Development of Mobile App for Behavioral/Near Miss/PSE Reporting

Ecolab, a global petro/chemical manufacturer wanted to improve their safety data reporting procedures, and create a consistent process for collecting/analyzing data.

The company also had the goal of incorporating more digital technology into their work practices and process production areas.

After a needs analysis, leadership recommended:

1. Development of a consistent Safety reporting procedure for all global plant sites to follow
2. Incorporate digital technology by use of a mobile app with shared database entry
3. Standardized analysis of safety data to quickly address trending safety events

Development of a consistent Safety reporting procedure

Global plant sites weren’t required to use a consistent tool or process for safety data reporting. The project team analyzed numerous safety data reporting practices at sites, to look for consistencies and best practices. These were used to develop a consistent reporting procedure.

The procedure included types of events for reporting, as well as roles and responsibilities of employees at the plant sites. Required data would include Behavioral observations, Process Safety Events (PSE) and Near Miss Events. The overall goal of the procedure was to eliminate unsafe conditions and behaviors (leading indicators) before they escalated to more severe events (lagging indicators).

Incorporate digital technology by use of a mobile app with shared database entry

With the company goal of digital transformation, the project team looked for a solution that would eliminate paper-based practices at the sites. A mobile app solution was recommended, and pre-made options were explored. Nothing was found to meet the needs of the plant sites, so an internally developed app was recommended.

The project team used Microsoft Power Apps as a low-cost solution to develop an app in-house. The app included data entry fields for plant site, type of event, location event occurred, and many other important data points. The app was translated into several languages.

Safety events could be reported either using a mobile device, or on computer terminals located throughout the plant site. All reported safety events were downloaded from the app into a shared database for easy data analysis, and easy access by many different plant sites.

Standardized analysis of safety data to quickly address trending safety events

Part of the reporting procedure included roles and responsibilities for analyzing safety data reports. Safety data was analyzed to identify trends. Specific recommendations/actions were made to eliminate the unsafe conditions/behaviors found in the safety data trends.

PowerBI was used to quickly identify safety data trends during the analysis process. Trends were communicated through the PowerBI dashboard by using graphs and other easily interpreted visual elements.

Project Pilot

The pilot consisted of a 90 day “Safety Challenge” where a specific group of plant sites reported as many near miss and PSE observations as they could identify. Trends in the data were tracked through system generated reports, and displayed using a PowerBI dashboard. Plant site safety leaders immediately saw the benefits of a standardized safety reporting procedure, and ease of use with the mobile app.

The pilot has expanded to include additional plant sites in various countries. This has created a new set of challenges for deploying the Safety reporting procedure, expanding use of the app, translations, and identifying best practices for mobile devices. The pilot is set to complete in early 2021