In the modern world, we cannot imagine life without a smartphone. It holds our banking services, vacation bookings, and utility payments. We stopped standing in lines with receipts at the savings bank a long time ago. But when we come to work, especially in industrial manufacturing, it feels like we are stepping back in time: processes are still built on paper logs and printed registers.
This is particularly noticeable in the HSE field. For example, the process of providing employees with personal protective equipment (PPE) has long remained one of the most paper-heavy and inconvenient for all parties involved:
The employee had to remember when they were due for a new PPE issue.
The manager had to track and ensure that no subordinate was left without protection.
Administrators had to manually generate registers, get them approved, printed, signed, scanned, and sent to the warehouse.
Even the presence of ERP systems (like SAP or 1C) did not always solve the problem: the data was there, but not in the right format or at the right time. Information about an employee's equipment remained in a database, inaccessible in the field — right where the person works.
Digital Breakthrough: Mobile PPE Service
Nornickel is one of the companies actively engaged in the digital transformation of HSE and industrial safety processes. One of its key projects is a mobile PPE application available to every employee on their personal device.
How does it work?
The employee can see in the app:
All this is available in real time, without having to contact HR or the HSE department.
The manager gets online visibility:
The issuance process has become simpler:
Before: print the register → sign it → take it to the warehouse → issue → return the signature.
Now: the employee clicks "Generate register" → the system automatically selects the necessary PPE based on their profession and sizes → they go to the warehouse → receive the kit.
All of this is integrated with the corporate IT architecture but operates through a web interface — without installing additional software, in full compliance with modern information security requirements.
Safety Begins with Trust
PPE digitalization is not just about convenience. It is about fulfilling the requirements of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
But the psychological dimension is equally important: when an employee sees that the process is transparent and their safety is a priority, trust in the system and engagement in the safety culture grow.
Conclusion: Services in Life and Services at Work Should Be the Same
We no longer print receipts to pay utility bills. Why then do we continue to "live on paper" in manufacturing?
The answer is simple: we lacked solutions created "together with manufacturing."
The PPE service is an example of how digital technologies are introduced not for the sake of innovation, but for the sake of people. And at Nornickel, we are confident: such a transformation is not an exception, but the new norm for the entire HSE and industrial safety system.