Business needs and issues
- Site maintenance engineers do daily operating rounds to check machinery
- They were reliant on labour-intensive handwritten paper check sheets
- Long matrixes with lists of all items and potential scenarios were confusing and time-consuming to complete
- Multiple engineers needed to coordinate closely to not double up or miss tasks across large sites
- Required additional staff to manually enter-data in office
- Handwriting was often hard to read leading to inaccurate data
- Raised issues would take days to reach head office unless manually escalated
- Carrying paper and pen around worksites was cumbersome and risky
- Photos of issues were emails later with no context or tracking
- Management had no way of tracking job sheets completion, accountability or issues
Solution: Microsoft Power App “DORIS”
- Accessible via tough devices they already had with them
- Easy-to-use, big buttons for which tick and flick check completion
- Reduced simplified lists only showing relevant tasks for each section
- Synchronized completed and remaining tasks in real time across all devices so engineers could collaborate and track easy other progress easily
- All flagged issues were raised with relevant decision makers instantly and to management via regular digital summaries
- Offline mode allowed the app to continue to function through connectivity dropouts
- Photos instantly uploaded and connected to the specific check list
- New data reporting to management on staff-specific efficiency, completion rates, issue-finding and accountability
- App’s data fully leveraged SharePoint securely for easy to access background data
Outcomes
- Time efficiencies (no manual entry, less manual coordination and timely response to issues)
- Greater compliance (less errors, reduced risks and staff accountability)