Worker Admission System for Safe Work

From Manual Control to Automated Barriers

Ensuring safety during high-risk work, especially at geographically distributed facilities, requires strict control over personnel admissions. In conditions where employees regularly perform tasks at height and at hazardous production facilities (HPF), traditional manual tracking in Excel spreadsheets inevitably leads to errors. Tatyana Lapikova, Deputy Chief Engineer for HSE, Industrial and Fire Safety at Gazprom Transgaz Krasnodar LLC, shares the experience of transitioning from manual control to an automated worker admission system based on 1C.

The prerequisite for digitalization was an analysis of non-conformities identified by regulatory authorities and internal audits. The speaker notes that to prevent injuries, simply following the rules is not enough — it is necessary to build a system that eliminates the very possibility of admitting an unqualified employee or one without up-to-date permits to perform work.

The "Swiss Cheese" Model in Digital Execution

The developed module is based on James Reason's concept, known as the "Swiss cheese" model. The essence of the approach is to create a multi-level system of barriers, where each level covers the possible errors of the previous one. The presentation details the mechanism of four such barriers in the automated system:

• Line Manager Barrier: When forming a weekly task, the system automatically checks the plan against knowledge assessment protocols. If an employee has expired training or a scheduled business trip, the system blocks the task issuance.
• HR Control: Verification of the employee's actual presence (excluding the admission of persons on sick leave or vacation).
• HSE Department Control: Specialists verify the linking of permits to specific workplaces and equipment, compensating for possible delays in updating training center databases.
• Technical Manager Approval: Final check of the plans' compliance with the branch's production program.

This approach minimizes the influence of the human factor and prevents the alignment of "holes in the cheese" that leads to incidents.

Control of High-Risk Work and Photo Recording

For work at height, hot work, and repair work, the module was expanded with functionality for handling electronic work permits. The speaker demonstrates by example that providing photo and video materials from the site has become a mandatory condition for starting such work. This allows remote monitoring of the presence of fencing, safety signs, rescue equipment, and the correct use of PPE.

Despite the successful transition to electronic work permits, the system still faces limitations from regulatory authorities requiring a "live" signature from employees when reviewing weekly tasks. This forces the printing of documents, signing them, and uploading scans back into the system.

Development Prospects: From QR Codes to Electronic Keys

The implementation of the module has already ensured process transparency, long-term planning, and timely control of permit validity periods. The company plans further digitalization: introducing QR codes to record the completion of briefings and using electronic keys to receive shift assignments directly at the sites.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to implement a multi-level barrier system when admitting personnel to high-risk work?
• How to automate the verification of up-to-date training and medical examinations when issuing production tasks?
• How to organize remote control over workplace preparation using photo and video recording?
• How to integrate electronic work permits into the existing HSE management system?
• What difficulties can be encountered when abandoning paper document flow and how to overcome them?