: 

• Assign a targeted on-the-job lesson to the operator that links directly to the relevant standard, a one-point lesson, and/or interactive video. 
• Capture post-training assessment data to document that the operator understood the material. 
• Add a plant floor audit question to your checks to periodically verify that operators are still following the correct procedures. 
• Identify systemic risks by incorporating that question into audits of other workstations. 

In this way, companies can transform training from a check-the-box activity into a functional part of the quality system. Verification systems like LPAs make it easy to follow up on a regular frequency, ensuring the training worked and the change holds. If the issue reappears, the loop starts over again. 

Of course, it’s often not willful non-compliance that’s driving quality issues. In some cases, the standard itself may be unclear, something that audits can help uncover through one-on-one engagement and operator feedback. 

The Larger PDCA Context

When we think about closed-loop processes in the manufacturing environment, the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle is often what first comes to mind: 

• Plan: Document your standards (say what you will do). 
• Do: Execute the operation. 
• Check: Audit the process against the standard (verify that you’re doing what you said you would do). 
• Act: Make adjustments for any issues you identify in the check step; for example, by delivering targeted retraining when the root cause is operator non-compliance. 

Your plant floor audit program feeds the cycle of this closed-loop process. Did you hold the gain? Has the issue recurred? If so, it may require deeper investigation and root cause analysis. 

The pace of change in manufacturing today is such that the PDCA cycle only works if information flows freely. Standards, audits, and training must speak to each other — and quickly — to prevent problems from snowballing into costly quality failures.  

Ensuring Sustainable Improvement  

Signing a form doesn’t mean a problem is solved, just like completing a list of LMS modules doesn’t guarantee an operator is prepared to do their job well.  

To truly close the loop, audits and training must work together to verify standard adherence, check for comprehension, and capture feedback that improves both training and the standards themselves. 

Digital on-the-job training and plant floor audit solutions like EASE help eliminate the lag and disconnect between these steps. By integrating plant floor audits with on-the-job training, you ensure that information moves quickly, action happens in context, and every solution is documented from start to finish.