Orona – reference case
No more paperwork thanks to handy safety app
DareToCare app: safety now at your fingertips
Orona specializes in the design, installation and maintenance of elevators, escalators and ramps, which can be a high-risk field. That is why working safely has always been an important company value within Orona. Nevertheless, the company still had things they wanted to improve in their approach to safety. They wanted to move away from paper-based safety procedures and forms, so Orona chose eWorks’ DareToCare app to do that. The app makes access to documents and procedures simpler by digitizing them, but it also helps to engage employees by sending alerts and tips quickly and easily. It was exactly what Orona was looking for.
‘With the DareToCare app, work with checklists at Orona has become more dynamic. Employees only have to answer questions appropriate to their work situation. The app also provides helpful notifications, such as: ‘A dangerous situation has been reported. Please follow the instructions in the app.’
Working safely is crucial
As professionals in the elevator industry, you know better than anyone that accidents can happen at any given moment. Orona’s employees not only have to work at heights and with moving parts, but they must also consider external factors such as elevator users. Therefore, they must always pay attention to electrical safety and the risk of falling, among other things. Employees must always be aware of the safety regulations. But what if these regulations can only be found on paper?
The advantage of the DareToCare app is that employees can always access information when they need it.
Paperwork? Not here.
If you use printed PDF files to conduct toolbox meetings and paper checklists to make workplace inspections, like Orona used to do until recently, you know that it is not a very convenient way of working. Moreover, it is not environmentally friendly.
Paper forms are also hard to adapt to every possible work situation since they are not dynamic. At Orona, employees sometimes had to check boxes for situations that did not apply to their specific situation. For example, someone doing mechanical work also received questions about electricity on their checklist. This created the risk of employees checking boxes indiscriminately.
Improved communication
To make it easier to register workplace inspections, Jos Verkerk, Quality and Safety Manager at Orona, was looking for a way to digitize his work. He decided to use the DareToCare safety app to do that. Using the app, he managed to digitize all forms and processes, and to make checklists more dynamic. The app also allowed adding company-specific content such as work instructions and manuals. As a result, all forms and processes related to safety can be found easily at any time by all operational managers, wherever they are.
With the use of the DareToCare app, Orona also saw opportunities to improve communication and interaction between employees. As a result, it is now easier to exchange tips and knowledge about working safely with and between employees, thus shortening the lines of communication.
Moreover, information is easy to find via the app and, therefore, much simpler to apply. Before Orona employees start carrying out their work, they must go through specific safety procedures. For example, if an employee performs work in a pit, that work involves specific safety actions. At Orona, they call this the pit procedure, which is something unique but necessary for the company.
By using the app, employees go through the safety procedures easily and quickly, and they also communicate tips to each other faster. Instead of using paper forms, they now have everything on their mobile phones.
Safety app implementation
At Orona, operational managers are not required to use the safety app. This made Jos expect that 75% of the workplace inspections performed might still be carried out on paper. Still, he trusted that the app would be well received at Orona, and he was right.
Everyone started using the app within 3 months. If people accept a system because it makes their job easier, that works better than if you force them to use it.
Easy use of toolboxes
Orona uses not only the DareToCare app, but also the eWorks offline and online toolboxes. Whereas a supervisor at Orona previously had limited safety training options at their disposal, they can now easily use the toolbox library.
Thanks to the toolbox library, Orona’s executives now have the right tools to organize a proper toolbox meeting. These resources are available online as well as offline (as downloads). Managers can choose whether to use a PowerPoint presentation offline or an online toolbox.
An additional benefit of the toolbox library is that employees can always access information exactly when they needed it.
Goodbye to paper for good
With the DareToCare app, we communicate proactively with each other and have been able to move away from paper-based audits and inspections forever.
Jos Verkerk
Ready-to-use toolboxes
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