Can field inspections be simplified by the implementation of digital forms?
Occupational health and safety (OHS) standards are becoming more strict: some tools and equipment are becoming more and more complex. Rigor is the order of the day! Checkpoints and processes (such as inspections) must be respected more than anything to avoid incidents. In this case, electronic forms can become serious allies to make these inevitable procedures profitable. How can they, more precisely, simplify the imposed processes?
Occupational health and safety and ever-increasing high standards
As a reminder, the new ISO 45001 standard for occupational health and safety was released on March 12th 2018. Among 22,000 standards produced by the international standards organization, it is of particular importance: it is the world’s leading repository in the field of occupational health and safety.
It is one of the world’s most anticipated standards and aims to drastically improve safety levels in the workplace. It is not mandatory, but it aims to provide employers with a framework to provide safe and healthy workplaces (on the ground or not), by preventing work-related trauma and pathologies.
This framework positions occupational health and safety at the level of the management of the organization, and therefore of each decision-maker concerned with the health and satisfaction of his teams. By proposing a real management system, ISO 45001 is based on continuous improvement: among the notable points is the active participation of workers, but above all, the need to assess all risks, including those related to the system itself.
In the case of field intervention, it is therefore not always easy for stakeholders, inspectors or auditors to master all of these rules 100% during inspection activities. Even less so for the leader who must prevent and reduce accidents that involve his responsibility!
Digital inspection forms: a relevant solution to improve processes
New technologies and mobile computing tools are major advances in information sharing, procedures and standards. Nowadays, it becomes easy to create digital inspections with the right software, which have the advantage of reporting the seizure to the premises of intervention safely in accordance with the procedures. Needless to say, this method maximizes stakeholder satisfaction during inspections!
Some solutions allow you to work in offline mode. In this case, the electronic forms carry all the information necessary to allow on-the-fly surveys with variables, texts, or photos taken on the site in question. The most efficient solutions, on the other hand, automatically synchronize information as soon as a possible connection is present with the central seat. This allows management and operations teams to be at the forefront of innovation.
By implementing this type of tool, top management teams provide a solution to accident prevention. Their field team saves time when they travel, thanks to a powerful tool designed to ensure the continuity of the processes. At the same time, it improves the overall profitability of the company … in accordance with the standards!