Software Combines Safety, Maintenance

Software that combines maintenance tasks with related safety factors saves time and ensures compliance.

By Mark Carter, Yokogawa RAP

In many processes carried out in industrial facilities, introducing safety requirements has required personnel to step outside the natural workflow to ensure compliance, often leading to delays. To address this and other maintenance issues, software now exists that provides users with the ability to define safety requirements that align with all other aspects of the job, from planning through authorization to execution. One such program is RAPnet from Yokogawa RAP Ltd, Swansea, UK (yokogawa-rap.com). By integrating these requirements into the heart of the work process, all safety considerations can be addressed as they arise, making compliance a matter of routine.

The key to effective use of these tools is a knowledge base that can be brought to bear at any time in the maintenance process to guide and instruct progress. The software provides users with the ability to completely characterize the maintenance workplace into a series of discrete elements and then compile the result into an accessible format. Each element is pre-loaded with all of the safety requirements for that particular aspect of the activity. Once the knowledge base is completed, plant personnel have a comprehensive library of requirements for all jobs.

Below is all that’s required for each new activity:

• Break the job into bite-sized tasks and describe each in terms of icons.

• Place the job on a plant or facility site map, useful for identifying any potentially negative interactions in execution.

• Avoid unnecessary misunderstandings by involving personnel charged with carrying out the task in the initial setup.

• Carry out the actions associated with each of the icons. These activities can vary, but are most likely in the form of:

• up-front actions to adequately and safely prepare the worksite
•authorizations and approvals in the form of electronic endorsements from appropriate personnel
•mandatory controls that must always be in place
•specific PPE requirements. EP

Mark Carter is Consulting Business Development Director for Yokogawa RAP, Swansea, UK. For more information about RAPnet, visit yokogawa-rap.com.