The rise of health and safety inspection platforms transformed regulators not only in terms of digitalisation but also in terms of changing the role of inspection software from a tool to a service that allows the integration of other tools as well. IoT technologies are a great example of a tool that can optimise the inspection model by being integrated into an existing inspection platform. Before going deeper into this topic, let’s have a quick look at the definition of IoT:
What is IoT?
IoT (Internet of Things) is the connection between devices and the internet that serves to register changes in the environment. This information is often used to inform decisions and transform many sectors into smarter versions of themselves.
IoT has a big optimisation impact on safety inspections by helping regulators enforce inspection activity when they receive IoT notifications for dangerous activity registered by IoT sensors. The faster notification for high-risk events is a prerequisite for more effective risk mitigation that may save lives.
How the IoT can be integrated into the inspection management system?
There are as many IoT examples, as there are many regulatory sectors in the inspection software segment. For example, if we’re managing food safety inspections in restaurants, we must regularly run inspect checks on how food is being stored. By installing temperature sensors in the fridges that collect data and sends it to the inspection platform, the inspection prioritisation becomes more efficient, because the IoT devices improve safety, reduce costs for unnecessary inspection checks and enables safety inspectors to spend their time on jobs with a relevant risk score.
IoT devices may collect complex information that enables inspectors to predict accidents and therefore mitigate high risks on time. The inspection platform enables inspectors to do their job smarter, while IoT helps inspection platforms to become more helpful and provide more actionable information for the tasks that matter the most.
IoT making inspection services smarter – who benefits the most?
The use of inspection software for document management, inspection tracking, scheduling and planning, reports generation etc. gives regulators better visibility on where safety inspectors should focus their time. IoT gives them better visibility on what’s happening in the environment. If the inspection software categories a field of wind turbines as a low-risk entity for the next 6 months due to a recent inspection outcome report, then a thunderstorm may occur and require a new inspection due to a change in the environment. IoT provides inspection platforms with this data and therefore the actionable insight from the platform becomes more valuable.
Integrating IoT on inspection platforms is more than an alarm notification feature. It’s a new way to approach risk management in safety inspections. For more information on how your inspection process can benefit from inspection software and IoT integration, contact us here.
How Canalix transforms the world of regulatory inspections?
If we look at the official data for non-fatal accidents at work in the EU, the statistic will show us graphs that either go up or down. Going up means more accidents at work while going down means the opposite. More accidents mean more expenses. So the reasonable question here for regulators and private enterprises subject to regulations is: how to control the rate of work accidents and keep it down? The indirect answer is: by optimising the safety inspection program of the organisation. You’ll find the more direct answer, one that tells exactly how to do that, below.
The primary purpose of optimising the safety inspection programs is to ensure:
Worker’s safety
Keeping the workforce safe ensures the long-term stability of the company’s worker retention program
2. Good reputation
An organisation with a low rate of work accidents has a good reputation. It’s an advantage and should be recognised as such.
3. No disruption of operations
The safety of the work environment improves productivity and reduces the disruption of operations. Avoiding disruptions helps the company keep their work on a budget.
4. No fines by regulators
Regulations are being updated regularly. That’s why it’s essential to use an inspection solution that ensures that rules are being followed in an up to date manner because fines may seriously sidetrack the company’s plan.
The inspection planning and scheduling component need constant optimising because a good plan can improve resource utilisation and prevent mistakes.
Inspection execution
The inspection execution component is the part that can significantly improve the speed and quality of inspections. The use of technology can transform the work of inspectors by allowing them to use pre-defined inspection checklists or benefit from an entirely digital document management system. The digital infrastructure of the inspection management process can remove the manual work that often slows down inspectors.
Training
The digital infrastructure allows inspectors to gain better visibility on inspection outcomes and therefore recommend relevant actions and training to the workers to reduce the risk of accidents in the workplace.
Why is modularity crucial for your digital transformation strategy in 2022?
The importance of digitising the safety inspection checklists
What’s the best way for an inspector to identify risks during safety inspection? Answer: by following a checklist. When everything’s written down on a list, the inspector has a better chance to cover all of the potential risks. The process can be improved even more with a digital inspection management system. When regulatory bodies adopt software solutions for safety inspections, the pre-defined checklists can be easily implemented into the work process of inspectors. For different types of safety inspections, there can be configured specific checklists.
If we step out of the regulatory inspections field and look at the general impact of checklists, we’ll see a double confirmation about their benefits. A lot of research points out that checklists help experts execute their projects more efficiently. In an essential field like safety inspections, the power of checklists must be utilised to ensure the well-being of workers and the community.
Checklists remind us of the minimum necessary steps and make them explicit. They offer the possibility of verification and instil a kind of discipline of higher performance.
Why must a safety inspection software have configurable checklists?
Safety inspections are complex, so high configuration must be a part of the requirements of any inspection management solution. A good configurable inspection software will allow regulatory agencies to configure specific checklists for each type of safety inspection – safety inspections for tools and equipment, electrical concerns, scaffolding, etc. Checklists are a very overlooked component in inspection programs. Their function is a gamechanger when it comes to data gathering. Because only detailed and correctly gathered data may generate a valuable inspection report.
The importance of optimising safety inspection reports
The outcome of a safety inspection ends in a report. The report aims to recommend corrective actions to reduce the risks of hazards in the future. However, a report may not be efficient if the best practices aren’t followed.
The benefits that safety inspection reports bring are:
Capturing error-free inspection data
A good inspection checklist is key to gathering sufficient error-free data that can be exported into an inspection report.
2. Real-time documenting of inspections
Recording inspections in real-time allows inspectors to capture their observations fully. Performing field inspections with a tablet will enable them to capture images in the meantime and attach them to the reporting file. The image can make feedback clear.
3. Complete visibility over inspection data
The digital gathering of inspection data allows inspectors to have better visibility over the inspected subjects. The leverage on data can make inspections more risk-focused and help mitigate risks and improve overall compliance.
4. Make safety inspection reports readable.
Big words and complex sentences have no place in inspection reports. Reports must be understandable and clear. No unreadable handwriting! Automating the generation of inspection reports based on the gathered data and collected observations can ensure the readability of the information.
The choice of inspection management system depends on the organisation’s strategy. If a government agency follows a cloud-first strategy, its focus must be on cloud inspection services. If the organisation is focused on health and food safety, they should aim at a solution specialising in this sector. The same applies to enterprises that want to transform their internal inspections and audits.
Two rules for preparing safety inspection research:
Find something that will answer your goals – cloud-based solution or on-premise solution?
Find something that will be an excellent fit for your use case – general safety inspections, food safety inspections, environmental inspections, etc.
Prepare a list of requirements and start your research. Then reach out to potential suppliers and book a Product tour or a Demo session that can highlight the features that can provide the execution of the best practices we described above. The next reasonable step would be to order a proof of concept.
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Route optimisation sounds like a thing that you’d expect Google Maps to do for you. But in the work environment of regulatory enforcement and inspection management, inspectors would think otherwise.
Let’s take, for example, the job of the inspector who does construction site inspections every day. Every inspection site includes a list of areas that need inspection checks to ensure compliance with safety standards and other regulations. Sometimes these lists contain hundreds of checkpoints. The small details surrounding the critical work of inspectors make the process slow. Often, inspectors would spend all they travel long distances to inspect one construction site with high priority status and requirement for a high skillset. If the volume of inspection requests grows with time, the Inspectorate will have to hire more inspectors or make the hired ones work and travel more. In both cases, it will mean more expenses.
The old fashioned way of solving the issue with the growth of workload in inspections would be to hire more inspectors and send them to more work spots. But this is also a costly way. It’s the way of the regulatory agencies that are still not going through digital transformation. The question is, what other way can we offer to them?
CASE STUDY: How a regulatory agency cut costs with resource scheduling software?
reducing the scheduling time with up to 75%
increasing efficiency of operations with 40%
fully eliminating errors in the resource allocation process.
The inspection cost depends on the inspector’s location, distance to the inspection site, and inspector’s salary, of course. Suppose we set up manually the inspection scheduling calendar. In that case, the most complex inspection cases will go to the most qualified inspectors. Sometimes, the most qualified inspectors will have to cover the less inspection ground because of the travelling. That is expensive for many reasons. The inspection management software can bring drastic improvements in inspection optimisation by reducing travel time and fuel costs.
Imagine that each inspection request is being automatically assigned with a complexity score that considers the location, availability and skillset of all inspectors. Now imagine that this software can match inspectors with a relevant case. And all that while the software is mapping the most optimal inspection routes and considers all of the constraints. That sounds too good to be true. Data-driven automation and AI come into play and make the life of inspectors and everyone in the regulatory agencies easier and way less expensive.
The example with the construction site inspections is not a limit. This kind of inspection optimisation can be applied to other regulatory areas – food safety inspections, fire inspections, education inspections, energy inspections, insurance loss control inspections, etc.
How route optimisation changes things for regulators and enterprises?
When we talk about route optimisation, we don’t mean Google Maps. It is more than just finding the shortest available route between points A and B. It’s about finding the most efficient path for someone at point X and going through points A, B, C, D, E and F and spending different amounts of time for inspection. The inspector must make some stops between these points and spend different amounts of time at each one. Finding the most efficient route for such a complex task is not easy to be done manually. That’s why good inspection management software with route optimisation features is needed.
Summary of the inspection optimisation benefits:
Route optimisation reduces the costs of inspections, improves inspectors’ efficiency, and allows them to cover more inspection ground by travelling less and ultimately safe their time.
Is Canalix a route optimisation software?
Canalix is an inspection management solution focused on transforming the inspection model of regulators and enterprises. Route optimisation is a crucial AI-powered feature of the software. Our clients use it not just for transforming inspection processes but also for a wide variety of resource scheduling solutions. Our customer success data shows that our clients reduced the distance travelled by inspectors by up to 40% and managed to cut costs while improving the inspection process.
Do you want an estimate of how much route optimisation can reduce the costs of inspections in your company? Contact us now.
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One of the strictest regulation policies in the EU is in the field of food safety. Food safety concerns directly the health of people and their quality of life. That’s why there is strong sensibility to keeping compliance with regulation from the side of the food industry and enforcing regulations from the side of regulatory agencies.
The growing food safety culture leads to the adoption of new technological solutions that can help regulators transform their food inspection model. However, some countries are struggling with the digital transformation of the food safety inspections more than others. In a culture with growing food safety awareness and improved regulatory practices, transforming the inspection management model can make foods even safer. That’s why the adoption of IT infrastructures in the food safety inspection model is a step that regulators must be taking on (if they haven’t yet).
What can inspection management software do for food safety inspections?
Ditch the paper, embrace the digital
Imagine the paperwork that food safety inspectors and other administrative entities must do to ensure the flow of inspection management. Inspections checklists, copies of documents such as permits, orders, maps, photos of inspection site, etc. It’s a big load of paperwork. Now if we imagine that the paper is being replaced by software that allows everyone to his job digitally, it won’t be hard to see the benefits in terms of productivity.
But the question is how a digital document management system can make foods safer? The answer is in the data. It’s very challenging to organize and present data that is based on paper documents spread all over the cabinets of a food inspection agency. If this data is collected and organized via sophisticated inspection management software, then it can be visualized, analyzed and used for identifying trends and building a better visibility on food inspections. In other words data can be used for making smarter and faster decision making that directly affects the optimisation of inspections.
The bonus thing: the use of inspection software with integrated document management system can improve the inspection management process not only in food regulatory agencies, but also in the food industry itself (by serving as a digital infrastructure for internal inspections and audits).
Inspectors inspect more while working less
If the digital document management safes time for inspectors, how can we enable them to use this time to cover more inspection sites and cases? Digital transformation allows regulatory agencies to leverage on technologies such as AI to optimise inspection scheduling and inspection routes so that inspectors can be send on the most optimal inspection routes without causing a conflict in their schedules. The application of such AI-driven inspection management can ultimately lead to long-term cost savings for the regulators because of the optimized resource utilization.
An employee of the Food Safety Agency may assign wrongfully skilled inspectors to an inspection case. As a result there will be a lot of time and costs wasted for nothing. Automating food safety inspections with the use of data and AI can dramatically reduce the making of such mistakes. The effect of such optimisation can be seen from miles. The question is why it takes so long for the public sector to turn to new technologies that can ensure the safety of our communities?
How a food regulator embraces digital transformation?
It all starts with strategy. Your organization has a digital transformation strategy? Good. Then it will be easy for the CIO to prioritize the adoption of inspection software for food safety. Even if your organization doesn’t have a strategy, now is the time to make one.
Contact Canalix here, if you need food safety inspection software and a digital transformation strategy.
