Health and Safety
Plan
“The process will be faster and more accurate if we capture information electronically on site.” Hear more...
Nick Regan, IS Manager, Pearce
“We rely on site managers to carry out weekly H&S audits - at the moment it is difficult to interrogate the data.” Hear more...
Pete Creese, Health and Safety Manager, Pearce
“The software will help the site staff collect the data and make it readily available to all interested parties.”
Bryan Underdown, Business Development Manager, Knowledge Online
Background
Pearce is a main contractor, whose site managers carry out Health & Safety audits on each site weekly. H&S managers who are not based at specific sites periodically carry out more detailed audits.
Large amounts of Health & Safety information are collected and sent to the H&S team. Often this information is in hard copy, and thus, very inefficient for any further analyses beyond the initial site reaction.
The H&S team wishes to be more proactive and to use the information to view trends, back-up decisions and produce training material.
Problem
Health and Safety information from site audits is sent to the H&S manager, via various methods such as fax. When issues of non-conformance are received, it is often too late for immediate action and the information needs re-entering to be of any long-term use. H&S staff don't have enough spare time to enter all the information to be analysed and used properly.
Pearce currently issue 'hot works permits' that remain in files on site. They are scrapped at the end of each project. If there was a subsequent dispute it would be difficult to prove whether an activity was signed off.
Proposed solution
H&S forms are filled out using a PDA. The data is synchronised with a central database via the site wireless network. This will enable the H&S staff to view the information via the Pearce network. Besides giving up-to-date information, it is also in a database format which enables comprehensive analysis. Pearce will use E-Safe 100 from Knowledge-Online. They have chosen PDAs with integral cameras and plastic cases with padding have been supplied for site use.
The hot works permits are now written on digital paper forms that have been made to look the same as the original Pearce forms. The site manager has a digital pen and fills the forms in as he would have done before. He stores the pen in its cradle next to his laptop in the site office. All of the digital paper forms, hardware and software have been supplied by Sysnet.
Pilot
“It has taken longer than we had hoped, dealing with issues such as battery life, security and the signal strength on wireless routers has helped us in planning the company's future site infrastructure.” Hear more...
Nick Regan, IS Manager, Pearce
“We have had some teething problems. ..but we are confident that this will shortly be resolved and that the site team will then get the full benefit.” Hear more...
Bryan Underdown, Business Development Manager, Knowledge Online
“We can see the positives of using it, but it's very time consuming at the moment.” Hear more...
Steve Lewis, Site H&S Coordinator, Pearce
Pilot information
A site H&S coordinator and a H&S manager have been given the PDAs to trial.
A Fujitsu PDA that synchronises to the Pearce wireless network is being used. Synchronisation seems to work within about 5 metres of the wireless hub. This takes at least few minutes to complete which is delaying the site manager. There were a few issues that have been solved to make the synchronisation work successfully with the Pearce network.
The digital pen for the hot works permit has been installed on site by Alasdair Ross of Sysnet with a cradle connected to the site manager's laptop, this enables charging and easy synchronisation.
Development notes
The new PDA version has a new windows operating system and there are a few issues to solve, hence the older version without a camera is now being used for the pilot project. A few hitches with the synchronisation have meant a delay to the pilot.
Non-conformance issues can now be sent by text message to the relevant sub-contractor.
The weekly H&S site audit was carried out for two different parties which combined to nearly 300 questions. There is now a summary of 20 questions for the site coordinator to complete, designed with drop down menus for speed of inputting.
The software developer met the H&S manager and the site H&S coordinator with two PDAs to test. After a run-through this flagged most of the usability issues. To fully solve these frequent communication with the pilot staff in the first few weeks of the pilot is required.
The digital pen is not causing any complications as when it is attached to the cradle it automatically synchronises and the manager needs to do nothing more, he is currently issuing about 10 permits a week.
Internal changes
With the PDAs being used on site the only process difference is the possibility of the site staff doing more of the H&S reporting. There are no internal changes with the pen usage apart from the data now existing on the Pearce network instead of just being stored in files on site.
A suite of reports will be delivered from Knowledge Online in the next software update.
Deployment
“The digital pen and paper solution for hot works permits is very simple to use and I had less than five minutes training.”
Darren Sumpter, Site Manager, Pearce
“The E-Safe 100 solution is now a fast system but still needs little more tweaking.”
Steve Lewis, Site H&S Coordinator, Pearce
“We have overcome the technical issues and are now seeing the benefits of the system.”
Nick Regan, IS Manager, Pearce
Implementation
Using the digital pen for the forms automatically populates the Pearce database. Darren has also used the pen for free text and drawing sketches to e-mail to contractors. Proving that he is very happy with using the pen and testing it for different applications. To get to this stage Sysnet only needed to visit the site once to write the specifications and once to set-up and train staff.
The H&S manager is happily reading the site co-ordinators weekly H&S reports that are on the web site.
Compatibility issues continue, the new PDA from Fujitsu is not being used yet as the operating platform is also new and doesn't work properly with the current version of the H&S software.
Site issues
Whilst witnessing the site meetings it is clear that the software providers have a very good relationship with the Pearce staff.
The staff who are not familiar with the software on the PDA take minutes to enter each issue. The staff who have been using it for over a month now are very quick. The camera on the PDA is used, hence some reports have very few words on. This can make the entering of information on site very quick and effective, these reports are sent immediately to the relevant sub-contractor to fix.
Site issues
Whilst witnessing the site meetings it is clear that the software providers have a very good relationship with the Pearce staff.
The staff who are not familiar with the software on the PDA take minutes to enter each issue. The staff who have been using it for over a month now are very quick. The camera on the PDA is used, hence some reports have very few words on. This can make the entering of information on site very quick and effective, these reports are sent immediately to the relevant sub-contractor to fix.
Evaluation
“The PDA saves me time on site and could be used for more in the future.”
Steve Lewis, Site H&S Coordinator, Pearce
“E-Safe100 has enabled the recording of the site inspections to become a quick and easy affair for Steve, freeing up more of his time to attend to his other responsibilities.”
Pete Creese, Health and Safety Manager, Pearce
“The use of the pen takes away all the admin and filing headaches associated with the Hot Works Permits for no effort on the part of the user. They just fill out the paperwork as they have always done and an electronic copy is created and filed.”
Peter Burtwhistle, Managing Director, Sysnet
Evaluation ROI
Monthly management reports are no longer 16 printed pages but two lines of information within the H&S report. This saves time and considerable printing considering there are 20 managers in the monthly meetings.
At least 1/2 hour each week is saved on site by not having to write up forms. The synchronising of the PDA now takes about 30 seconds, this needs to be carried out near to the wireless hub in the Pearce site office. Synchronisation is not available via personal computers, however, this is a Pearce decision and not a software or hardware limitation.
Pictures taken with the PDA now print on the second page of reports that are sent to the sub-contractor. These reports are given back to Pearce when they have been attended to and signed.
The managers have access to the software, so can check current details from their computers. The software enables searches and analyses as a full working database on the internet. This enables the easy finding and gathering of statistical backing that is needed by the H&S manager to show a business case for any area of needed research.
Technology
The i-mate PDA 2k uses Microsoft Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition and has 128MB of RAM and 64MB of ROM. There is also the possibility to increase the storage memory using the SD/MMC Memory Expansion Slots. The PDA 2k has a 3.5 inch, 64000 Colour screen and a built in keyboard and camera. The PDA 2k can be connected via Bluetooth and is also GSM/GPRS enabled. It also has WLAN built in.
Lessons
If new a technology or process isn't used on a daily basis then it will take a few reminders and encouragement until full confidence is achieved. The PDA user in this case has a direct phone number for one of the Knowledge-Online team, this has been greatly appreciated. Many issues have been sorted out very quickly over the phone, without any big changes to the software set-up.
Costs
The Hardware for the pilot was supplied by Knowledge Online and would have cost around £380 - or could have been sourced by the Phone provider. GPRS was not used so no SIM card was required. One to one training was conducted with the site manager over three workshop sessions. Group training sessions for inspectors are usually conducted averaging £180 each. Usage (or data storage) charges for the one site would have been around £300 a month - if used in isolation. Economies of scale would reduce costs to around £30/month/site based on 30 sites.
What next?
The software is rolled out to all of the H&S team across all projects. The use throughout the whole of the company should greatly increase the quality of information available in management meetings. When the system has been used for a number of projects the H&S team can start to analyse the information more and start to get the real benefits of the software.