Picture the scene in a typical maintenance workshop. A small crew must do an emergency repair of a leaking gas feed valve and need to kit up quickly. The personal protective equipment specified on the permit-to-work has the standard site safety gear such as hard hat, safety boots and glasses, long-sleeved overalls, and gloves.
Several special items are also necessary for working on a gas leak. Masks and an oxygen supply are mandatory, along with a radio for emergency communication and a portable gas detector. The radio clips onto the belt, and the worn gas detector is carried over the shoulders.
Everything is set to proceed, except for one thing – the work permit!
Site management requires that a copy of the authorised permit be carried by the supervisor to the work location. Working without a permit is a dismissible offence. As the crew loads up the tools, a clipboard with a grubby copy of the permit is thrown in the toolbox. Is everything set to proceed?
An observer might wonder why, in the most sophisticated digitally enabled organisations, the people who actually do the work and who are exposed directly to safety risks have to rely on a paper copy of the permit in the field. Shouldn’t the permit be in digital form? Why carry a separate radio, personal gas monitor, and portable gas detector, and then go out into the plant with a clipboard? There must be a better, more productive way.
The good news is that there is a way to carry a digital version of the permit process to the worksite. In this article, I will explore mobile permit management and how it can enhance overall control of work, making the safety process more efficient and user-friendly.
What is Mobile Permit Management?
The permit-to-work is a signed document that provides teams working in hazardous environments with assurance that potential hazards have been identified, safety controls are in place, and plant preparations, such as draining equipment and installing isolations, have all been completed.
The permit also names the competent individuals authorised for the work.
An electronic permit-to-work system digitises the process of applying for a permit, specifying the safety controls and precautions, and authorising the work from inception to job close-out. Along the way, shift change and handover procedures are tightly controlled to maintain safety.
An electronic permit-to-work system seeks to improve operational efficient by overcoming common challenges with paper permits, such as manual paperwork, delays, errors, and compliance issues.
Mobile permit management involves using a mobile device, such as a tablet or phone, to allow workers to find, view, and interact with the permit-to-work electronically while at the worksite. The device connects to the permit management software database, allowing notifications and changes to be communicated both ways – from the worksite to the permit controller and from the permit controller back to the working party.
Due to limitations in many plant networks, it is vital that the mobile device continues to work safely if there is no network signal at the worksite. This specialised requirement means the permit software must be incredibly robust and fails-safe in these scenarios.
The same mobile device used for the permit can, depending on hardware capabilities, connect to two-way radios, personal gas monitors, GPS locators, and other devices worn on or around the person. There are many opportunities for enhancing productivity and safety by examining the variety of devices carried into the field and consolidating some of these with the mobile permit-to-work. This concept is sometimes referred to as the “connected worker.”
Practical Applications of Mobile Permit Management
Some specific examples of using a mobile device include verifying that the work crew has inspected the site and is satisfied that all the preparations are in place and suitable for work to start. The mobile permit system might also manage the job site hazard analysis, with the results automatically recorded and updated on the permit-to-work.
Another common use of a modern mobile device is verifying isolations or overrides/bypasses by a combination of location, scanning RFID tags, barcodes, or other physical means to verify the correct isolation point.
These isolation point verifications will also update permit-to-work database in real time, which is crucial for the control room who need to know about changes in the field that might have a direct and immediate impact on the safety and integrity of the rest of the process.
Benefits of Mobile Permit Management
The benefits of mobile permit management are numerous:
- Accessing Permit Information: Teams can manage their permits anywhere and at any time with accurate information.
- Real-time Updates: Updates to the permit are instantly accessible, with alerts and notifications to alert workers in the field of changes. The software ensures safety integrity is not adversely affected even with limited or no connectivity.
- Improved Accuracy: Information captured at the worksite can be checked digitally to reduce errors associated with annotating paper copies.
- Enhanced Communications: The mobile permit management system facilitates two-way effective communication between the permit controller and the work crew, allowing constant updates and to ensure that safety levels are maintained. No more walking to and from the permit office, and no more reliance on radio communication with unreliable pen and paper note-taking at each end.
Key Features of an Effective Mobile Permit Management System
An effective mobile permit management system should include:
- User-friendly Interface: A responsive and well-designed interface that is simple to use without extensive training.
- Offline Functionality: The ability to manage permits when offline, such as during intermittent networks or when there is no connectivity.
- Integration Capabilities: A well-architected design that allows integration with existing software and systems. The system should be easy to customise to meet specific site or organisational requirements.
- Security and Privacy: The use of a mobile permit device should not adversely impact data integrity, information security or infringe on individual privacy.
- Safety: The mobile device itself should not present a new hazard, e.g. a spark in explosive environment or creating a distraction to the user; or even sending false alarms.
Applications of Mobile Permit Management
Mobile permit management systems add value to most industrial operations, especially in:
- Large and dispersed sites, such as remote well fields or pipelines.
- Locations where the walking distance between the permit office and work locations is significant.
- Operations such as offshore operations, marine or shipping, where work is performed from boats or other crafts.
- Construction sites where the infrastructure is not yet in place to support permit workstations in operational areas.
Please note that not all situations are suitable for portable mobile devices. For instance, some organisations prohibit the use of mobile phones in classified hazardous areas due to the risk of explosion. The added safety risk arises from the potential for sparks, interference with plant instrumentation, and security concerns (such as the use of cameras). In these facilities, the use of specially designed, intrinsically safe devices is required. These devices can be managed to ensure that any information they record does not pose a security risk, and that they operate within a frequency spectrum that does not interfere with process control networks.
Implementing Mobile Permit Management
The process of implementing mobile permit management depends on the current state of your electronic permit system:
- New Implementations: If you are implementing electronic permit-to-work for the first time, it is beneficial to consider including mobile permit functionality at the requirements stage and in the project scope.
- Existing Systems: If you already have an electronic permit-to-work system, approach the existing vendor for a mobile solution with necessary integrations built-in.
- Custom Solutions: You may elect to customise your existing mobility technology on the plant to incorporate the permit-to-work interface and connect to the backend permit database. This approach will likely follow a different approach and require quantifying the future risk of maintaining in-house developed software.
The basic process of implementing mobile permit management typically includes:
- Assessing the existing permit management process and identifying gaps.
- Requirements definition (business requirements, functional specification).
- Software selection and purchase.
- Designing interfaces and updated workflow processes.
- Configuring/building your new system with the vendors guidance.
- Change management and user training.
- Implementation, perhaps using a proof-of-concept followed by a general rollout, or implementing across the whole site at once.
- Monitoring and support – regularly reviewing the systems performance to identify potential improvements.
The Future of Mobile Permit Management
A mobile permit system significantly improves safety and productivity. But what does the future hold?
- Connected Workers: Connected workers interact electronically with other systems. For example, they can receive detailed instructions for a specific maintenance task from an expert using remote communications and visual tools such as cameras, visors, and augmented screens. These platforms will also incorporate safety aspects, of which the permit-to-work is a core element. As the number of IoT devices proliferate, many will be integrated into wearables or portable devices that serve multiple functions at the worksite, such as gas monitoring, lone worker monitoring, and slip, trip, and fall detection.
- Additional Verifications: The use of RFID and barcode scanning for isolations, overrides and bypasses will continue to evolve with faster, more reliable, and better portable technologies that ensure people work on the correct equipment.
- Smart Sensors: As more smart sensors are added to the plant monitoring environment, they can constantly verify that the conditions of the permit are being adhered to and reflected in the permit-to-work.
- AI-enabled Systems: AI-enabled mobile permit-to-work systems will allow workers to converse with their AI-enabled devices to better identify and mitigate risks, receive guidance on performing tasks safely and efficiently, and monitor and analyse real-time process data streams to identify new risks and recommend mitigations. This aspect is in its infancy but holds great potential.
Conclusion
Mobile permit management, when combined with an electronic permit-to-work system, offers numerous benefits. Fieldwork becomes more productive and safer, and work crews can respond faster to changes in the plant or emergencies. With a robust software and hardware platform, mobile permit management can enhance connected worker use cases, providing a holistic and robust set of tools to empower workers in the field.
IntelliPERMIT has a mobile permit management module that works seamlessly with the core permit-to-work management system. IntelliPERMIT Mobile is used daily to support field workers to work safe by providing real-time access to permit information, updating permit data, and confirming, verifying, and approving transactions as required. IntelliPERMIT Mobile is designed for and proven in environments with intermittent connectivity, such as large dispersed mines, factories, or gas fields, ensuring that people are safe and productive at all times.
