Are you looking to invest in a health & safety management software package to support improved workplace safety? Excellent idea, as too often, health & safety information is stored in disparate formats in a variety of locations and managed day-to-day by different people on site.
A digital health & safety system enables valuable historical information like permits, risk assessments, accident reports, safe systems of work, contractor records and so on to be kept in a central database for easy retrieval. This is invaluable in the event of a serious incident to support the investigation into how it occurred.
The other key factor is ongoing improvement in site safety, and a proven methodology to foster improvement is Six Sigma.
Six Sigma is a series of strategies designed to identify and remove the causes of defects and minimise variability in operational business processes.
The DMAIC method is a tried and tested component of Six Sigma process improvement and is a model that can be readily adapted for health & safety.
DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control and is a means of using data to improve and stabilise many types of business process. The core requirement of course, is a central repository of reliable data that can be subjected to detailed analysis, such as a health & safety management software package.
When selecting software to support your health & safety improvement processes, ensure that the system will support DMAIC in the following ways:
DEFINE: Ensure the software is easily configurable to reflect the unique terminologies and working practices of your own operating environment. One size does not fit all.
MEASURE: Your staff should be able to use the system easily in order to log incidents, near-misses, at-risk behaviour or other dangerous occurrences. If the system is difficult to use, either in person or anonymously, valuable data is likely to go unrecorded.
ANALYSE: When you have amassed a body of incident records you should be able to collate these into composite reports. Ideally, managers should be able to drill down into these reports and subject the data to ‘5-Why’ analysis to investigate and identify root causes.
IMPROVE: Having identified the origin of recurring problems, the system should offer ‘action tracking’ functionality to help you mitigate or eliminate each identified risk. Whilst doing so, it should be recording all associated activities, assigned personnel and overall costs.
CONTROL: Your staff should have ready access to the system to be kept abreast of the progress being made in each area identified as in need of attention. This site-wide visibility helps ensure that behavioural change – leading to improved workplace safety – is achieved long-term.
