Major Automotive Parts Manufacturer Adopts Pisys PTW

Under the old system, the Facilities Manager was responsible for raising all permits for the entire manufacturing plant, which was time consuming and detracted from his other responsibilities.

Each Permit was only valid for 12 hours even if the job continued over longer periods.  New permits were created for these jobs every day, which led to unnecessary duplication of work.

Permits for jobs which finished after hours were sometimes not cancelled until the following day, if the Facilities Manager was off site or had gone home for the day.  If this was the case, it was often difficult to establish whether any reviews were done while the contractors were still on site.

They therefore wanted a new electronic permit to work system which would allow:

• A team of people to share permit management – ensuring that there was always somebody who could action permits, even if the Facilites Manager was not available.
• A way to record reviews on the permit
• The creation of electronic permit archives

The Pisys team started by implementing the site’s plot plan, consisting of 81 areas, which shows permits and Contractor Work Authorisations as coloured dots in their work location.

Pisys worked closely with staff to understand their current system, which consisted of flow charts, procedures and multiple paper forms. They then configured the ‘off-the-shelf’ PTW software accordingly, adding the forms and workflows required.

The solution for TMD Friction was a direct transfer of their existing paper system onto Pisys PTW, including provision for Working at Height, Electrical, Hot Work, Confined Space, Asbestos, Fire Alarm and a simple Isolations checklist with space to attach Isolations Certificates.

As before, the process handles Permit creation, issue & acceptance and closeout/cancellation.

In addition, the system now offers:

• A suspend/re-instate workflow – avoiding the need to create new permits from scratch every day
• Confirmation of completion of job
• A record of all Reviews of Work Conditions carried out on-site while the job was ongoing
• Email notifications to key personnel at permit issue and cancellation
• A plot plan of the site, showing permits and work authorisations in their locations
• A Contractor Authorisation form and process for non-PTW jobs.

The system, which runs on the cloud and is accessible from anywhere with internet/WiFi/4G signal, keeps everyone informed on the status and location of each permit, and helps people collaborate on permits – avoiding single-point failures and ensuring hand-backs/cancellations are completed even in the middle of the night.

Rather than having to raise a new permit for ongoing jobs every 12 hours, the suspend/re-instate feature is used heavily, along with the ‘Worksite Review’ feature.

There has been a reduction in workload for the facilities manager, shared responsibility and avoidance of single-point failure because other personnel can now create, issue and close permits – even after hours.

Fewer permits need to be created every day, thanks to the suspend/re-instate process.

Handbacks are completed straight away and include a review with the contractor, even if a job finishes after hours or in the middle of the night, which is a major time saver for the business.

The biggest benefit is having better control of contractors through the introduction of a ‘General Work Authority’ Form and process, which is managed under the same roof as Permits.