Automating The Permit Process

Still relying on paper-based permitting? Why not let compliance-savvy software bring you out of the dark ages?

Industrial environments inherently possess serious threats to workforce safety and health. Around the world, government agencies establish occupational safety and health standards expressly designed to eliminate or mitigate potential threats.

Enterprises that must comply with national or industry safety standards expend great time and energy establishing in-house positions, policies and procedures to meet or exceed such standards. Seeking to achieve world-class safety and health goals, many also take the extra step to automate all safety processes—which, for some businesses, is a quantum leap. That’s because automation brings an oftentimes slow, blind, archaic, manually driven, paper-based process into the new millennium with compliance-savvy software that instantly enforces the latest standards and is fully integrated with real-time operations and work-control activities.

One area where automation brings immediate measurable benefits to any organization is permitting. Whether you use the term “Permit to Work” or simply “permit,” there are software solutions to automate your process.

Typically, plant safety-permitting processes consist of standard forms filled out in ink; three-ring binders to hold them for some period of time; and someone who knows which permit to use for each job. Even though a plant may be running sophisticated operations and work-control software, the closest that software may get to the permitting process is a gratuitous checkbox on a work document. For true automation, an operation needs more. It needs a software solution that factors safety into the equation of world-class enterprise operations and work control.

CHAMPS Permit allows your plant equipment to tell the next work order that it may need one or more specific permit types for the job to be performed safely and in compliance with government regulations. Using this software tool, a standard operating procedure is triggered by calendar frequencies, run-time meter values and/or events. The software automatically initiates all permitting processes, and e-mails all appropriate parties for electronic signature approvals or FYI notifications. In support of compliance audits and complete backup when accidents happen, CHAMPS Permit provides a complete audit trail of change and historical relationships between permits, equipment, work documents and personnel. MT

Bryan Gay is president of CHAMPS Software/CMMS Division, based in Crystal River, FL. Telephone: (352) 795-2362; e-mail: BryanGay@champsinc.com.

About CHAMPS

CHAMPS Software, Inc. has provided reliable EAM solutions for companies around the world for over 30 years. Its expertise is in creating and implementing software solutions that help customers optimize capital assets, MRO materials and human resources across the enterprise.