Safety management in HxGN EAM
Stay Safe, and Compliant
by Chris Westberry, Senior Consultant
EAM has had a section for Permits for years, but it was limited in scope and flexibility. With version 11, Infor has greatly expanded the tools available to the user, adding functionality to provide records for work place hazard identification, precautions and true status-able work permits. Now it is possible for businesses have their Safety Management become an active part of Maintenance and Repair activities in near real-time without someone having to chase them down via e-mails, phone calls, or physically hunting them down.
EAM’s expanded Permitting and Lock-out/Tag-out tools now allow users to create custom lists of the Hazards and Precautions, as well as the step by step methods for both Isolating energy sources and re-energizing machinery.
In HxGN EAM, Permits are not attached until a Work Order is released, helping to ensure that the current approved version is always the one associated with a Work Order when it is time to execute the job.
Imagine one step further: A job requiring a confined space permit is coming due. The plant has multiple confined spaces, so someone needs to verify that the confined space permit associated to the job is correct for the space where it will occur. Since a Permit to Work record has a Status field, as time for the job approaches, an Inbox on the Safety Manager’s Start Center can be updated alerting him or her to the need to validate the permit’s acceptability to the situation.
E-mail messages can also be sent using existing functionality to ensure that messages are communicated in a timely manner.
After reviewing the information, the Safety Manager can Approve the Permit to Work, letting Maintenance know that the work can be performed, also through Inbox alerts or e-mails messages.
This combination of statuses, communications options, and time-of-release updates to Permits to Work allow an organization to involve all the needed departments in a timely manner, creating a more stable, safer, well-planned and well-executed operation.
A host of new features for permitting comes with HxGN EAM v11.x, and this module is part of the base package – you don’t have to buy any additional add-on products to make it work for your team.
NOW IT IS POSSIBLE FOR BUSINESSES HAVE THEIR SAFETY MANAGEMENT BECOME AN ACTIVE PART OF MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR ACTIVITIES
Taking this a step further, the Permit to Work module ties all of these features together into one package, which can be attached to Work Orders, whether they are reactive, Planned, or PM Scheduled generated. Going a step further, Permit to Work also includes time windows in which the work has to be completed before the permission to work expires.
Imagine that a Work Order is coming due to execute, but it was created 6 months ago in Awaiting Release status. Four months ago the Permit for this job was revised. In an older system, the permit would have been attached when the Work Order was created.
Features in Permit to Work include:
- Identification of Hazards and Precautions
- Task Instructions specific for each machine’s safety issues
- Separation of energy isolation and re-energizing procedures
- Attached at the Equipment, PM Schedule, or Work Order level
- Can be placed under revision control
With Permit to Work and Lock-out/Tag-out in HxGN EAM, your team can work safely on all maintenance jobs, and your company will stay compliant to safety regulations.