Using technology to improve safety and productivity has gone far beyond just a mobile phone and a laptop. Mick Windsor reports.
Imagine being able to send the construction site map to a person’s smart phone showing the danger areas and access routes and they can see their location as they move about. Imagine the mechanics recording findings of their fleet inspections on their own phone which immediately updates the maintenance history on the computer back in the office. Imagine approving expenditure and leave or doing your timesheet all using applications on your phone. Imagine when someone leaves the company being easily able to wipe all company data from their phone but leave their personal data intact. Imagine if your phone was stolen, that you could lock it and wipe all data from it remotely, even though you don’t know where it is.
Imagine! This technology is actually available now.
The following anecdotes are an example of how not to run a business. The key is having sound business processes – the rules and procedures on how your business runs – implemented with cultural change management and a solid training effort for the team. Technology is the enabler, the tools to improve your safety, your productivity and your bottom line.
Rod and Tammy own a fleet of trucks. A ‘mum and dad company’, most of their business was hauling road base and drainage materials for construction projects and they were working on a general earthmoving construction site. They had worked hard and built their fleet up one by one and now had 10 trucks and employed nine drivers. Rod still drove as well as run the business. He was a salesman, mechanic, HR manager, operations manager, safety officer and a truck driver all in one, and worked very long hours to keep the company running, directing operations via mobile phone. Tammy did the books each day on the kitchen table in between doing the housework, looking after their youngest child who was aged three and their two school age children. It was hard during the school holidays especially on cold wet days when the kids couldn’t go outside. Rod was often very tired and he would get cranky very quickly. A couple of good drivers had quit recently because of his temper. Tammy had noticed that he was drinking more and was often quite withdrawn. She was worried about him but didn’t know what to do. Working in a poorly planned and managed workplace has far reaching effects and the stress can even affect your family.
To make it worse, he was under pressure from the principle contractor. Rod’s trucks were a mixture of ages but the oldest one was only about 10 years old. His fleet however was not very reliable due to poor maintenance causing an inconsistent supply of materials to the construction site plant. Vehicle services were often totally forgotten in the rush and if something was not working properly, it was a “she’ll be right mate” attitude and “we’ll fix that later, we have to keep carting fill” This resulted in undue delays and escalated costs when failures inevitably occurred and they would then have to rush to catch up. Several minor accidents had occurred due to haste and tiredness. To make matters worse, they often received conflicting or wrong directions from the principle contractor’s project team of supervisors.
The principal contracting company was a large, well-known and national company. They had many “back office” staff including engineers and a large safety team, but despite many rigorous safety procedures they still had a poor safety record. They often incurred financial penalties for safety or performance reasons. It wasn’t just Rod and Tammy’s failures that caused this, other subcontractors also had breakdowns, transported the incorrect material or showed up at the wrong site and got hurt.
The site principal (owner’s representative) was getting “edgy” about the delays and the impact on the project schedule. They had warned the principal contractor that any more undue delays would result in further significant penalties as defined in the contract. Rod employed a mechanic to do truck servicing and repairs after hours and on weekends, so daytime breakdowns were either fixed by Rod or the driver or invariably the truck was left until the mechanic started mid-afternoon. That worked out to be a lot of downtime but it all went downhill from there. First, the rear inner-tyre of one of his large dump trucks ruptured violently when parked up in a bay. The mechanic was underneath the truck at the time but luckily he was at the front of the truck. It was classed as a near miss and investigated by the site owners and the principle contractor. The investigation results indicated that the incident was caused by the failure of a previous repair of a sidewall tear which was performed by a tyre repairing company. However, other possible contributory factors noted were operation with an under-inflated tyre and improper mounting. It was noted that the overall condition of the tyre was quite poor and worn.
Next, the hydraulic system on one of the tippers wasn’t functioning properly and the mechanic was working on it. The tipper tray was slightly raised and the mechanic was leaning over, checking things when it fell. The 40-year-old mechanic, a father of three, sustained severe chest injuries and a broken jaw after being crushed by the truck’s tray. Subsequent investigations revealed that there was no maintenance history kept on the truck and that the mechanics experience was on passenger vehicles rather than commercial or heavy construction vehicles and plant. Worse still, no training or work instructions had been supplied to him. It was also revealed that Rod and Tammy had no safety plan, no maintenance records (other than parts invoices which were only kept for taxation reasons), no service records or records of daily safety and operational checks by drivers. Also, the contractual arrangements between the construction principal and the haulage contractor was more or less just a handshake deal with no performance or service delivery measures or safety management requirements documented.
A month or so prior, the principle contracting company had engaged a new CEO who was a person of long experience and who understood the need for good planning, record keeping and training. He understood the need to use technology in running an efficient business, to keep people safe and to improve construction standards. He knew they couldn’t afford to do everything at once, so the first step was to understand where they were now in terms of risk and business processes and develop a plan to improve.
In this scenario, how would you turn this around? What would you do if you were the new CEO?
The steps to go through are:
- Understand the current situation – talk with drivers, operators and supervisors;
- Indentify requirements to go forward;
- Develop a business improvement plan;
- Investigate technology;
- Execute the plan; and,
- ‘Review the project.
Understand the current situation
The CEO brought in a specialist consultant to audit the business and identify issues. The specialist talked with people at all levels including contractors and drivers to identify what business processes were in place, whether people followed them and if not, why. The specialist also looked at what business systems were in use and whether they were suitable. He was also looking at all the human resource management, including position descriptions, safety management, planning, maintenance, IT systems and all aspects of the business. This was quite thorough and took about a week to perform. The report was written with many recommendations and presented to the CEO and the leadership team. The report was not pretty and showed that a lot of business reengineering was required. The leadership team grouped and prioritised the work based around a “stay in business” philosophy. It was going to take quite a long time to turn the company around from a poor performer to a safe, well planned and smooth running business.
The audit identified many issues, including:
- Statutory obligations were not always met. There were no records of inspections of safety equipment, scaffolding, slings etc. Training, personnel and induction records were missing or incomplete. One of the drivers didn’t have a drivers licence as it was suspended two months ago for a drink driving offence.
- Business processes and process compliance. Very few of the business processes were documented and what was in place had never been rolled out with proper training. People did what they thought was best. There was no consistency.
- Use of technology. Whilst the Microsoft Office suite was used and CAD was utilised for design, there was no document management system or integrated business system to manage procurement, human resource information or to manage and record maintenance. People created their own Access databases and spreadsheets and there was no scheduled data backup.
- Commercial arrangements and contractor engagement and scopes of work were variable. Some contractors were engaged just on a handshake and there was no prequalification process in place.
- Training and inductions. Limited training was provided to the team and the administration and record keeping of training was poor. Inductions were given but the documentation was stored in archive boxes in a shipping container along with maintenance work orders. People had been rummaging in the container looking for paperwork and over time, some boxes had broken open with documents left lying on the floor. People just walked over the top of them.
- Recruitment was left up to the supervisor or manager with no proper selection or screening processes in place.
- Whilst people cared about safety, the safety management planning was quite informal.
- Project management and operations and despatch were inconsistent with issues identified in scope management, scheduling and task allocation. The wrong site entry gate number was sometimes given to a driver, or the wrong load was delivered. There was no integrated planning between the various business units resulting in miscommunications.
Indentify requirements to go forward
The main requirements were:
- Develop and implement a safety management planning system and the following policies:
- Occupational health and safety
- Information technology
- Maintenance management
- HR, training and recruitment
- Finance
- Operations and planning
- Procurement and supply
- Statutory obligation management
- Record keeping
- Well defined documented and properly implemented business processes.
- An integrated business system which was auditable and included a document management system with version control.
- Well maintained and reliable assets.
- Standardised commercials and prequalification.
- Effective personal and business KPIs. ‘
- Smooth communication and data management.
After understanding their requirements they began to design a solution but they quickly identified that their current and varied business systems could not handle the integration that was needed between the business functions. They investigated and selected SAP Business All In One, Engineering and Construction Industry solution as the integrated business system which comes with SAP best business practices preloaded. A mobility solution from Sybase would be integrated with SAP allowing management and field workers to record and enter data via their smart phones (with GPS) and Sybase’s Afaria provided a single administrative console to centrally manage, secure and deploy mobile data, applications and devices. Mobile reporting is available with a product such as SAP’s BI (Business Intelligence) On Demand on your phone or tablet. Spatially aware phones (phones with GPS) connected to GIS (Geographical Information systems) can provide maps to the user.
So how does this work?
The power of integrating a mobility system with your business system enables mobile reporting and analytics and management functions such as approvals. Field data capture and distribution operational changes and data management is a strong tool to facilitate safety and productivity improvements.
Business systems
Business systems such as SAP Business All In One are highly integrated and very affordable business solutions. They have the functionality to manage all of your business operations. Integration is the key to business success through improved reporting, document control and just the smooth flow of information. If people can get data in easily, they will enter it. If people can get data out easily, they will use it. It is this system that does all the business functions such as the procurement, human resource management, time keeping, OH&S, asset management, project management, finance, accounts payable and receivable and many other business functions. It can be integrated with other solutions such as mobility and business intelligence. SAP Business All-in-One for Engineering, Construction, and Operations, quick to implement, it is designed for midsize companies seeking an integrated industry solution to manage its entire business and is based on proven industry best practices. Your solution can also be “in the cloud” if you don’t want to all the IT hardware.
Cloud based computing
You may have heard of IT solutions being “in the cloud”. The simplest meaning could Bbe that your system is hosted for you by a specialist hosting company. This means that you don’t have to invest in expensive computer servers with all the associated installation and maintenance costs and data back up routines. Essentially, you rent the system from them and store your data on their system. The data will always remain yours and yes you do get it back if you stop having a hosted solution. There are a number of companies around who can do this for you. Does that sound scary? If you already use Google Docs or Gmail then you are already “in the cloud”. There are Australian standards for hosting companies such as ISO 27001 Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) to give some peace of mind.
A mobility solution from a vendor such as Sybase (an SAP company) can be integrated with the business solution which extends capability into the field and is based on software applications (apps). This is the same concept as Apple’s App Store where you can find an app that you like, download it to your phone and use it. These days many people own their own smart phone. Many companies are now going towards a BYO phone policy. Rather than purchasing a new phone for a new employee, they allow the employee to use their personal phone for business and come to some form of financial arrangement for this. This saves a lot of money in buying new phones all the time. Company apps are pushed out to the person’s phone by a product such as Afaria by Sybase and then any business data can be deleted when the person resigns but without touching any of their personal data. If the phone was left on an airplane, it could be locked remotely by Afaria. If it was determined that the phone can’t be relocated, Afaria can send a signal to wipe all data from the phone to help prevent data theft. The phone can also be made inoperable so it is of no use to a thief.
So how could you use this?
Scenario 1
A person joins the company and brings their own smart phone. It is registered in the system and then a suite of standard apps for new employees is pushed out to the phone by Afaria. The person clicks on each app and installs them. These apps would comply with the company’s business processes and could include (but not be limited to):
- Timesheets for entering their working time online
- Company induction materials
- Company policies
- OH&S information
- An employee self service application where the employee can change their personal data as needed such as a change of address or phone number, next of kin and emergency contacts etc. They could also request leave to go on holidays or log that they are off sick and also check how many days holiday they still have or even check the company organisational chart.
Applications can be written for specific business needs or more generic applications can be purchased from the App Store.
Scenario 2
A phone (or tablet such as an iPad) that is spatially aware (meaning it has GPS or triangulates off signal transmissions) adds a lot of capability. Imagine you are unfamiliar with the very large construction site and moving around the site and your phone alerts you as you near a known dangerous area. This is possible now. The phone knows where it is, the GIS and the app tells it where the danger is and the phone tells you when you are near the danger.
Scenario 3
The mechanic is checking the heavy equipment and finds a fault that cannot be repaired on the spot. He can create a maintenance request from his phone to have the fault scheduled into be fixed. When he hits save, the phone sends the maintenance request back to the system in milliseconds where it is safely stored. No more scrappy paper notes that get lost or note books that go through the wash. No more doubling up on data entry, it is all done quickly, easily and it is auditable.
Scenario 4
Dispatch of directions to truck drivers, plant operators and other workers can be accompanied by documentation if necessary. If the supervisor changes the destination of the load of road base they can send through the changes along with a map of how to get there and any documented special instructions if necessary.
The applications of this technology are potentially vast and the apps that can be built are only limited by the imagination.
Successful implementation will require cultural change management, sound training and improved business processes.
Our new CEO has taken up the challenge. The subcontractors became a part of the system via their smart phones. Rod and Tammy find life a lot better now. They are able to count and document loads, send in their invoices and utilise the principle contracting company’s safety management system all from their phones or tablets. Long-term sub contractors such as Rod and Tammy were allowed to utilise the maintenance management system to manage their fleet maintenance. They were allocated what is called a “work centre” in SAP and the system security built so that only they could see their maintenance information, however their maintenance schedule could be seen by the project manager. They now had time to actually do services and repairs. The reliability of their fleet improved dramatically, enabling them to cart more loads which earned them more money and Rod is back to his old self again. It was a win-win situation. The benefit to the principal contractor is that Rod and Tammy and the other sub contractors now had effective and auditable business systems and became much safer and more productive partners. This also meant they no longer had financial penalties for safety and performance issues but the main benefit was that people now were going home to their families each night, safe and sound. Far fewer were being hurt.
A well designed and properly integrated business system based on sound business processes and utilising mobility, GIS and other technology can help turn an ailing business around but again, the key is cultural change management and training and the vision and commitment to improve by the executive management team.
The characters in this article are totally fictional and they are not based on anyone at all. Any similarities with any persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and unintended.
Mick Windsor is the Managing Director of Windsor Business Solutions. They are a SAP Services Partner and an Asset Management consultancy with deep SAP capability, increasing their capability in Mobility and GIS as a trusted partner to key players in these spaces. GIS and Mobility are a natural value add to Asset Management and to mobile assets, linear assets and field based and remote assets in particular as well as work management. It also has a neat fit into the construction industry at many levels. They are also licensed to sell SAP Business All In One and Business Objects as they are a member of SAP’s EBM program.
Mick has a trade background and with over 30 years of experience in maintenance and operations. He has “come up the hard way”, having worked at all levels including trade supervisor, planner, maintenance strategist, superintendent, production coordinator and manufacturing unit manager. He has been privileged to have presented papers at conferences including the global Enterprise Asset Management Summit in Hawaii in 2007, was invited as a contributing author to the book, Maintenance Benchmarking and Best Practices by Ralph “Pete” Peters, President of the Maintenance Excellence Institute in America.
Please contact Mick on 1300 927 716 with any enquiries relating to improving asset management in your business. www.wbss.com.au
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