How to Conduct a Robotics Audit in Your Company
In today’s rapidly evolving industrial and operational landscape, companies are turning to robotics and automation not just for efficiency, but for true competitive advantage. But implementing robots, smart machines and automation does not guarantee success. Without regular, rigorous auditing of your robotics strategy, deployments, and operations, you risk wasted capex, under-utilised assets, creeping costs, compliance gaps and missed opportunities. This article explains how to perform a comprehensive robotics audit in your company — and how partnering with specialist robotics consulting and recruitment services can elevate your results.
1. Why a Robotics Audit Matters
A robotics audit is essentially a systematic review of how robotics (both physical robots, automation systems and software bots) are being selected, deployed, managed, monitored and refreshed in your organisation. According to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW), robotic process automation (RPA) carries key risks such as governance gaps, poor process-selection, inadequate design/testing, insufficient monitoring, weak change management and process continuity issues. ICAEW
Meanwhile, firms like PwC emphasise that RPA can increase productivity, expand risk-coverage, but only when governance and controls are built from the start. PwC
In other words: while robotics offers huge upside — faster cycles, cost savings, improved quality, operational resilience — it also presents a blind-spot if left unchecked. A robotics audit allows:
an independent review of current robotics/automation deployment
identification of under-performing assets, processes not suited to robots, and latent risk exposures
review of governance, oversight, change-management and lifecycle planning
creation of a roadmap to optimise returns and reduce wasted investment
Ultimately, the audit helps your company go from ‘we’ve got robots’ to ‘we’re using robots effectively and safely for profit and growth’.
2. Preparation – Setting Scope, Objectives & Governance
Before you launch your audit you must define the scope and objectives. A typical audit may cover:
The full robotics & automation portfolio (physical robots, cobots, software bots)
Process suitability and performance metrics
Governance, oversight, roles & responsibilities
Design, build, test and deployment practices
Monitoring, metrics, feedback loops and lifecycle management
Change-management, update processes and end-of-life planning
Risk, continuity, security (especially for cyber-physical systems)
Define clear audit objectives: for example, “assess whether robot deployments in the manufacturing line are delivering at least 15% improvement in throughput versus baseline” or “verify whether robotics initiatives are managed under a consistent governance model across business units”.
Set up a governance layer: appoint an audit sponsor (senior executive), form an audit team (internal or external), set timelines, milestones, deliverables. Ensure you get access to data, systems, documentation, robot performance logs, maintenance records, change logs.
3. Phase 1 – Inventory & Baseline Assessment
The first phase of the audit is to create an inventory of all robotics/automation assets and establish baseline performance and metrics. Key steps:
Inventory assets: catalog all robots, cobots, automated lines, RPA bots, including vendor, model, age, status, location, process served, utilisation rate, current performance.
Process mapping: for each robot/automation asset, map the process it supports: input-output, cycle time, key performance indicators (KPIs), error-rate, human interface, decision logic, upstream/downstream dependencies.
Baseline metrics: capture current performance metrics before any optimisation: throughput, scrap or error rates, downtime, maintenance cost, manpower replaced, energy consumption, ROI to date.
Suitability review: ask if each process was suitable for robotics. According to ICAEW guidance, risks include selecting processes unsuitable for automation (e.g., high variability, high subjectivity, unstable IT environment) so it is essential to validate. ICAEW
Controls review: check whether governance exists for each asset — are roles and responsibilities defined? Are change logs maintained? Is monitoring in place?
By the end of Phase 1 you will have a strong grasp of where you stand. You’ll know what you’ve got, how it is performing, whether it was appropriately selected, and whether controls are in place.
4. Phase 2 – Deep Dive: Risk, Performance, Governance & Compliance
With the inventory and baseline in hand, next you perform a deeper audit across key dimensions: risk, performance, governance, compliance.
4.1 Risk
Robotics brings unique risks: physical safety, cyber-physical attack surface, software bugs, maintenance failures, process failures, data integrity issues. As the audit team at ICAEW notes, live monitoring of bots is critical because “a robot may go wrong after it has been put into use” and without proper alerts the business might only discover problems after many cycles. ICAEW
Security frameworks such as the Robot Security Framework (RSF) provide useful methodology for robotics security assessments. arXiv
Key questions:
Are the robots and automation assets included in the organisation’s risk register?
Is there a documented business-continuity plan if an asset fails?
Are permissions appropriately segregated? Are logging and monitoring in place?
In software bots (RPA bots), are release management, change logs, and version-control processes defined?
Are dependencies mapped (for example: what happens if a key sensor fails or upgrade breaks downstream process)?
4.2 Performance & Value
Review performance against the baseline:
Are the robots delivering the expected throughput, error-rate, uptime improvements, cost reductions?
Are there hidden costs creeping in (maintenance, spare parts, calibration downtime, process change costs)?
Are there processes where robots are under-utilised or idle?
Are there opportunities to redeploy under-used assets into higher value tasks?
A robotics audit published by ISACA emphasises that RPA allows entire populations of data to be audited rather than just samples — enabling deeper assurance. ISACA
4.3 Governance & Oversight
Governance is often the weak link in robotics deployments. According to ICAEW, “Multiple departments creating and maintaining robots will be subject to varying standards of risk and control.” ICAEW
Audit activities should check:
Is there a single Centre of Excellence (CoE) or at least common governance standard for all robot/automation deployment?
Are roles/responsibilities clearly defined (who owns the robot lifecycle; who monitors performance; who triggers change)?
Are design/development/testing standards defined? Are proofs-of-concept used before full roll-out?
Are change-management processes formalised (who approves changes, how are they tested, is there rollback)?
Are exceptions and alerts logged, metrics tracked and reviewed by senior management?
4.4 Compliance & Standards
Robotics systems may need to comply with safety standards (e.g., ISO 10218 for industrial robots) and software governance. Wikipedia
Audit must check:
Are safety certifications up-to-date?
Are software bots subject to version control, change logs, audit trails?
Are regulatory or internal-control audits including robotics assets in their scope?
Are there documentation and evidence trails for the robotics deployments (design documents, testing logs, maintenance records)?
5. Phase 3 – Optimisation & Roadmap
Once your audit has uncovered risks, performance gaps, governance issues and compliance exposures, you move into optimisation and roadmap stage.
5.1 Identify Quick Wins
Redeploy idle or under-utilised robots.
Consolidate robots across similar processes to reduce overhead and achieve economies of scale.
Fix simple governance gaps (e.g., create monitoring dashboards for robot uptime, establish kill-switch alerts).
Rationalise software bots that are redundant or overlapping.
5.2 Medium to Long-Term Improvements
Introduce a robotics CoE if one doesn’t exist (or strengthen existing).
Define and implement lifecycle-management for robotics assets: procurement → deployment → performance → refresh/disposal.
Review suitability of processes for robot automation using a standard matrix — only stable, rule-based processes should be automated, per ICAEW’s guidance. ICAEW
Revamp change-management and version-control for software bots.
Strengthen risk register, include robotics assets, ensure business-continuity plans.
Integrate robotics KPIs into broader operational metrics (uptime, reliability, return on robot investment, human-robot collaboration metrics).
5.3 Build a Roadmap
Develop a 12- to 36-month roadmap:
Year 1: audit findings closed, governance implemented, quick wins achieved.
Year 2: scaling and consolidation of robotics assets, process rationalisation, automation of new processes.
Year 3: strategic robotics deployments (AI/cognitive bots, collaborative robots, robotics as service) and continuous monitoring framework.
Ensure the roadmap includes budget, resources, timeline, owners, KPIs and review moments.
6. Why Engage a Specialist Robotics Consulting & Recruitment Service
Auditing robotics is one thing — acting on the findings and implementing improvements is another. That’s why partnering with a specialist robotics consultancy and recruitment firm can accelerate your journey and maximise the return on robotics investment.
Here’s what you gain by working with experts such as those at Robot Philosophy (RoboPhil) and their industry partners:
Deep robotics expertise: Robotics consulting firms have subject-matter experts experienced in robot selection, deployment, governance and robotics lifecycles. They bring frameworks, check-lists and proven methodologies — not just theories.
Independent audit capability: A specialist can provide a fresh, unbiased audit of your robotics estate. Internal teams may have blind-spots.
Actionable roadmap and implementation: Once issues are identified, consultants help translate audit findings into action: design enhancements, governance implementation, change management, performance maximisation.
Recruitment of robotics talent: Robotics projects require skilled engineers, integration specialists, robot programmers, process analysts. A robotics-focused recruitment service helps you attract and hire the right talent quickly.
End-to-end support: From audit, through optimisation, to talent acquisition, you benefit from a partner who understands the whole life-cycle of robotics in enterprise.
If your company wants to move from robotics experimentation to robotics optimisation — with real efficiency, performance and profit gains — an audit combined with consultancy and recruitment support is the route. For expert auditing, consulting and recruitment services, contact us at info@robophil.com or call 0845 528 0404 to book a call.
7. Real-World Case: What Good Looks Like
Imagine a medium-sized manufacturing company with ten assembly-line robots installed over five years. Their initial goal was to speed up production and reduce head-count. But after three years performance plateaued. An audit revealed:
robots were operating at 60% utilisation (idle time during shifts)
no central governance; each line manager maintained their own robot, leading to inconsistent performance metrics
maintenance logs were incomplete, and change-management for software updates was ad-hoc
some robots were used for highly variable processes (high decision-complexity) which meant frequent human intervention and re-work
Following the audit they:
created a robotics CoE, standardised procurement and performance monitoring
redeployed two under-used robots to new lines where ROI was higher
implemented dashboards showing uptime, error-rates, maintenance cost per robot
established change-management, version control for robot software updates
switched three robots to processes better suited to automation (low variability, high repeatability) — boosting utilisation to 85% and reducing errors by 40%
Within 18 months the company had realised payback on its robots, improved ROI and strengthened its robotics-governance posture.
8. Your Business Mustn’t Wait
If you’ve invested in robotics (or are considering robots) yet do not have a formal audit process, you’re exposing your business to risk and lost value. Robotics is not “fit & forget”. It is a strategic asset that demands oversight, measurement, lifecycle-management and continual optimisation.
By conducting a robotics audit you:
gain clarity on what you’ve deployed, how it’s performing and where the gaps lie
reduce risk across safety, security, compliance, business continuity
free up humans for strategic work instead of routine tasks
build a roadmap to convert robotics investment into measurable ROI
establish governance and talent frameworks to scale robotics from pilot to enterprise
9. Our Offer: Audit, Consultancy, Recruitment
At Robot Philosophy (RoboPhil) we specialise in robotics audit, consulting and recruitment. We help you with:
Robotics audit: We perform a full review of your robotics portfolio, processes, governance, risk, performance and provide a detailed findings report with recommendations.
Consultancy: Based on audit output, we partner with you to implement optimisations — whether process redesign, robot redeployment, governance implementation or lifecycle-management.
Recruitment: We source and place robotics engineers, integration specialists, automation process analysts, and other key talent you need to deploy and manage robotics at scale.
To book a call, please contact us at info@robophil.com or call 0845 528 0404.
10. Sponsors & Partner Ecosystem
This article is proudly sponsored by:
Robot Center (https://robotcenter.co.uk/) — robotics procurement, robotics buy-side support, robotics consultancy, helping companies select the right robot for the job.
Robots of London (https://robotsoflondon.co.uk/) — robot hire, robot rental, rent a robot, hire robot for events or short-term projects, robotics event services in the UK.
Robot Philosophy (https://robophil.com/) — robot consultancy & recruitment, robot advice, robot insights, robot ideas. RoboPhil (Philip English) is a leading robot YouTuber, robotics influencer, robotics trainer, consultant and recruiter.
Together, these partners provide the full spectrum: from robot procurement (Robot Center), through robot deployment and rental (Robots of London), to consultancy and talent (Robot Philosophy).
11. Summary & Next Steps
In summary: a robotics audit is a vital strategic activity if you want to maximise the value of your robotics investment and avoid the hidden risks of unmanaged automation. By following the audit phases — preparation, inventory/baseline, deep dive, optimisation/roadmap — you lay the foundations for robotics success.
But auditing alone is not enough. To truly capitalise, you need governance, process optimisation, talent and implementation support. That’s where expert consulting and recruitment come into play.
If you are ready to take your robotics programme to the next level, contact us at info@robophil.com or call 0845 528 0404 — let us help you audit, optimise and scale your robotics for performance and profit.
Call to Action: Book your robotics audit call today — and turn your robotics investment into measurable, sustainable value.
This article was sponsored by Robot Center, Robots of London, and Robot Philosophy.