Resolving issues with incident management software

Resolving issues with incident management software

“The opinion that EHS management is a separate business function and should operate in a standalone mode requires alterations to submit to the holistic view of operational excellence and performance management.”

While we talk about digital transformation and its role in EHS, it comes as no surprise that digital connects corporate and individual sites, customers and suppliers to create new insights – that ultimately help in operational planning and effective execution of tasks.

The most talked about issues in managing safety aspects remain – poor cross functional collaboration and disparate systems and data sources. Reason, as business grow and expand, they develop into complex structures, seeping vertically in the business. Handling the ongoing of many industrial sites at once remains a tough task for the C-level executives and visibility becomes key.

In absence of any structured process, incident management is without a doubt, affected. At each level, bottlenecks slow down the incident reporting and response – a lost time can occur in anyone of them.

Issue 1 – Manual inputs while filing data

Repetitive and manual tasks occupy most of the worker time, especially when it requires both, physical and mental efforts. It won’t be surprising to note that an employee may even put off reporting an incident if it means too much work. Plus, the paper forms and associated clipboards become cumbersome when urgent acts require immediate reactions.

Solution – An incident management software enables a user to put data straight into the system without moving the physical records. Mobile responsive forms helps them submit incidents straightaway at the incident site. In contrast to sifting through paper for old reports, efficient systems hold reports in filterable, sortable and searchable libraries.

Issue 2 – Prohibitive reporting hierarchy

An ideal process is an incident report making its way towards the management to ensure appropriate course of actions. But messages might get distorted over numerous levels of hierarchy that can delay the necessary actions. Which leads to lack of transparency when needed. In absence of safety systems, operators and supervisors can disable and create shortcut safety systems – leading to less lucidity in tasks.

Solution – User-friendly forms are instrumental in making incident-reporting, a part of the culture. Review workflows improve data reliabilities as they are filled in a timelier manner.

Escalation features inform line managers of the overdue tasks and remove complacencies – for a more transparent work culture. Because making facts available to the respective stakeholders is a game changer.

Adoption stalls and usage fails when change management is unsurmountable – but successful solutions like these help incorporate all relevant parts of the technologies.

Issue 3 – Unclear categorization of incidents

Trying to solve incidents at once or manually crawling through information without systems defined result in lost times. All of the problems then come down to categorization.

Solution – A proper incident management software helps organizations allocate urgency and severity to the incidents – through structured data. Data can be segregated as –

  • Incident type – guides frontline workers on information they should report
  • Severity – helps reviewers decide whether investigation is necessary or not
  • Action type – helps influence a mandated due data

Organized and methodical incident management process means less chance of miscommunication and confusion.

Issue 4 – Slow data consolidation

While switching and consolidating data between spreadsheets require high skills in the same, and many safety personnel might not possess the same. This can lead to overlooking of important insights and data can be underused.

Most importantly, numbers without a purpose are simply useless.

Solution – Crunching the spreadsheets altogether require incident management software that supports dashboards. KPI dashboards encapsulate incident reporting data into one storage space – which can be further interpreted into charts, graphs and diagrams in a much better and clearer fashion.

Targeting all the relevant issues above can emphasize the need of incident management software, especially when safety professionals are aware that worker lives are at stake.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.