ViewEHS –

A fresh perspective to safety

‘ViewEHS’ is a significant digital safety solution developed by WET IC that captures EHS data, compares it with baseline data and assigns Key Performance Indicator (KPI) scores to analyse EHS performance of sites in real time. With 150+ ‘live’ sites across WET IC and SW&C BU, mostly linear in nature, a standard system was required to address safety comprehensively.

Having played a key role in its development, K S Sudheesh Kumar, Head – EHS, WET IC & SWC BU, traces the evolution, birth and journey of ‘View EHS’. “It is basically a consolidated rating system for each project aligned to 37 objectives under the ‘5 Arms of EHS’ that monitors day to day EHS implementation on a normalised scorecard to objectively compare the performance of diversified projects in terms of scope, value, activities and man-power deployment. All the activities and sub-activities in WET and SWC have been mapped comprehensively with their respective hazards, risks, SOPs, checklists and permits.” The 5 KPIs being: IMS Implementation and Documentation, Training & EHS Review Meets, Incident Communication, Investigation and CAPA, Audit Inspection Outcomes and Compliances, Pro-active Measures.

The system does not rely merely on the number of incidents or document compliance but on overall EHS performance based on implementation of IMS systems and achievement of EHS objectives. “Our first purposeful step towards digitalization was therefore taken in early 2015 with the development of four online systems.”

1. EHS Online Observation System: uploads observations and compliance reports at site level of Unsafe Acts/Unsafe Conditions/ Unsafe Behavior noticed by the site EHSO with an escalation matrix, wherein if observations and NCs are not promptly closed by the Site Engineer, a mail is triggered to the next five levels i.e. Project Manager, Cluster Head, BU Head, SBG Head and IC Head. It also enables analysis of type of hazards and risk levels at site. “Even the EHS performance of the Project Manager, Section In-charge, Site Engineer, Sub-contractor and EHSO can be tracked,” smiles Sudheesh.

2. EHS Home: The portal where the site EHSO registers all the monthly statistical reports on Environment, Health and Safety as per the KPI elements such as training, ViewEHS – A fresh perspective to safety K S Sudheesh Kumar Head – EHS, WET IC & SWC BU ViewEHS is basically a consolidated rating system for each project aligned to 37 objectives under the ‘5 Arms of EHS’ that monitors day to day EHS implementation on a normalised scorecard to objectively compare the performance of diversified projects in terms of scope, value, activities and man-power deployment. document compliance, SOPs, SEC implementation, incident reporting, engineering control, campaigns, environment & CSR Initiatives, etc.

4. Confirmation on Action Taken Module captures observations registered by the CEHSM’s during visits as per the approved MAP, project pre-start undertakings signed by Project Managers during project kick-off meetings, observations/complaints received through the iVRS-SIS based Toll Free number, project committee meeting minutes, PM walkthrough reports and/or incident reports with a provision for escalations. “We logged 1,78,115 online observations and corrected them in time to prevent site incidents having successfully implemented modules that were reactive measures in the system,” highlights Sudeesh. “Our next focus was to digitalise the proactive measures to further reduce risks during execution to eliminate incidents and thus began our digital enhancement to create ‘ViewEHS’.”

Defining a paperless process with ‘SafeArmZ’

The existing system was literally overwhelmed by paperwork with supervisors and site engineers having to fill various checklists, refer to manuals and SOPs to deliver pep-talks and ratify processes through counter-signed approvals. Digitalization eliminated this paperwork entirely. ‘SafeArmZ’, the earlier avatar of ‘ViewEHS’, was developed to complement EHS requirements and improve the overall Proactive Risk Control Measure Process with inputs from sites identifying major activities, sub-activities and associated risks and hazards to arrive at the best possible control measures as per IMS standard procedures.

To align these well-defined documented procedures with digital systems for a seamless, user-friendly and EHScompliant final product was the next challenge. Working with sound logic, the app was conceived to work on an algorithm to determine the documents to refer and checklists to fill before starting any site activity that brought uniformity to data collection. A user had to login only once to view risks, hazards, SOPs, fill Safe Execution Cards, permits and activity-specific checklists.

A dashboard, accessible at various levels across the organization, displays EHS risks, quantum of activities carried out and closures, tracks EHS compliance by monitoring activities and sub-activities, workmen deployed, current risk rating of the project, critical activities, major hazards and physical progress that empowers the team to identify activities requiring greater attention to improve productivity. “Apart from being a huge success with our site engineers, we received the copyright for ‘SafeArmZ’, a first-of-its-kind solution in India to meet a site’s requirement of Environment, Health & Safety data irrespective of size of location,” enthuses Sudeesh.

SafeArmZ© was launched in 2018 and recorded 1,20,612 Safe Execution Cards, 5,07,566 PTWs and Activity Specific Checklists.

Integrating safety systems

With a range of reactive and proactive modules in operation, it was time to tie the strings together. “Enhancements are comprehensive in digitalization,” shares Minhaj Ahmed Ansari, Asst. Manager (EHS), SW&C, “so we sought a module that could play a similar role for EHS as EIP does for the organization; a single platform beginning with the EHS objectives aligned with a SMART Approach i.e. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time bound.” Measurables and quantitative targets were set against each objective and scores awarded based on the achievement against each target for an insight into the overall performance of the site based on KPIs. Duplication of data was avoided by ensuring the unique interconnection of the various EHS Activities,” he adds.

Welcome ‘ViewEHS’

After detailed testing, ‘ViewEHS’ was launched on 23rd April 2019 and Sudeesh proudly shares that 189 projects and 3565+ end users have already been inducted into the digital ecosystem. ‘ViewEHS’ extends the SafeArmZ programme by being faster, smoother and more user-friendly. “It is a complete package encompassing analytical features the entire spectrum of EHS activities that users from across locations can view ‘live’ on dashboards either on the mobile app or the webbased module,” he describes. ‘Going forward, ‘View EHS’ is envisioned to act as a single point of engagement for all safety-related data analytics and business intelligence,” informs Krithika Venkatesh, Senior Manager – Digital.

The uniqueness of ‘View EHS’ is in the intricate interplay between sub-systems by exchanging information, transacting and validating data that steams ‘live’ onto dashboards accessible to every level of management with visuals in web as well as on Android and IOS platforms. “It is a perfect, custom-made system packed with inputs and analytical features with insights to various risks that helps us to maintain an incident-free work zone,” shares Anantha Prasanna Venkatesh, BU EHS Coordinator, WSD department.

Implementation has become more seamless for the likes of E Kumaresan, BU EHS Coordinator. “Now, it is easy to track the process with real time data across various levels and speed up proactive measures.”

Going green too

According to Sudheesh, ‘View EHS’ represents a definitive step towards 100% digitalization of EHS systems and by avoiding paper, productivity improvement is translating into a saving of approximately 56,000 INR. “We have stopped consuming some 1020 sheets of paper, reduced 135 man-days, and considerably cut the frequency and severity rates per month which means that in WET IC itself we are able to save almost 10 Cr. INR and 1.8 Million Sheets of paper that translates roughly into 220 trees!”

What the future holds

With a huge data bank derived from more than 200 sites involving 35000 workmen, analysing it is the next challenge and Sudheesh is already crstal ball gazing. “Imagine a system, in which just by pointing your phone camera towards a site, you can identify the hazards, perceived risks, related incidents, alerts and repetitive unsafe acts/unsafe conditions/unsafe behaviours. A system that can analyse the behaviour of every project manager, construction manager, site engineer and EHSO. We are already in discussions with stake holders to further integrate advanced data mining and analytics methods such as Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Learning techniques with ‘ViewEHS’ that will transform the operations of the EHS department into a completely Digital Driven Predictive System to achieve our vision of ‘ZERO HARM’,” he rounds off.