Integrating Contractors into the Client's Digital Solutions

Unified Digital Circuit: Why Let Contractors into Your Systems

HSE digitalization is often limited to a company's internal processes, leaving contractors in the "paper" era. This creates a serious communication gap: paper violation reports get lost on the construction site, permit-to-work approvals drag on for days, and contractor top management learns about systemic problems only at penalty commissions. In this webinar, Rustam Azizov analyzes the process of integrating contractors into the client's unified digital environment using the example of a large industrial complex with about 10,000 employees.

Step-by-Step Integration into Industrial Safety Processes

The speaker shows how the sequential transition of interaction to digital changes the safety culture on site and increases work transparency. The integration process affected three key areas:

• Audits and observations. Connecting contractors to the automated system made it possible to directly inform their management about identified non-conformities. This eliminated information loss at the line personnel level and reduced feedback processing time to one day.
• Incident investigation. Contractors became full participants in electronic document management during investigations. Now they see all commission comments in real time, can respond promptly, and approve stages without the need to physically sign papers after the fact.
• Electronic Permit-to-Work (ePTW). The most complex stage, which was initially piloted on three different organizations. The implemented system offers automatic selection of safety measures depending on the declared risks and types of work, and also allows for the quick issuance of permits by analogy with previous ones.

Implementation Barriers and Technical Limitations

The presentation details the obstacles that a client inevitably faces when scaling digital solutions. In addition to classic resistance to change and the lack of basic infrastructure (computers and internet) in construction camps, strict information security requirements related to granting external users access to internal databases became a serious challenge.

Special attention during the discussion was paid to the problem of electronic signatures. Currently, permits are signed electronically by issuing and approving persons, while admitting persons and direct executors continue to use wet signatures. A complete rejection of paper on large-scale open industrial sites is often hindered by unstable mobile communication. The speaker notes that a final solution to this problem requires the deployment of private networks (Private LTE) and providing line personnel with rugged tablets.

Practical Results and Analytics

The transition to electronic interaction not only accelerated bureaucratic procedures but also directly affected the safety of the production process. Advance verification of electronic permits-to-work by the client's specialists led to a 95% reduction in work stoppages due to workplace preparation violations. In addition, contractors received a convenient tool for independent analytics of their systemic errors, and the client gained the ability to form an up-to-date control heat map, understanding where high-risk work is concentrated.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to overcome information security barriers when admitting third-party organizations to corporate systems?
• How does an electronic permit-to-work help preventively reduce the number of work stoppages on site?
• How to organize the process so that contractor management learns about violations before real incidents occur?
• Why is a complete rejection of paper signatures in permits-to-work currently difficult, and what infrastructure solutions are required for this?
• How does automation help form a real-time contractor control heat map?