ecchelmet EHS Digitalization – Next Normal
Organizations are entering into a new phase — the ‘next normal’ even as COVID-19 continues to significantly impact economies and businesses. Organizations have had to revisit their business continuity plans to seek ways to minimize risks, increase efficiency, improve sustainability, and reduce cost. It has become more important than ever to rethink conventional operations & execution methods and integrate innovative technologies with futuristic strategies.
Construction sites have dynamic activities where workmen are engaged in several activities, exposing them to a variety of hazards such as cave-ins during excavation, fall of person or material when working at heights, handling heavy construction equipment, maintaining electrical hygiene, operating electrical equipment & machinery in damp locations, noxious gases in confined spaces, and the like.
Water, one of the most vital sectors in the world today, calls for comprehensive technological / infrastructure solutions. L&T Construction’s Water and Effluent Treatment IC provides complete solutions through its concept to commissioning capability covering process design, detailed engineering, procurement, project management and execution that cover: Urban & rural water supply, Industrial water supply, Water treatment plants, Sewage treatment plants, Effluent treatment plants, Wastewater collection network, Desalination, Micro & Lift irrigation projects, Water management, Smart water infrastructure, Plant water systems, 24x7 Pressurized water supply & Non-revenue water (NRW) / Unaccounted for Water (UFW).
Water & Effluent Treatment IC handles a wide range of activities including construction of GLSR, OHSR, sewerage tunnels, pumphouses, rehabilitation of existing structures & facilities, demolitions, working near water, desalination, pipe laying in hilly terrains or forests and more. Though implementation of safe operating procedures, EHS training and legal compliances, be it central, state, or local requirements, are in place, the EHS department consistently aims to identify, control, or eliminate construction-related hazards and risks to achieve Mission Zero Harm across projects.
We, at WET IC, firmly believe that EHS at work is every employee’s responsibility as also the promotion of the EHS Culture. EHS is integrated into all execution activities and implementation of the required EHS measures is vested in the operational units. The management facilitates holistic implementation of EHS Policy & Procedures and closely monitors for continual improvements. Project Management is responsible to implement IMS at their respective projects and the Cluster Management closely monitors the project EHS Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) within their cluster.
In keeping with L&T’s vision, philosophy, and the IC’s EHS Policy, the management has formalized Environment, Health & Safety Management Systems in tune with the International Standards of ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001: 2018. Systems and procedures implement the required clauses at all stages of construction activities. The senior management remains committed to implement Integrated Management and continue L&T’s tradition of meeting stringent Environment, Occupational Health and Safety standards for safe and timely delivery of projects.
Digital transformation is more than a buzzword — it is the key to ensure organizational resilience and help EHS teams to do more with historical & live data analytics. From artificial intelligence to software applications & mobile devices, there is technology out there to help businesses gain operational & executional efficiencies. As work becomes more digitized, real-time data can increasingly be analysed and used for pro-active risk mitigation and cost reduction during project execution.
‘VIEW EHS’, a digital platform for centralized reporting, documentation, and performance measurement for EHS Management Systems, digitalizes the entire process of EHS Management by linking the KPIs of every site, cluster, segment, BS, BU, SBG and IC to their EHS objectives, IMS Standard requirements, EHS policy, legal and other requirements.
The EHS Performance Management System is designed not only to monitor the results but also to capture a wide range of proactive controls implemented by the project site. VIEW EHS ensures this with the 6 KPIs known as the ‘6 Senses of EHS’ that focus on effective implementation with 59 success factors distributed within the KPIs.
With 100% implementation of VIEW EHS across sites, enormous data is being fetched from various modules, processes and activities interlinked. An opportunity lies ahead of us to harness this data, analyse it, learn from it, and finally predict outcomes.
By using data analytics technologies like ‘Natural Language Processing’ and ‘Artificial Intelligence’, we are on the path to understand and predict trends related to hazards, associated risks, repetitive observations, project execution, workmen deployment, sub-contractor performance and so on.
As part of a futuristic plan, we have developed the ‘KF (Knowledge Finder) EHS’ Cognitive AI Search Engine application, hich empowers users to search and retrieve information from all relevant documents in the EHS Library including EHS documents, good practices, EHS alerts, engineering control measures and audit findings captured from sites in the form of text and images. The application is available on mobiles and a web dashboard.
To enhance the system, we are planning to geo-tag structures at all our project sites to continuously monitor activities and sub-activities. We are in the process of developing this module in coordination with Mindtree and the geo-spatial teams. The tagging will be merged with the SEC and observation modules to track critical activities at any structure. Hazards identification and risk assessment will be simplified using this feature, improving monitoring of project risk.
With a vision to completely digitalize EHS, we are developing the EHS Activity Planner and Productivity Tracker that aims to monitor and track planned monthly activities and ensure minimum deviation from the planned activities for the month.
WET IC’s evolving business has huge public involvement, working in densely populated areas, at proximity to rural and urban areas, across almost 80% of the country. The pandemic caused panic concerning employment, migrant workmen, contractors, supply, basic welfare arrangement, and safety measures for all. In line with the corporate COVID-19 SOPs, we developed WET IC SOPs covering business requirements with specific goals to safeguard the workmen and employees.
For the COVID-19 response team at each site, digital platforms like VIEW EHS, SafeArmZ, etc. have been boons to tackle the crisis. VIEW EHS has helped maintain EHS requirements at project sites. The standard workmen habitats, EHS trainings, PEP Talks, awareness programs, frequent interactions and meetings with staffs and workmen through MS Teams have helped L&Tites to face the pandemic well.
All our efforts and our wonderful leadership have helped our employees and workmen start activities without much trouble. The pandemic has taught lessons on the importance of digital platforms, communication, and Apps.
Motivational & stress management trainings continuously conducted for employees, workmen and their families during the lockdown have helped people enormously to fight depression and emotional imbalance.
EHS Reward & Reprimand System has been introduced and implemented to identify and reward high-performing employees, workmen and sub-contractors to encourage the EHS culture and achieve Mission Zero Harm across all sites.
We have a moral obligation to protect the environment and promote sustainable development of the planet for future generations. Our projects start with environmental objectives such as ambient air quality monitoring, tree plantation, rainwater harvesting, water audits, waste minimization campaigns apart from reducing water consumption by reusing the RO discharged water for washing/ washroom flushes, reducing energy consumption by 2% each financial year & various eco-friendly energy alternatives like solar panels at workmen habitats, training vans and use of LEDs instead of conventional lighting arrangements.
Going forward, Geo-fencing & Geotagging of project structures, monitoring productivity, hazard & risk zoning, identifying training needs & effectiveness of training, environment monitoring through carbon & water foot print, workmen movement, motivation awards for cultural transformation and productivity will be added features on VIEW EHS.
We will definitely achieve our Lakshya targets of Zero Frequency, Severity and Fatality rates (Mission Zero Harm) through holistic EHS & digital implementation to exceed the expectations of clients, customers & stakeholders and stay ahead of tough competition in both domestic and international markets.