Characteristics of Adequate Controls

Several features are necessary to ensure the adequacy of control processes and tools:

? Timeliness. The control device should reflect deviations from the standard promptly, at an early stage, so there is only a small time lag between detection and the beginning of corrective action.

? Economy. If possible, control devices should involve routine, normal processes rather than special inspection routines at additional expense. The control devices must be worth their cost.

? Comprehensiveness. The controls should be directed at the basic phases of the work rather than at later levels or steps in the process; for example, a defective part is best inspected and eliminated before it has been assembled with other parts.

? Specificity and appropriateness. The control process should reflect the nature of the activity. Proper laboratory inspection methods, for example, differ from the financial audit and machine inspection processes.

? Objectivity. The processes should be grounded in fact, and standards should be known and verifiable.

? Responsibility. Controls should reflect the authority-responsibility pattern. As far as possible, the worker and the immediate supervisor should be involved in the monitoring and correction process.

? Understandability. Control devices, charts, graphs, and reports that are complicated or cumbersome will not be readily used.

Characteristics of Adequate Controls.” For each of the tasks or circumstances described below, recommend a specific kind of control mechanism. Your selected mechanism should provide you with information on which you can base corrective actions as needed. In each case state why you selected that particular mechanism, describe how it satisfies the characteristics of adequate controls, and state whether you believe there are one or two additional mechanisms that might work almost as well as your chosen mechanism.

Display the status of the accomplishment of routine scheduled preventive maintenance activities by the plant engineering department.

Track the number of repeat patient chart requests fulfilled beyond a stated two-hour response-time limit.

Follow the processing of a letter of complaint from its initial receipt to the disposition of the problem.

Track the timeliness of the clinical laboratory's responses to STAT test requests.

Track the department's financial operating results as compared with the departmental budget.

Report on employment turnover throughout the organization by quarter and by year.