For decades, audit management has centered on paper checklists, with tracking moving to Excel spreadsheets in more recent years. Despite growing adoption of cloud-based manufacturing software, many auto suppliers still rely on paper checklists and spreadsheets to manage audit programs.

There’s a big problem with this approach, however—it doesn’t improve quality. At least not in any sustainable way. In fact, it often adds more costs to quality management—costs that many experts estimate total as much as 20 percent of revenue for the average company.

In an era of increasing competition among automakers and their suppliers, organizations can’t afford for these costs to stay this high. Part of the problem is that paper-based checklists are inefficient and ineffective for scheduling, data analysis, and building a quality culture overall.

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