Introduction:

Wyeth, formerly American Home Products Company (AHP), created a Corporate Environmental and Safety (E&S) Group in 1991. One of the first initiatives was to institute an environmental auditing function followed by a safety auditing function one year later. This was a small group that functioned as a separate independent environmental and safety auditing and Corporate E&S Department. At the end of 1994, American Home Products merged with American Cyanamid Company. For the Environmental and Safety Department, this helped to strengthen the function. AHP had a strong environmental audit group and Cyanamid had a strong loss prevention and audits department. In 1996, the environmental and safety audits were combined into one audit that was conducted under Attorney Client Privilege. Other improvements were made and various computer software systems were developed and introduced for tracking audit activities from 1996 to 2002.

In 2002, American Home Product made a decision to move from a holding company to a true Global Pharmaceutical Company. In March of 2002, American Home Products changed its name to Wyeth. Wyeth was more than just a name change. It was a cultural change for the company as a whole. This change is continuing today. The change impacted the audit program. In 2003, after several months of redesigning the program, the Added Value Audit Program was implemented and included in the revised Wyeth EHS Policy (Attachment 1). Some of the changes include:

  • Expanding and identifying the customers of the audit program beyond just senior management

  • Developing a better communication tool for senior and line management, "Executive Summary Transmittal Letter".

  • Evaluation of what is good at the facility and sharing it throughout the organization, "Best Practices" and Wyeth Best Practices"

  • Providing line management the opportunity to participate in the audit program as "Guest Auditors"

  • Developing closure plans with the auditee and coming to agreement on dates

  • Formal and on-going training for auditors and guest auditors

  • Tools for auditing in the form of Company Policy, Guidelines, Standards, Protocols and Regulatory aids for both domestic and international locations

  • Using both environmental and health and safety consultants

  • Developing a governance document for the audit program.

Figure 1. The Wyeth EHS Policy (available in full paper)
Customers:

Expanding and identifying the customer may not be as easy as we think. Audits are emotional activities for businesses. Facility Management is also concerned as to "who" in management receives the report and how it will be viewed. For audits to be successful the report needs to be a true and accurate evaluation of the overall program. This means that the customers are the facility management, the local environmental, and health and safety professional, business unit management/ Division management as while as senior management. All of these levels of management have a stake in the audit. As stakeholders, the audit should service to fulfill each of their needs. The audit should address both positive programs and activities "Best Practices", program gaps, recommendations, and action items.

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