Many practical considerations are kept in mind while setting up scope of audit like workforce size, capabilities and availability, capabilities of an outside consultant, budget and time frame available for the audit so as to make the exercise feasible for implementation. The scope should follow a step by step procedure instead of trying to cover too many processes thus compromising the audit effectiveness.

The audit objectives should be planned very well, in advance, so as to define the level of detail required and physical coverage of the same along with the manpower required for the audit execution.

Auditor Selection
Once the scope of audit is defined, the duration of the project and the manpower requirement will be clear. A smaller audit will require a single trained and competent auditor who has a deep understanding of both the foundry and energy audit techniques and processes. Knowledge of computers will be an added advantage.

It is very important to select a suitable auditor for the success of the audit process. The auditor should be objective, perceptive, should have effective communication skills, and be of high personal integrity. These qualities should be evident to the foundry staff. He would require to build a good rapport with the staff as most of the information required by him will be gathered by personal interview and discussions with them.

The management will have to decide if the audit task will be assigned to an in house staff member or they will hire an outside, experienced consultant. Although the cost of assigning the task to an in house employee will be lesser, but it will involve more time, errors and interfere the staff member's routine job. He may also be biased or overlook a certain aspect of the operations. The in house staff member's experience will also be limited as compared to an outside consultant.

Thus, in nutshell, the audit's scope defines the boundaries of audit, processes to be audited, manner of reporting etc.


Budgeting and Audit Duration
The budget and time duration for the audit will depend on the planned coverage of the audit, time taken for the planning stage and gathering information, evaluation required and interpretation of data, drawing results and recommendations and finally preparation of audit report. The estimate is drawn in per person per week terms.

The purpose of an energy audit is to study and evaluate energy consumption and thus try to find out ways, areas and opportunities for more efficient use of energy. For an energy audit to have maximum value, it must address and quantify the following :-

• Study and evaluate efficiency of all energy consuming processes and equipment.
• Pin pointing inefficiencies in processes which lead to energy wastage and other negative impacts.