Today, Abitibi-Consolidated has reduced its procedure development time for electrical isolation of its plant power distribution network with new software that also offers the added benefit of improving shutdown time. After initially struggling to find a solution, one safety procedure management software - Lock-it - met Abitibi-Consolidated's need for better procedure development time while cutting costs. With Lock-it in place, the supervisors at Abitibi-Consolidated have virtually eliminated the procedure writing and update process for more than 150 isolation procedures. Moreover, Abitibi's employees now have the ability to quickly and correctly identify equipment type, hazardous energy sources and isolating devices required for a specific lockout/tagout procedure, in turn ensuring a safer working environment for employees who must perform the maintenance on a piece of equipment.
The Paper Wasteland
Abitibi-Consolidated was faced with a challenge, in fact many challenges. Abitibi-Consolidated needed to control or eliminate the high risk of hazardous energy in order to safely and efficiently maintain and service equipment in its electrical power distribution network. With over 300 pieces of electrical equipment including power lines, transformers, disconnect switches, breakers, switch-gears and protection and monitoring devices, Abitibi needed a tool that would streamline and control their full lockout/tagout program.
A second challenge for Abitibi-Consolidated was the need to properly identify and list all the isolating devices that are to be used on the electrical isolation procedures. However, the massive amount of technical documentation was recorded on a word-processor, which lead to inconsistent, duplicate, and inaccurate data. Moreover, due to a word-processor's limited data management capabilities, updating one isolating device on several isolation procedures meant the time-consuming task of opening several files at once and repeating the update procedure over and over again. To be sure, this manual procedure created uncertainty in the integrity of the information and required close review. As a result, the electrical isolation procedures were delayed causing increased shutdown time.
Years of plant development and subsequent growth propelled Abitibi-Consolidated to seek better measures to ensure safer working environments. Their safety concerns involved simplifying the complicated lockout/tagout program and providing up-to-date and accurate information regarding tracking, analysis and identification. Moreover, adding to this safety challenge was the need to secure compliance and consistency in specific isolation procedures.
Since risks are high in shutdowns, emergency maintenance or power failures situations, Abitibi-Consolidated follows strict environmental and safety preventive measures. The company looked for a tool that would integrate the company's safety values with a high-tech process that would provide their employees with the added advantage of increased worker protection.
Lock-it into the Future
Abitibi-Consolidated turned to ID Group, the designers of Lock-it, to study the plant, co-ordinate all the electrical plans and work with the supervisors at Abitibi-Consolidated on implementation. Within days of full implementation, the supervisors were able to develop over 150 specific isolation procedures.
More importantly, Lock-it was chosen by Abitibi-Consolidated for its impact in providing consistency in their methods and procedure formats. With increased consistency, Abitibi has reduced waste time because Lock-it assists the authorized employee to quickly and easily identify whether an isolation is required. Today, Abitibi is fully utilizing its plant resources with the help of the 'Energy Source Tracker', a critical feature of Lock-it. This feature assists in identifying the type of application needed for the isolation. In addition to the increased consistency factor, Lock-it provides assistance in improving employee performance in their analysis and in determining hazardous energy potential and preventable loss control.
Another key design feature of Lock-it is the 'Procedure Manager'. This feature provides Abitibi-Consolidated with the advantage of reducing the procedure development time by simplifying the writing procedure and update process for the lockout procedures. This feature also assures Abitibi-Consolidated that the integrity and reliability of the information is attained and provides fast access to it. Today, Abititi-Consolidated exceeds not only its own stringent safety measures but government regulations as well. This approach significantly reduces shut down time, thus achieving increased operational effectiveness.
An added feature of Lock-it is its 'Security' feature which allows the main user to limit the levels of access of other users on the network. Abitibi found that the particular strength of this feature is the increased trust factor gained by the employee who must perform the lockout since only authorised employees with full access to the software can update the technical data. Additionally, with this feature, employees with limited computer experience use a simplified screen, generating a faster acceptance of the new software by these employees.
Abitibi-Consolidated clearly demonstrated its commitment to its safety practices by seeking an innovative solution to an old safety issue. Moreover, the employees at Abitibi-Consolidated now have the ability to quickly and correctly identify equipment type, hazardous energy sources and isolating devices for an isolation procedure. The software has given the authorized electrical technician a tool that manages the most stringent safety requirements. Consistency and control provide the steady improvement in performance Abitibi-Consolidated seeks in its safety practices. As a result, the performance of employees in analyzing and determining hazardous energy potentials and preventable loss control has improved significantly.
World-Class Manufacturing
Abitibi-Consolidated is not the only company to benefit from Lock-it's innovative approach. The Johnson & Johnson plant management also had a goal - to ensure their products would meet world-class manufacturing. But before the plant would compete in any world market, management examined all their systems including their manual lockout approach. They too turned to ID Group and the Lock-it software.
Marc Rivard who heads the plant's Health and Safety at Johnson and Johnson states, "At first we weren't looking for a software, we just wanted to do a better job. This software has brought us all the technical requirements we hoped to find for our company." Rivard found that the addition of Lock-it resulted in a number of benefits, including reduced time to apply a lockout, reduced risk of hazardous energy and reduced risk of accidents. He also found a few other benefits he did not foresee, "Of course, we can talk about a manual approach for lockout procedures. But ID Group brought us the technical innovation we needed with the much-heralded Lock-it software. So the experts came to us and got to work right away. They evaluated our needs, studied the plant, co-ordinated all the electrical and mechanical plans. They told us what we were lacking at the time, in order for us, in Johnson and Johnson, to complete a comprehensive lockout procedure."
World class manufacturing also meant meeting ISO standards at Johnson & Johnson. These standards ensure that the different quality procedures are met including maintenance and safety measures, which can effect the output of the product. As Rivard states, "The lockout techniques we now use in the plant will allow us to meet all our health and safety goals, will obviously reflect on the quality of our output and will help create a more efficient environment. We have come to take these improvements for granted."
More than just a Safety Procedure Management Software Lock-it was developed in response to the growing demands for a hazardous energy control program (lockout/ tagout) and, as a software, can promise more than just paperless administration. Specifically designed to control hazardous energies associated with safety and lockout/tagout procedures for all types of industries and for facilities of all sizes, Lock-it is a tool that will improve manufacturing efficiency, and maximise production time with the capability to meet and exceed government regulations. The overall benefits of this application are useful for all companies seeking to achieve operational excellence. This drive towards excellence is what prompted the engineers and safety supervisors of Abitibi-Consolidated and Johnson & Johnson to choose Lock-it. ID Group continually improves the application and is serving a wide range of industries such as transportation, pulp and paper, aerospace and engineering, mining, petrochemicals, food processing and government.
Cecilia Ponzi is with the ID Group.