Pisys Permit to Work system at Whyte and Mackay

Whyte & Mackay faced challenges managing numerous maintenance and upgrade jobs at their busy Invergordon site. Ensuring safety, improving management of jobs and managing a large number of contractors required a robust solution.

‘It’s a very busy site, with a large number of maintenance and project-related jobs happening every day’ said Douglas Dick, HSE manager.

‘Where jobs might result in harm to people or damage to property we have to ensure that they are effectively managed so that we know that work has been correctly planned, personnel are competent to do the job and  that appropriate measures have been taken to control risk, we also need to know what jobs are happening in each location so that we can avoid situations where jobs interfere with others nearby.

We also use a large number of contractors so it’s important to make sure that we can track their certification to verify their competence to perform tasks, and also their insurance status so that we can be sure that everything is in place prior to them arriving on site.’

Pisys had previously provided their permit to work (PTW) system to the company’s Grangemouth site, and the team there had found it to be a good match to their needs. ‘Our Grangemouth team found the system to be extremely easy to configure and the roll-out was very quick, so we decided to adopt it in Invergordon’ said Douglas.

The company, impressed with the successful implementation at their Grangemouth site, adopted Pisys’ permit to work (PTW) system at Invergordon. The cloud-based system, implemented quickly without local installation, offered several key benefits:

• Improved control of tasks: Enhanced operational safety by ensuring proper risk management and clear understanding of ongoing activities across the site.
• Streamlined contractor management: Facilitated tracking of contractor certifications, insurance status, and potential issues before their arrival, minimizing risks.
• Centralized visibility: Provided a central platform to monitor all permits, enabling efficient task oversight and improved decision-making.

The system was delivered via the company’s hosted servers, so no local installation was required and the site was up and running in a matter of days.

The project has been a success. Implementation was very straightforward and buy-in from staff was excellent. Whyte & Mackay are now seeing improved control of tasks which has enhanced their operational safety. They also have greater visibility of their contractors and are able to flag any issues with competencies and insurance documentation prior to arrival on site.

The fact that all permits are available online means that they don’t have to rely on paper copies being manually transported around the site during issue or handback, this reduces the time taken to issue and handback permits which is really helpful on a busy site. It’s easy to attach risk assessments or any additional information which is required and it also means that any changes to the permit once work is underway are immediately recorded and any additional risks can be quickly flagged.