Caution: Have You Got Your Digital Safe Work Permits? | Unvired
Safety measures in the workplace need an immediate overhaul in the US and Canada. Did you know that there were 5,333 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2019, a 2 percent increase from 5,250 in 2018? Think about this in another way- a worker died every 99 minutes in the US from a work-related injury in 2019. This data has been reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, 2019 (bls.gov)
A little up North, Canada also has its share of workplace accidents, according to the latest data on occupational health and safety across the country. Released on April 27, the 2020 Report on Work Fatality and Injury Rates in Canada indicates that 1,027 workers died of work-related causes in 2018, an increase of 76 from 2017:
There can be no compromise on Safety in the Industrial world. Companies are still using paper-based Safe Work Permits even when they have systems for Asset Inspections and Maintenance. We know this because we have several customers in Oil & Gas, Utilities, Chemicals, Mining, and Manufacturing whom Unvired has transitioned from paper permits to Digital.
Real-World Customer Examples of Adopting Digital Work Permits:
Mining company in US and Europe: Paper permits were converted to Digital by the customer’s Business Users without writing any code (No Code). Also, these digital permits were associated with mobile work orders so that a permit can be requested, approved, and upon Work completion, closed out. Android mobile devices in an offline environment were used.
Oil and Gas company in Canada: Daily safety meetings were held on the Rig and various paper forms were filled. Unvired enabled the customer to replace these safety-related forms including Work Permits with digital versions and provide access to their workers on Windows tablets and iOS devices. Various types of permits were digitized/mobilized including Hot Work, Cold Work, and Confined Space as well as Lock Out/Tag Out forms.
Drawbacks of Paper Permits:
- Storage and Audits: Often get damaged/lost and time-consuming to audit.
- Inefficient work processes: Paper-based processes require many hours of filling forms and transferring papers from one location to another increasing plant downtime.
- Compliance & Safety Risks: Maintaining compliance and safety regulations for risk assessment, Work Permits, and Lockout/ Tag Out becomes cumbersome.
- Lack of real-time visibility: There is no visibility of work in progress without physical access to work permits.
- Cost: Higher operational cost associated with printing, administration, and storage of paper-based forms.
Benefits of Digital Work Permits:
- Enable Operations and Maintenance to collaborate during the Work Permit process
- Create, Review, and Approve Digital Work Permits
- Integrate with SAP, Oracle, SharePoint, OpenText, Cloud services, and other systems
- Automate workflow for job authorizations and approvals
- Attach documents and images
- Capture electronic signatures
- Work offline, auto-sync when connectivity is available
- Real-time dashboard for work in progress visibility
How to Get Started Fast on Digital Safe Work Permits?
Customers can take a phased approach. In Phase 1, the paper Work Permits can be rapidly converted to Digital using Unvired’s Turbo Forms app. Data can be collected offline on mobile devices and routed for permit approvals using Workflow and integrated with any database. Maintenance and Operations can collaborate seamlessly. In Phase 2, these digital Work Permits can be associated with Work Orders, Site Locations, or Equipment, and integrated with SAP Plant Maintenance, IBM Maximo, Oracle EAM, SharePoint, OpenText, and other systems.
Just Build It with Low Code/No Code
Business Users can develop these digital permits on their own by using the Forms Builder, a No-Code component of the Unvired application called Turbo Apps These digital permits can be developed by the Business Users/Citizen developers using Drag and Drop components. This reduces the skill levels needed and decreases the time to implement Digital Permits.
Review the 90 seconds demo video of the Unvired Forms app, also known as Digital Forms — link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtzO0SMmSb8
So, what are you waiting for? Just Build It.
Originally published at https://unvired.com on March 8, 2021.
