Making the Case for Automation and Integration ....................................
In all likelihood, your company’s operations are vast. Your organization’s
footprint includes a supply chain that begins with human relations and runs
out to cover the logistics inherent to all your plant operations, wherever they
may be in the world, and the timely shipping of your product to a demanding
market. If you haven’t reached this stage yet, you are headed in that direc-
tion. Either way, you need to ensure the health and safety of every single one
of your employees, vendors, contractors, and visitors. Moreover, the reports
you produce must be directed not only to your C-suite, but also to various
other employees, the public, the government, and a plethora of local agen-
cies, all according to rigid schedules.
Called upon to create such accountability using stand-alone means and appli-
cations or, worse, manual techniques, you would quickly succumb to a quag-
mire of logistic complications and bureaucratic difficulties, thus obstructing
your ability to function as a business. You must change your methods to
meet the demands of the times, and you must do it in a way that enables you
to continue growing.
To implement your occupational health and industrial hygiene and safety
programs such that they are comprehensive, the means by which you acti-
vate and manage them should work in concert, focused to achieve a single,
clearly articulated goal. In the end, any aspect of this program that is stand-
alone is more likely to function as an obstacle to your ends than as a support.
When you integrate, you can
Access all existing data (human resource business processes, plant
maintenance, and materials management, among others) from a single
location to see a wider picture
Improve cooperation among different departments and enhance the flow
of information
Update dependent data instantly. Changes to hazardous-substance
data, for instance, can result in generation of new standard operating
procedures
Track and control safety measures automatically
Expand your range of reporting options. Extract data from industrial
hygiene and safety, occupational health, HR, and logistics
Complete documentation of all processes. Accident management, health
and safety briefings, and health-surveillance protocols can all be man-
aged from one location
Achieve global standardization of procedures and documentation
Chapter 10: Keeping Employees Healthy and Safe 183
