Patent Application
20080222102
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to safety management techniques, and more particularly, to providing a safety management center capable of managing safety related information from multiple sources.
Many organizations have taken a strong interest in increasing organizational productivity. Such increases are achieved in numerous ways including streamlining procedures, improving equipment, improving worker training, improving safety, reducing waste, reducing downtime, etc. As a result, numerous organizations have developed programs aimed at monitoring one or more of the areas described above. For example, programs have been created for monitoring safety related issues within a particular organization.
The ubiquitous nature of computers and their relatively vast processing capabilities have led to the utilization of applications which can be executed by computers to perform safety related monitoring programs. In this regard, applications have been developed to assist in the creation and tracking of reports of mishaps, incidents, accidents, etc. However, advancements in certain areas may have positive impacts on other areas related to safety. For example, improving worker training may lead to a reduction of injury related accidents and/or equipment downtime. Additionally, many organizations are relatively large in size and run operations that are diverse, thereby making it difficult to manage and correlate safety related data on an organization wide basis. For example, particular divisions within an organization may be involved in completely different operations. Thus, the organization may be forced to create unique safety monitoring programs for each division or even unique safety monitoring programs within work centers of the same division. Management of differing programs may become difficult and many potential benefits may be lost due to inefficiencies in the management tool such as a rigid structure that is insufficiently flexible to permit managing diverse organizational safety issues. For example, details at each corresponding divisional level may not be capable of reporting using similar reporting mechanisms and thus, details may be lost in translating divisional related information into a form that is useable at the organizational level.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to introduce a robust and customizable safety center management tool that is capable of improving current safety management techniques.
Accordingly, in order to address the problems described above, embodiments of the present invention may provide a method, apparatus and computer program product for providing a safety management center at an organizational level that includes further customizable characteristics that make the safety management center scalable to any sized organization regardless of the operations of each division of the organization. The safety management center also includes a drill down capability, such that links are provided from one organizational level to the next within each reporting module. Additionally, each reporting module may be linked to reporting modules of different types so that safety related event records of varying types and corresponding reports may be accessed from a single web page. Accordingly, organization wide safety management may be accomplished in a web based environment rather than via a paper based or other environment. Furthermore, it may be possible for the safety management center to identify particular areas of need or to recommend particular alterations to current operations based on organizational trends determined from internally or externally generated safety related information.
In one exemplary embodiment, a method for providing a safety management center is provided. The method includes receiving safety related event data via an event record that is customizable at a plurality of levels within an organization, storing the event data, generating a report based on the stored event data, and generating planning information for improving projected future reports. The report is customizable at the plurality of levels within the organization. The planning information is capable of generation at each of the plurality of levels within the organization.
In another exemplary embodiment, an apparatus for providing a safety management center is provided. The apparatus includes a communication element, a memory device, a reporting element and a planning element. The communication element is configured to receive safety related event data via an event record that is customizable at a plurality of levels within an organization. The memory device is in communication with the communication element for storing the event data. The reporting element is in communication with the memory device and is configured to generate a report based on the stored event data. The report is customizable at the plurality of levels within the organization. The planning element is in communication with the memory device and the reporting element and configured to generate planning information for improving projected future reports. The planning information is also capable of generation at each of the plurality of levels within the organization.
In another exemplary embodiment, a computer program product for providing a safety management center is provided. The computer program product includes at least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein. The computer-readable program code portions include first, second, third and fourth executable portions. The first executable portion is for receiving safety related event data via an event record that is customizable at a plurality of levels within an organization. The second executable portion is for storing the event data. The third executable portion is for generating a report based on the stored event data. The report is customizable at the plurality of levels within the organization. The fourth executable portion is for generating planning information for improving projected future reports. The planning information is capable of generation at each of the plurality of levels within the organization.
Embodiments of the invention provide an increased ability to manage safety related information at all levels within an organization. Information may be provided via a customizable interface that ensures that all information reported may be utilized in conjunction with not only the particular level with which the information was originally associated, but also with all other levels of the organization. Additionally, such information may be available in an organization wide environment. As a result, safety may be further increased and organizational productivity may be enhanced.
Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
Embodiments of the present inventions now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the inventions are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.
As background, it should be understood that embodiments of the present application are designed to be implemented to enable the recording of information related to events or incidents that are associated with a safety management program such as in a web based environment. Subsequently, the information recorded is used for generating reports and for assisting in the management of safety within an organization. The events may include incidents which relate to safety or observations or inspections made by personnel either within or outside the organization. Concerns (i.e., safety related issues noted during an observation or inspection) generated as a result of the observations or inspections, and comments regarding the incidents may be recorded and used to provide various kinds of analysis as described below.
In an exemplary embodiment, one or more of the client stations 12 may be associated with different organizational levels within the particular organization. For example, one or more of the client stations 12 may be associated with a division within the organization, while remaining ones of the client stations 12 are each associated with respective different divisions. Alternatively, some of the client stations 12 may be associated with different respective divisions, while others of the client stations 12 may be associated with different respective regions comprising multiple divisions each. Yet other client stations 12 could be associated with the organizational level. As such, each of the client stations 12 may be located in different physical locations. However, regardless of the physical location of each of the client stations 12, access may be provided with access to the safety management center 10 via the client stations 12.
Each of the client stations 12 may be, for example, a computer or other device capable of providing a user interface which enables access to the safety management center 10 for the purposes of performing various operations associated with the safety management center 10 such as inputting, viewing, modifying or editing information. As such, the client stations 12 may include input devices such as, for example, a keypad, keyboard, mouse, touch screen display or any other suitable input device and output devices including any of a display, a printer, a facsimile, etc. The client stations 12 may also be in communication with external devices, for example, via email, or via other communication networks. The client stations 12 may communicate with the external devices to receive safety related information or data from an external source 14 or to communicate information to the external source 14. Accordingly, the client stations 12 may act as a gateway for information or data either being sent to the safety management center 10 from the external source 14 or being sent to the external source 14 from the safety management center 10. Alternatively, the safety management center 10 may be capable of communicating with the external source 14 directly in order to send or receive information or data to or from the external source 14.
In an exemplary embodiment, the external source 14 may include an entity having regulatory oversight over the organization. For example, the external source 14 could include one or more of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), etc. and the safety management center 10 could receive citations, inspection information, or nationwide statistical data from the external source 14. Additionally or alternatively, the safety management center 10 may submit reports to the external source 14.
In an exemplary embodiment, the tracking element 20 may be configured to receive internally generated information input at any of the client stations 12 and/or externally generated information input from the external source 14. The tracking element 20 may also be configured to output reports to any of the client stations 12 and/or the external source 14 and to output recommendations to any of the client stations 12. As shown in
The communication element 24 may be configured to enable communication of the internally and/or externally generated information to the tracking element 20 and to enable the tracking element 20 to communicate reports and/or recommendations to the external sources 14 and/or the client stations 12. For example, if MSHA is one of the external sources 14, the communication element 24 may conduct communications with an entity at MSHA to receive citations issued by MSHA and directed to the organization. Additionally or alternatively, the communication element 24 may receive inspection results from MSHA, which are directed to the organization. In an exemplary embodiment, the communication element may also receive statistical data from MSHA that includes nationwide statistics related to the particular industry or area of regulatory oversight which MSHA provides. For example, the nationwide statistics may include information on numbers and/or types of citations issued to other organizations that are conducting similar operations. As such, the organization may use the nationwide statistics to determine how the organization compares to the other organizations in certain safety related areas. The communication element 24 may also be capable of communicating reports to MSHA. As such, periodic reports regarding information on man hours or other reportables may be submitted from the safety management center 10 directly to MSHA via the communication element 24. In this regard, the entity at MSHA may receive the reports via the web or the reports may be sent via email or any other suitable electronic communication mechanism. For example, the 7002 quarterly report may be submitted via the communication element 24. It should be noted that, although the above description refers specifically to MSHA, the external sources 14 could include OSHA or organizations including other regulatory organizations. It should also be noted that although the description above refers to direct communication between an entity at MSHA and the communication element 24, reports may also be sent to MSHA via one of the client stations 12, such as via email.
Internally generated information provided to the tracking element 20 may be provided, for example, by any of the client stations 12. In an exemplary embodiment, internally generated information may be provided via a web page such as the one shown, for example, in
The events listed in the drop down menu may be customizable by the organization. In other words, authorized personnel at the organization may edit, modify, or otherwise customize the event reporting tab so that the events that are reportable may be selected to correspond to the types of events that are expected to be encountered and/or desired to be reported on by the organization. Furthermore, customization of features may be performed at each level within the organization. In other words, each division may have customized data entry pages that accurately reflect the operations of the division. For example, data entry pages for observations in a division that conducts mining operations using heavy equipment and tools may include questions related to machinery maintenance and/or tool condition. Meanwhile, a division that conducts human resource management may have no use for such questions and therefore may customize their data entry pages for observations to include more relevant questions.
Customization of features of the safety management center 10 may be performed at the client stations 12. For example, the organization may define different levels of authorization which are assigned to various different people, groups, or units within the organization. For example, each of the client stations 12 may require a user name and password or some other form of login in order to identify the individual accessing the safety management center 10 and grant access at the respective level that is preset for the individual. The different levels of authorization may then define the extent to which access is afforded to the individual. For example, if the individual is a technician or laborer, the individual may have access to view active incidents and reports organization wide, but may only be able to report new events for the individual's division with limited access to fields within the data entry page. Meanwhile, if the individual is a supervisor or a safety manager, a higher level of authorization may be provided. As such, the individual may have access to view active incidents and reports organization wide and to report new events in multiple respective divisions and perform root cause analysis or prescribe corrective actions. Additionally, if the individual is safety management center management staff, the individual may have authorization to modify the look and feel of the safety management center 10 web service by, for example, customizing the user interface including the drop down menus and data entry pages.
As shown in
Each type of event may have a particular corresponding data entry page. Furthermore, the data entry page for each type of event may be customizable. For example, an observation data entry page may include a section for identifying concerns witnessed during the observation. Meanwhile a near miss data entry page may include a section for estimating the foreseeable damage that could have occurred, such as a type of contact activity as determined by a supervisor or safety manager. An injury data entry page may include details regarding the injury such as the contact activity that occurred (i.e., loss of footing, electric shock, puncture wound, etc.) and lost man hours. Additionally, as stated above, each organizational level within the organization may customize its own data entry pages in order to ensure that the data entry pages have improved applicability for each corresponding organizational level. However, regardless of the type of event, each data entry page also includes common or comparable items that may be used for providing trend data and trend analysis at all organizational levels. The comparable items may include the time, the date, the day of the week, the location or organizational level, supervisor, etc.
The memory device 26 may include both volatile and non-volatile memory of any suitable type. As such, the memory device 26 may store data and information received from either the client stations 12 or the external source 14. As such, for example, the volatile memory may be used for temporary storage of data used in report generation, while the non-volatile memory is used for long term storage of event records. The memory device 26 may also store reports and/or recommendations prior to the output of the reports and/or recommendations at the client stations 12 or the external source 14. In an exemplary embodiment, the processing element 23 is capable of storing information received by the communication element 24, reports generated by the reporting element 28, and recommendations generated by the planning element 22 in the memory device 26. The processing element 23 is also capable of accessing the stored information, reports, and/or recommendations from the memory device 26 for communication of the stored information, reports, and/or recommendations via the communication element 24.
The reporting element 28 may be embodied as any device or means embodied in either hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software that is capable of generating reports based on received information. In this regard, the reporting element 28 receives internally and/or externally generated information and generates reports based on the information received. The reporting element 28 also manages active incidents that have been created in response to saving of a data entry page after reporting an event. Thus, for example, when a data entry page is utilized to report an event, an active incident or event record is created corresponding to the information provided during reporting of the event on the data entry page. For example, when the data entry page is saved, a unique tracking number may be assigned to the event. Tracking numbers may be organized, for example, by the type of the event (i.e., observation, inspection, near miss, injury, property damage, etc.), the organizational unit in which the event occurred, etc. As stated above, the data entered via the data entry page may be stored in the memory device 26 in the form of an event record and therefore be accessible at a later time, for example, via the tracking number or via a search. As such, information regarding the event may be recalled at a later time using the tracking number, for example, by selecting the “active incidents” tab 32 shown in
In an exemplary embodiment, selection of the “open book” icon may open an information and control console 40 generated specifically to identify only those fields that have not yet received an input and enable the user to input data into the corresponding fields. As such, when all of the fields have an input, the icon 38 may change to the “closed book” icon. It should be noted that the creator of the event (i.e., the individual who saved the completed data entry page) need not be the same as the user that enters information for a corresponding active incident. For example, a supervisor may complete a data entry page for a particular incident by saving the data entry page with inputs in all fields except the investigator field. At a later time, a safety manager may assign an investigator and, by selecting the “open book” icon, access the information and control console 40 to input the investigator, which may then change the icon 38 to the “closed book” icon when the additional data is entered, thereby completing the entry for the corresponding event record or active incident.
The reporting element 28 also enables the user to generate, view or output reports that are generated based on the information provided in the active incidents. As such, it should be noted that all active incident data is used in preparing reports, whether the active incident data corresponds to an “open book” entry or a “closed book” entry. The reporting element 28 provides analysis of information received by the tracking element 20 based on organizational hierarchy and selected date ranges. In an exemplary embodiment, reports may be accessed via a “reports” tab 34 which may provide a drop down menu or a separate web page for selecting or otherwise identifying desired reports for viewing. In this regard, reports may be selected based upon organizational level, date range or other suitable factors. Each report may also include a drill down capability into more detailed information of corresponding selected areas and/or links to similar reports corresponding to other divisions, regions, locations or other organizational levels.
In an exemplary embodiment, the safety management center 10 may provide a safety overview page such as is shown, for example, in
An exemplary report is shown in
The tracking element 20 may also be configured to incorporate root cause and corrective action data. For example, the data entry page and/or the active incident associated with each event may include a section for root cause/corrective action analysis as appropriate. In an exemplary embodiment, injury, near miss and property damage events may include both root cause and corrective action analysis. Meanwhile, citations and concerns from observations or inspections may only include corrective actions. Accordingly, for example, a particular division in receipt of a citation may utilize the tracking element 20 to search for similar citations that may have been received in other organizational units, such as another division. The particular division may then model their response to the citation upon the corrective actions utilized in response to the citation received at the other organizational unit. This may be especially useful in situations where the prior corrective actions eventually proved to be successful.
The planning element 22 may be configured to analyze information and data included in the active incidents and provided by internally and/or externally generated information in order to provide a predictive assessment related to the incidence of future concerns and/or incidents. The planning element 22 may also or alternatively be configured to provide recommendations for improving safety management such as by improving the predictive assessment based on data associated with currently stored events (i.e., concerns and/or incidents).
The predictive assessment may be generated based on current trend data and/or a current observation plan. The current observation plan may include a schedule indicating the dates and times, or ranges of dates and times during which future observations are expected to be conducted. In this regard, the current observation plan may include both random and scheduled observations and inspections. As such, the planning element 22 may be capable of recognizing patterns and trends related to the occurrence of events under the current observation plan and predicting the likelihood of future occurrences. In this regard, the predictive assessment may include a graphical representation of the likelihood of future occurrences of concerns and incidents at a time period selected by the user.
As stated above, the planning element 22 may also provide recommendations for improving safety management. In this regard, the planning element 22 may identify patterns and/or trends in concerns or incidents and, based on the patterns and/or trends, the planning element 22 may provide recommendations for improving safety management. The planning element 22 may analyze and determine trends based on various characteristics such as temporal characteristics (e.g., day of the week, time of day, etc.), substantive characteristics (e.g., type of concern or incident), or geographic considerations (e.g., facility at which the concern or incident occurred). For example, the planning element 22 may be capable of identifying that the majority of observations are conducted at a particular time, or on a particular day of the week or month, while a majority of incidents are occurring at a different time, day of the week or month. Accordingly, the planning element 22 may provide a recommendation to modify the observation plan to, for example, shift scheduled observations to correspond to periods during which incident occurrence is more likely or just prior to periods in which incident occurrence is more likely. A general assumption that may be employed by the planning element 22 may be that an increase in noted concerns and corresponding corrective actions is likely to decrease the occurrence rate of incidents. In other words, concern rates (i.e., the rate at which particular concerns occur over a given time period) and incident rates are likely to be inversely proportional within a particular area of operation. Accordingly, recommendations may be made regarding the frequency of observations, the timing of observations or even the questions associated with performance of a particular observation. For example, recommendations may be made that a particular question should be added based on events which occur that are related to a particular observation. For example, if a maintenance activity is monitored with a set of questions related only to the actual maintenance and yet housekeeping and cleanliness comments are routinely received in citations from external sources, a recommendation may be made to modify the questions to include a question stating, “Is the worksite clean?”.
The planning element 22 may also be capable of identifying that particular questions associated with the performance of a particular observation are not adequate or are not being observed and thereafter recommend changing the questions or enforcing their observation. Questions associated with observations may include, for example, questions regarding the condition of tools used, the cleanliness of a work environment, the proper use of tools by a technician, etc. Thus, for example, if a number of property damage incidents or injuries occur due to tool breakage, the planning element 22 may identify discrepancies such as the failure of observers to comment on a question related to the condition of tools. Alternatively, if all observers commented positively on the condition of tools, the planning element 22 may recommend training on identifying tool deficiencies, or stressing the question during an observation since the area is a problem area. In this regard, the planning element 22 may evaluate the questions to determine, for example, if a certain percentage of the questions appear to be ineffective then the questions should be changed, or if a certain percentage of the questions are routinely failed or answered in a fashion indicative of unacceptable practices, then training should be conducted. In an exemplary embodiment, the planning element 22 may include a list of candidate questions which may be used as recommended questions in corresponding situations. For example, the candidate questions could be questions installed by developers or questions utilized by other units within the organization.
The planning element 22 may also identify training deficiencies or other similar operational shortcomings and provide appropriate recommendations. For example, if an individual such as a supervisor or another worker is involved in an incident that is outside the area of expertise or normal operation for the individual, the planning element 22 may provide suggestions to recommend that clearer boundaries be established to define the tasks in which each individual should participate. Alternatively, the planning element 22 may recommend that cross training should be provided to certain job titles that appear to be likely to be exposed to activity in areas otherwise considered outside the area of expertise or normal operation for the individual.
The planning element 22, like the tracking element 20, may be utilized at any organizational level within the organization for any particular unit within the organization. Thus, for example, recommendations may be provided at the organizational level based on organization wide data, or the recommendations may be provided at the divisional level based on division wide data, and all levels in between. Since each level may customize data entry, reports and recommendations are also customizable for each level. Such customization extends to substantive issues such as the questions associated with an observation data entry page and also to non-substantive issues such as the banner or the wallpaper associated with a particular division's data entry pages.
Accordingly, in general terms, the safety management center 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an initial data entry mechanism that is customizable for each organizational level. Data entry need not result in every field of data entry pages associated with an event record being completed in order for the data that is entered to be used for analysis. Rather, complete or incomplete data may be assigned an identification such as the tracking number and an identifier associated with the identification for indicating to a user whether certain fields of the event record have or have not received an input. By selecting the icon, only those fields that have not yet received an input may be conveniently completed, thereby changing the identifier to indicate that all fields have received an input. Reports may be viewed based on internally and externally generated information and such reports may be output to either internal or external sources. The reports may correspond to any unit of the organization at any organizational level with links provided to expand to a subsequent higher level or to focus on a subsequent lower level of the organization. Predictions may be provided to indicate likely future concern and incident rates. The predictions may be based on stored data and current observation plan information. Recommendations may be provided based on improving the predictions or based on analysis of indicia of current deficiencies based, for example, on patterns and trends identified from stored information. In other words, the safety management center 10 may provide a robust capability for managing safety related issues by pulling together data from numerous sources over various types of events at all levels within an organization. Specifically, the safety management center 10 pulls together resources associated with root cause/corrective action analysis, with observation records, incident records and other event records to provide for the viewing or transmission of reports as well as the receipt of citations from regulatory entities in a single web based environment.
Accordingly, blocks or steps of the flowcharts support combinations of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that one or more blocks or steps of the flowcharts, and combinations of blocks or steps in the flowcharts, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform the specified functions or steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
In this regard, one embodiment of a method of providing safety management, as shown in
The above described functions may be carried out in many ways. For example, any suitable means for carrying out each of the functions described above may be employed to carry out embodiments of the invention. In one embodiment, all or a portion of the elements of the invention generally operate under control of a computer program product. The computer program product for performing the methods of embodiments of the invention includes a computer-readable storage medium, such as the non-volatile storage medium, and computer-readable program code portions, such as a series of computer instructions, embodied in the computer-readable storage medium.
Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these inventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
