18th June 2021

Safety improvements continue at Van Elle with plant database

Following the roll out of our eight point Safety Golden Rules, we recently launched our plant database, as part of our 16-point safety improvement plan announced earlier this year.

A dozen workshop managers, fitters and maintenance personnel met with Group Quality Systems Manager, Darron Coe and IT Manager, Gavin Long, to discuss updates to the plant database as one of the developments within our preventative maintenance strategy.

The plant database will still allow for records of inspection, service and thorough examination to be filed against the item of plant, and the labour and parts used to be allocated to the machine.

A series of improvements includes automatically alerting the maintenance teams of any defects identified during the inspections, allowing them to determine if an immediate repair is required.

Additional features include the use of QR codes to readily identify plant items and display the relevant inspection forms and a breakdown reporting function.

The development of the database comes as the company aims to use its fleet more effectively – a particularly important development for such a busy multi-divisional business.

Darron Coe said: “The changes to the database system, which is available on our Van Elle App, will support utilisation with clarity, reduce unmanaged downtime and provide solid traceability across our fleet and kit.

“The expectation is that over time the information collected from inspections, servicing, breakdowns and defects reported against each item of plant will collectively contribute to not only the planned maintenance of existing machinery but also to a data-based selection of future assets.”

As part of the ‘joined up thinking’ or seamless systems being developed at Van Elle, this database will link into the contracts board, visually alerting the contracts team that the asset needs a service or repair.

Gavin Long added: “As well as supporting safety and kit maintenance, the updated plant database will allow the whole team to access the maintenance log for each piece of kit, which we envisage will help promote accountability and transparency, while supporting our busy divisions.

“The fact that our whole team has access to the database via the app means that we can provide a more streamlined maintenance service, right across the business.”

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