Project background

Client: Pettifer Construction

Pettifer Construction conducted paper based inspections and management tracked KPI information retrospectively prior to the implementation of Knowledge Online's E-SAFE 100 and PDAs.

Project goals

The project goals to be achieved were:

- Make construction sites safer and improve quality
- To transfer a core process (Health & Safety) from traditional paper based to electronic data capture in real time
- The ability to collect and store the following information at the time of inspection - take photo's, record audio notes and make sketches of non conformance information
- Automation of reports via the web or PDA
- To be capable of sending reports from the PDA via e-mail, text message or fax to the responsible party (could be a sub contractor)
- The facility to record all severity levels and due dates for action and analysis
- To reduce worker's administration time (approximately 1 day a week).

Selected application

E-SAFE 100 Health & Safety Module and Snagging Module.

Implementation

- Proven Business Case: Demonstration of product to prove the benefits of E-SAFE 100 to the business, justifying costs and benefits.
- Business Requirements: Meeting to ascertain exactly what the client's requirements are.  To agree and document KPIs, a date for pre-requisite software installation, training dates, user names and roles, project listings, template information and report layouts.
- Pre-requisite Software Installation: This takes place to ensure all components of E-SAFE 100 are running correctly before the clients training.
- Training: This ensures all users have received product/software training prior to Proof of Concept.
- Proof of Concept: Is used to demonstrate the feasibility of E-SAFE 100 to the client and their users, usually lasting 1 - 2 months.
- Phased Rollout: The phased approach is adopted after the project viability has been determined, in this case site by site.
- After Sales Support: Consists of help desk during business hours and quarterly review meetings with the client's project sponsor and stakeholders.

Business benefits

20 + Construction sites are now using the Health & Safety and Snagging modules of E-SAFE 100.

Management benefits are:
- Huge cost reductions/productivity improvements of approximately 40%
- Management now see key business trends by analysing the Top 10 Non Conformances.
- Historical Inspection information is now available with all details - photos, sketches, notes etc.
- Inspection reports can be interrogated from the main application via the web.
- Best practise information is also captured to enable a balanced view to be fed back to the business.
- Using E-SAFE 100 to snag can deliver up to 1% margin improvement.

Worker Benefits are:
- Field based workers are benefiting by completing and sending inspections directly from the PDA without any office based administration.  Even if a site is without comms. the reports can be sent via GPRS, thus allowing totally mobility.
- The main benefit to all parties is proactive collection of near miss information (non conformances) which prevents accidents from happening.  Sites are now safer and workers are now safer.  This can be measured against the figures set out by the HSE. (The HSE publish the following average costs per incident in the construction industry: First aid only £31, Damage only £70, Over 3 days £562, Serious Incidents £18,531.)
- Finally, E-SAFE 100 totally supports the Government's ambition to drive down accident rates and fatalities to zero.

Final client comment

The introduction of the E-SAFE 100 Snagging Module has significantly reduced the amount of admin time our key staff were previously forced to spend typing and documenting the snagging inspections. It's easy to use and provides excellent stats.

This project demonstrates that IT can be implemented in one of the most complex and IT resistant industries, that of construction.  The software and PDA set up has been designed with the end user in mind and was based on the Tom-Tom interface and intuitive nature of the product.  Users want to get things out of the box and use it straight away, following a brief training session.

Compliance is high in the corporate agenda, especially in the area of Health & Safety.  In this example, a software product has been implemented that turns a compliance exercise (inspection and audits) into critical management information that can be used by directors to make vital business decisions.  Pettifer Construction has made the decision to equip every site manager with a PDA running E-SAFE 100.  This will provide rich information for board directors to view safety performance and sub contractor performance.  They will also be able to view performance across the business.