Agile approaches to inspections: The role of technology
We've all seen by now that companies from all industries are letting technology shape and solve their challenges, from cost fluctuation to workforce shortages. Since technology changes how we perform our jobs, so does the adoption of new digital tools. Creating early synergy between technology and workers is pivotal.
New efficiency-oriented work methods shape the inspection processes and the way these are performed.
Is the TIC (testing, inspection, and certification) sector ready to enhance productivity by uniting technology with their field inspections? The answer to how technology shapes the new generation of inspectors remains to unveil itself, and we are actively contributing to that.
Working with clients who have embraced the Smartflow solution, we discovered some of the daily challenges they faced when many of their inspectors were still performing manual tasks on paper. Below are the most recurrent ones.
Data Availability
Operational intelligence needs easy access to transparent data monitoring, fast data extraction, and safe data exchange & storage to make informed and rapid decisions.
If you want to increase productivity and improve compliance, data should be available with a single click, accessible from anywhere, online or offline.
According to a?McKinsey report, employees spend 1.8 hours daily searching and gathering information, leading to less hands-on tool time. On average, that's 9.3 hours per week! Can we afford to spend that much time only searching for information needed to perform the job?
Using tools that allow you to access data easily with a simple search improves efficiency, productivity, and performance. Inspectors are not wasting their energy traveling or calling other workers to find the needed data.
Compliance
Inspections and regulations require fast processing if you want increased productivity and uptime. All the non-profitable tasks, such as data entry, tracking, and paperwork, affect the ROI with every minute invested in performing these repetitive, time-consuming tasks.
Many regulations require companies to self-report their inspections, and the penalties for violations are too high to afford not being compliant.
If you streamline your compliance processes, you can reduce workload, lessen audit risks, and minimize fines and violations.
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Real-time reporting
The real-time data-sharing struggle is real! Because of so many paper-based or spreadsheets-based work models that lack agility, field inspectors can't share their findings in real-time to fasten the approval process. Regardless of the industry, companies require a quicker and more accurate generation of real-time reporting to solve efficiency among workers.
In the last?couple of years,?companies worldwide had to adapt to a remote work method, and many needed more time to be ready. With many job roles still requiring the physical presence and a lack of technology that enables real-time reporting, field inspectors still have to go through a long, sometimes tedious process to deliver their work, slowing down the decision-making process.
Mobile inspections
We're looking at a mobile inspection way of working, especially with the new generation of workers entering the job market ready to step up.
The new generation of workers is technically savvy. Everyone needs to adapt to welcome inspectors oriented to innovation and technology.
Many companies are still following paper-based work methods or using expensive technology when daily inspections could easily be performed on the mobile devices the workers are carrying. Carrying out inspection checks on a mobile device is a huge time saver and a safe, user-friendly, effortless way to work.
The new generation of inspectors wants to keep processes, systems, and technology up to date and create a culture of flexibility.
Maximizing results with digital inspections
It is obvious by now that technological advances highly impact the future of work. Many organizations are already conducting research analysis to determine which new technologies will model and help their workforce.
As for now, not all businesses are ready to become more agile, and few of them will succeed that ideally. Each organization has to build a decision process and identify the best tools that match their needs and fulfill their expectations.
But change is coming whether we are ready or not.
Smartflow is a SaaS solution that digitizes field inspections & checks. Inspectors in the field use Smartflow's mobile app to efficiently execute workflows and capture data shared with internal and external stakeholders in real-time.