How do you ensure that your teams can maximise productive tool time, whilst maintaining the strict compliance required to ensure safe and high-quality work?
It's an ongoing challenge faced by teams across the Resources sector, however, an innovative project being trialed by our Resources Centre of Excellence solves this.
DigiPac® delivering innovation
The innovative solution, known as DigiPac®, delivers benefits throughout the work planning and execution cycle while delivering in-field benefits to worker productivity, safety, quality and ultimately, customer satisfaction.
In the resources industry a traditional workpack built during the scoping and planning of works is a series of documents used to support the efficient, compliant and safe execution of work. Typically, it comprises different types of documentation including:
- Asset information
- Scope information
- Evidence to customer
- Safety documentation and procedures
- Quality documentation and procedures
"The workpack is a critical document developed during the planning cycle and is instrumental in our field teams safely and efficiently executing field works to the applicable standard,' said Technical Services Manager at Ventia, Antonio D'Alisa.
DigiPac® reimagines what is a significant manual paper-based administrative task by transitioning to a digital, cloud-based environment.
Industry leading solution
According to Antonio, cumbersome paper-based work packages were also impacting the time field leadership was able to spend in the field, and therefore impacting field performance and productivity. The opportunity to put all the information needed at the fingertips of field crews and leadership by using a digital solution would be a game-changer for the industry.
Identifying this challenge was one thing, solving it has been another.
There was no off-the-shelf product available that delivered the functionality we were seeking, so collaborating with a digital partner we have developed a device-agnostic, mobile friendly, web-based platform that brings the workpack creation process into the 21st century — offering an innovative, industry leading solution, Antonio said.
The DigiPac® solution offers a whole lot more than simply a digitised version of the existing manual system. It allows for online collaboration from a wide variety of sources, templating of repeatable activities, and 'sign-on glass' functionality together with notification and workflow intelligence — all the while complimenting existing maintenance management systems. DigiPac® is a productivity lever empowering the end user by putting information at their fingertips, streamlining in-field work processes, optimising work execution interfaces, and significantly reducing administrative activities.
An example of this is the workflow notifications that are provided through DigiPac® .
"There is a significant investment in preparing for a shutdown with a view to minimising equipment down-time. Where schedule compliance is important there can often be significant delays waiting on complementary services or compliance resources for subsequent steps or inspections," Antonio said.
"At a hold point or a step requiring specialist support, DigiPac® provides the ability to transmit a notification from the field using established workflows via an SMS and email notifying the relevant team member that a workfront has opened up and is ready."
Delivering safety and quality
Trials of the system have confirmed many benefits for users of DigiPac® , particularly in relation to safety and quality outcomes — keeping leadership in the field, focused on keeping people safe and work standards high all the while delivering important benefits to customers.
By keeping our field leadership in the field and closer to their work crews we see benefits related to work scope management delivering improved quality of work together with health and safety outcomes, Antonio said.
"Our frontline leadership can focus on the task at hand and preparing for future works and less time on the administrative burden confident that they have the workpack details always available and easily accessible."