Training, tests and stacks of permit papers – this is the daily reality for OHS workers in most of our industrial plants. But at Hydro Extrusion Slovakia a.s., everything is different and much simpler. In cooperation with GAMO a.s., they have put into practice the Work Permit Application. This saves time and ultimately money.
The idea was born about four years ago in the head of Lukáš Kelemec, HSE Manager of Hydro Extrusion Slovakia. He thought that everything would take only a few weeks, but the reality was different. “I thought that we would say some assignment and in a month or two it would be ready. But it wasn’t quite like that,” begins the narrative of the AVPP story. Many external contractors work for the company. Each one had to be trained, tested and issued with a paper work permit. The rules of occupational safety are uncompromising. It took a long time, it was demanding on human capacity, and there were mistakes and unnecessary delays. “The biggest shortcomings were in the issuance of work permits, which are now electronic, and we could not and did not have the time to check them all. We issue several hundred of them during the course of a year,” explains Lukáš Kelemeca, adding that due to the volume they could only do spot checks. “When some shortcomings were found, it was too late, because the company in question was already with us, carrying out some activity,” he says, describing the motivation for the company’s occupational health and safety department to look for a different solution.
We go to tender
Hydro Extrusion Slovakia approached several companies with the idea to develop the application. In the end, they decided for the offer from GAMO a.s., although they admit that it was not the cheapest. “I am a proud Bystrian,” says Lukáš Kelemeca with a smile, which is why he was looking for a company in his home region. However, this was not the only criterion, according to him. “We knew GAMO, we have worked with them on other projects, and it is a pro-customer company. You don’t get the feeling that we’re just another nameless client when you work with them. There is transparency, a high level of professionalism on their part,” and that was a deciding factor, according to the HSE Manager.
GAMO then developed the AVPP application based on the assignment. This automates the company’s working life. The application works autonomously without direct intervention and supervision of the responsible employee. Contractors watch a training video, take a test, get the results, and upon successful completion can start using the application fully, which includes applying for a new work permit. The advantage of the system is that all the administration, i.e. training and preparation of the work permit, is done online and all the “paperwork” can already be prepared before the visit to the company. “The application itself is a way of managing contractors digitally. This means that the tasks that are carried out in it today were carried out the old-fashioned way on paper in the past,” explains Lukáš Kelemeca, adding: “I always tell our suppliers and people in the company that this is no different than in the past. But the advantage is that today we have it clearly in digital form.”
Putting into practice
Hydro Extrusion Slovakia and GAMO went through several phases before they started to use the new application. The first one was an in-house testing at the client’s site. “That is, the application was only made available to our HSE department,” says its head Lukáš Kelemeca. Only then did they meet with the main contractors, present AVPP to them and launch the software into trial operation. “At first it ran for three months simultaneously alongside the old way of managing contractors. So paper form, classic training, classic permits,” explains the HSE Manager of Hydro Extrusion Slovakia the start-up of the system. At the same time, however, some contractors were already able to operate without it just via the app. “And then D-Day had to come, when we said that we were ending the old way and starting to use the application to the full,” notes Lukáš Kelemeca.
However, according to Hydro Extrusion Slovakia, the biggest problem in the implementation of the application was not external suppliers. Especially their own employees had a hard time getting used to AVPP. “The nut was definitely our maintenance,” openly admits the company’s HSE Manager. “As with anything new… It’s in the nature of things that people first ofrflew something, and only then they start to find out what positive things the change will bring them,” Lukáš Kelemeca described the first days after the automated system was launched. The application will not allow to issue a work permit if all the requirements are not met, and employees complained that they would do nothing but wait for it to allow them to write out the permits. “But you were supposed to do it the old-fashioned way, on paper,” the company’s management reminded them, according to Lukáš Kelemec, adding with a smile: “Only now we’ll be able to see more of their fingers, and that was the whole stumbling block.” However, even the employees eventually adopted AVPP as their own, and today they can no longer imagine operating in the company without it.
What practice has shown
Hydro Extursion Slovakia in cooperation with GAMO is constantly improving the application. “For example, we deployed the last functionality a few weeks ago. It is the so-called pre-approval of suppliers from the HSE perspective. It is a requirement based on ISO 45001 and also our corporation Hydro,” recalls HSE Manager Lukáš Kelemeca. “Every contractor who carries out an activity with us has to be assessed by us to see if they are authorised to carry out that activity. For example, liability insurance, should they cause any damage on our premises while carrying out work, or whether their employees are authorised. This has all been done in the past on paper. Now we’ve put it into an app where it’s digital, and that’s a really huge time saver. It’s clear, it’s all in one place, I don’t have to ask anybody because the system automatically asks for it from every new contractor.”
Another new feature that Hydro Extrusion Slovakia praises is the ability to insert documents directly into the application. “If a contractor comes to me to do welding work, high-rise work, and I need to see from him whether he has a valid certification, I just ask him to put it in and then we have it available for inspection at any time,” explains Lukáš Kelemeca, and also dispels fears of information leakage: “Of course, only authorized persons have access to these documents, so that there can be no misuse.”
The development of AVPP continues
Hydro Extursion Slovakia has divided the use of the application into five phases – management of contractors together with their pre-approval, training, issuance of work permits, their subsequent control, and the last phase is the evaluation of contractors. According to Lukáš Kelemec, they still want to work on it in cooperation with the developers from GAMO: “We should assign a grade to a contractor in the application during the year based on some experience with the contractor. And the worst ones should no longer be part of our professional life in the future.”
Also on the table is an ambitious plan to link AVPP with artificial intelligence. In fact, Hydro has developed its own AI and, according to Lukas Kelemec, it can even assist suppliers. “If he asks for a new work permit, he has to describe to us what he is going to carry out. The AI can highlight to him the main risks that arise from his activity, all this will happen automatically based on the job description given in the permit,” explains the company’s HSE Manager, adding that that’s not all there is to it: “At the same time, the contractor will also be able to ask the artificial intelligence via the app for help on how to set up measures to reduce the risks in his activity. This will be a tool to involve the contractor more in their assessment and thus reduce the risk of adverse events.”
GAMO’s AVPP is therefore the future for OHS departments in other companies as well. “We have had several hundred training sessions a year and using the app is an incredible time saver. Time is the biggest benefit, it’s hard to quantify at all.” Moving away from paper and using information systems is the future of business, at Hydro Extrusion Slovakia they are already living it.
About HYDRO EXTRUSION SLOVAKIA
- traditional manufacturer of aluminium profiles
- comprehensive service from pressing through surface treatment to a wide range of machining operations
- Quality certification: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, Tissax, IATF 16949 Qualanod Industrial
- 405 employees
- more than 750 active customers
