“Safety First” has been the focus of organizations for many years.  We recently read an interesting article about how the idea of “Safety First” can cause conflict between the safety and production in many organizations.  Being safe and improving safe work practices are not always seen as improvements that improve the bottom line of the organization in the eyes of production, especially organizations that are working to implement lean processes. Lean organizations want to reduce and eliminate unproductive “waste” as much as possible while still maintaining a safety work environment. These organizations want to improve quality and production by ensuring they are using all resources available in the most effective way possible and eliminating resources that are time drains and that are not impacting the bottom line positively. As regulating bodies are requiring more and more inspections and audits of facilities and operations, more human resources times is being shifted from production to ensuring compliance with regulations; thus reducing the ability to be a lean as possible. One way to improve and be lean is by making sure all employees are being used in the most efficient and effective way possible.  One way to improve the use of the human resource time available is by implementing an advanced mobile inspection and audit system.  An automated system for inspections and audits allows the process to be completed much faster and with more accuracy then a traditional paper-based system.  The time saved by automating the task can then be reallocated to the organizations other needs. For organizations…

Safety is a not a new topic or a topic that will ever disappear from the minds of many professionals in any manufacturing, construction and service industry.  What may change is how organizations plan for safety.  We recently read an interesting article about how the occupational health and safety of organizations is shifting from a reactive to more proactive approach.  The goal of the organization is to spend less time reacting to situations and to spend more time on tactics that will prevent safety issues.  These prevention initiatives include spending more time on employee training, assessment of risks and adoption of a management or prevention system. Read more here. The study also indicates that the number one driver of organizations to develop their safety plan is to comply with laws and regulations.  This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but if the goal is to be more proactive it is critical that organizations find a cost effective method of implementation to manage the regulations that they face on a day to day basis.  Many of the regulations and laws require some sort of time and resource consuming audit, observation, or inspection be completed and recorded to ensure that the “rules” are being followed. One way organizations can help manage the regulations and be more proactive to safety needs is to implement a mobile inspection, audit and observation system.  A mobile system can help complete and document faster and more efficiently the inspections and audits required to comply with many regulations and laws.  It can also…