Eliminating paperwork and a cluttered filing system was just the beginning
When Snavely Forest Products was acquired in 2018 by MacArthur Company, it joined with Weekes Forest Products to create the Two Step Distribution group.
Prior to the business reorganization, James Watts was Snavely’s Director of Health and Safety and responsible for the design, implementation, and follow-through of all health and safety protocols for 150 employees. Upon Snavely’s acquisition, Watts suddenly found himself responsible for the well-being of 400 employees. Adding to the challenge was that safety inspections for both companies were paper based.
“All our forklift and warehouse inspections came in on paper,” says Watts. “We have 18 warehouses and approximately 200 pieces of mobile equipment — we generated a lot of paper. And that led to a complicated filing system, and it just kept expanding.”
So Watts created a single unified document for both Snavely and Weekes employees to use in inspection reports. But it was only the first step. Watts was interested in a digital solution for his inspection management process and sought a platform that would combine his standardized form with streamlined technological delivery. He found it with Fulcrum, an app developer dedicated to modernizing mobile workforces.
“When I sat down with Fulcrum to discuss my annual site inspection, they looked at my program and the files I used,” says Watts. “Then they took everything we had, unified form and all, and showed me how to easily create a user-friendly mobile app in minutes.”
The resulting mobile app was simple to use and matched the form’s parameters exactly. It provided ease and out-of-the-box to support inspection process management. From planning to inspection, through reporting to acting on the accumulated data, Watts’ process was seamlessly automated. It enables him to obtain crucial insights at every level of an inspection workflow, expedite communications, and plan remediations and new inspection processes.
Just two weeks after digitizing their safety inspection programs, Snavely and Weekes achieved payback on their annual investment. More importantly, they were able to consolidate insights across facilities to drive action on the safety data they collected.
WATTS NEXT?
After demonstrating the Fulcrum platform to Two Step Distribution executives, Watts was given the go-ahead to put together a development team to oversee the creation of, and training for, new apps. Says Watts, “We’re now creating an accident and injury reporting document in an app, and we’re going to get it to all our truck drivers.”
He adds, “The drivers all have tablets for the electronic logs. With the app, they can report right away and take pictures automatically geotagged for documentation. Our team at the home office will have expedited visibility into report initiation, location, and status for all required follow-up. It’s going to utterly reshape our accident reporting process.”
Watts also plans to use the platform as a recruiting tool. “If we can say our process is very simple and works on tools you use every day, we have an advantage over other employers.”
Through the use of streamlined reporting technologies, Snavely is more efficient in Building Business for Our Partners.
APP BENEFITS
- Warehouse Safety Audits. Employees can now enter all information, including photos, using the app on their mobile devices, to digitize audits in real time. Record-keeping efficiency has improved by 55–75%, and reports are quickly created and distributed to the right stakeholders.
- Forklift Safety Inspections. Safety inspections for 100 forklift operators across 16 divisions have now been simplified and save each division at least half an hour per day, plus real-time insights drive forklift maintenance and repair schedules to reduce the risk of accidents.
- Facility Inspections. The app saves management 30 minutes per month per location just in inspection time. By making inspection data shareable with other teams to drive remediation and reporting efficiencies, Snavely also realizes significant cost benefits.
- Insurance Reporting. To get the best insurance rates, Snavely and Weekes must self-report every three years. The app provides real-time visibility into safety issues and remediation management across teams and enables both companies to quickly and accurately self-report.