The 16th Annual EHS Management Forum in Memphis, Tennessee was a great success. The forum gave the Intelex Sales Team an opportunity to catch up with existing clients like NRG, AEP, Danaher, and Tyco Valves and Controls; and a chance to meet with new colleagues and business partners.

Although Intelex representatives have attended NAEM’s EHS Management Forum in years past, this was the first year that we were a platinum sponsor. As a sponsor we had the opportunity to engage in the forum on a new level, which included participating in the Safety portion of the forum program.  Also participating in the Safety Session was Intelex’s client Tyco Valves and Controls. Keith Welch, Tyco’s EHS Manager, presented on “Safety – Best Practices & Emerging Issues.” Keith provided some key insights into the challenges that Tyco Valves and Controls had to consider when they made the decision to switch from a paper-based EHS reporting process to the Intelex web-based EHS Management System. Being that Tyco Valves and Controls has over 12,000 employees in 24 different countries, you can imagine this was no small project.  To learn more about Keith’s presentation, you can submit a request through the Intelex website.

Last week’s environment, health, and safety forum was such a success that we’re already looking for to the next NAEM event “Driving Performance and Cost Savings Through EHS Management Information Systems” on February 19-20, 2009 in Tampa, Florida.  See you there!

 

 

(From left to right: Daniel Marcus-Intelex Account Manager, Keith Welch-Tyco Valves and Controls EHS Manager, Bevin Lyon-Intelex Account Manager)

Bersin and Associates, an Oakland, California based research and advisory firm, recently released the results of a comprehensive survey on employee performance management. The survey revealed several nuggets of wisdom, but the finding that jumped out the most for me was the fact that more than 85% of organizations reported seeing demonstrable positive impact after implementation of a performance management system. That's a pretty impressive satisfaction rate. The survey involved more than 700 respondents, thirty percent of whom were employees of companies in the top 100 of the Fortune 500.

Business Performance Mangement

New Quality Nonconformance Dashboards and Scorecards have been posted on the Intelex-Exchange.  Import them directly into your Intelex System to further streamline your organization's Quality Nonconformance reporting.

DASHBOARDS
Quality Nonconformance Dashboard (1)
Quality Nonconformance Dashboard (2)

SCORECARDS
Configurable Report Scorecards:
Quality Nonconformances by Product - Current Year
Quality Nonconformances by Process - Current Year
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions
Closed Quality Nonconformances – Current Year
Quality Nonconformances – Completed Corrective/Preventive Actions
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions Next 30 Days
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions by Month
Quality Nonconformances – Overdue Corrective/Preventive Actions
Quality Nonconformances – Current Month
Quality Nonconformances by Customer
Quality Nonconformances – Last 90 Days
Quality Nonconformances – Last 90 Days by Department
Quality Nonconformances – Current Year
Quality Nonconformances by Status
Quality Nonconformances by Type and Month – Current Year
Quality Nonconformances – Current vs. Previous Year

Graphical Scorecards:
Quality Nonconformances by Type
Total Quality Nonconformances – Current Year
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions
Quality Nonconformance Status – Current Year

Search Component Scorecards:
Quality Nonconformances – Search by Record Number
Quality Nonconformances – Search by Date Reported
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions Search by Action Number
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions Search by Record Number

Other Scorecards:
Quality Nonconformances – Toolbar Scorecard
Quality Nonconformances – Tab Scorecard
Quality Nonconformances – Task List Scorecard
Quality Nonconformances – Related Reports
Quality Nonconformances – Metric Scorecard

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has recently made a four-part training manual available to use for free on its website. The Powered Industrial Trucks (Forklift) eTool is a resource designed to enhance the safety of employees who operate forklifts. It is not meant to be a replacement for OSHA mandated training. Employers are encouraged to use it as a supplement for any existing truck operator training programs.

The topic of managing environment, quality, and safety business processes under a single management program has become a popular topic in 2008. More and more, organizations are recognizing the reciprocal relationship that each of these business areas has on the other. In a 2008 whitepaper entitled Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Environmental, Health, Safety, and Quality Programs the author uses the following example to illustrate this point:

"… changing a process or procedure in one area without considering the impact on all areas could improve performance where the change is made but actually harm performance in other areas. For instance, replacing a chemical sanitizer in the laundry processes at a hospital with a less-toxic organic alternative might win points in the environmental category, but if the alternative is less effective at sterilizing linens and a spike in infections results, then quality has been diminished"

Simply put, environment, quality, and safety business processes should never be addressed in isolation of one another. Every organization, regardless of whether it manufactures a product or provides a service, works toward the goal of continuous improvement.  Each business decision presents an opportunity to replace inefficiency with productivity, waste with value, and status quo with leadership.  One of the surest ways to achieve this goal is by implementing an integrated management system specifically designed to drive continual improvement and improve your bottom line across all areas of your business.

You can obtain a copy of the whitepaper mentioned in this post by submitting a request to Intelex.

Hey Blog readers!  With the release of Intelex 5 officially in the books, the Client Relations Team, in addition to posting free Intelex-Exchange content, would like to continue sharing success stories and other interesting musings/developments from the world of Intelex.

Just prior to the release, Project Consultant Devon Ambrose, along with Help Desk Team Lead Jeff Preager, had the opportunity to visit with Kikkoman Foods Inc., in Walworth, Wisconsin for the purpose of conducting on site training.  If you’ve ever used soy sauce in any of your gastronomic culinary experiments, I’m positive Kikkoman is a company you’re familiar with.

Using Intelex’s Environmental and Safety Management Systems, this particular training session focused on Safety Incident Reporting, Document Control, Audit Management, Safety Meetings, Hazards and Risk Assessment, and reporting (Dashboard and Scorecard building). 

Several factors helped make it unique: the most intriguing of which was an Intelex initiative to enhance Help Desk awareness.  By having Jeff actively participate in training, the Help Desk immediately gained a first hand sense of both training requirements and client expectations.  Jeff was also able to form a more personable relationship with Kikkoman representatives, individuals he’s closely communicated with in the past.

Not only did Kikkoman benefit from having two trainers present, this invaluable experience has allowed the Help Desk to more effectively prepare for clients transitioning to ongoing support, something all Intelex clients will benefit from.

Dashboards have become virtually indispensible to workers and managers. They provide graphical information in the form of charts and graphs as opposed to spreadsheets and reports, thereby enabling a big-picture view of an enterprise.

Despite the obvious benefits, dashboards can tend to become counterproductive if not properly deployed. There is a risk of information overload if care is not taken to select only the necessary indicators.  Privacy concerns and employee morale issues can also arise if details of individual worker performance are widely accessible.

Here are a few suggestions for successful dashboard implementation:

1. Keep it Simple. Avoid overloading your dashboards with every conceivable metric related to your business.  Information overload will lead to distractions and keep the focus away from your organization’s vital stats. 
2. Participate in the Development. The design and implementation of dashboards is often left to consultants and IT personnel. It is important to include the managers and employees who will be using the system in the development cycle. 
3. Don't micromanage. One of the dangers of being able to instantly track every facet of a business’ operation is a tendency to micromanage.  Managers obsessed with the minutiae of their employees activities can be tempted into micromanagement which then reduces productivity and places unprecedented pressure on workers.

As my colleague Ike Nwaozomudoh explained recently, "pertinent information really is just a glance away" with Metric Scorecards.  Here are the latest complimentary Metric Scorecards available for download on the Intelex-Exchange:

 

Emergency Response – Environmental Metrics
Legal Requirements – Metric Scorecard
License Compliance – Metric Scorecard
Monitoring & Measurement – Metric Scorecard
Standard Nonconformance – Metric Scorecard
Training & Awareness – Cost Metrics
Training & Awareness – Hours Metrics

Intelex is happy to bring you the following Standard Safety Incidents (SSI) reporting tools free of charge on the Intelex-Exchange.  Two Dashboards along with a multitude of Scorecards and Configurable Reports aim to help make your SSI reporting process even more effective

DASHBOARDS Standard Safety Incidents Dashboard (1) Standard Safety Incidents Dashboard (2)
(1)			(2)

SCORECARDS
Standard Safety Incidents – Total Incidents This Year by Month
Standard Safety Incidents – Total Incidents This Year
Standard Safety Incidents – Incidents in Last 90 Days
Standard Safety Incidents – Incidents in Last
Standard Safety Incidents – Rates for the Current Year
Standard Safety Incidents – Incidents Current Year vs. Previous Year
Standard Safety Incidents – Incidents Current Year vs. Previous Year (Graphical)
Standard Safety Incidents – Incidents by Status by Month
Standard Safety Incidents – Incidents by Stages
Standard Safety Incidents – Search by Record ID
Standard Safety Incidents – Search by Date of Occurrence
Standard Safety Incidents – Tab Scorecard
Standard Safety Incidents – OSHA Rates Metric
Standard Safety Incidents – Days Metric

CONFIGURABLE REPORTS
Standard Safety Incidents – Incidents This Year (Grouped)
Standard Safety Incidents – Incidents Last Year (Grouped)
Standard Safety Incidents – OSHA Lost Time by Company (Matrix)
Standard Safety Incidents – Injury by Case Classification (Matrix)
Standard Safety Incidents – Incidents by Supervisor (Grouped)
Standard Safety Incidents – Incidents by Nature of Injury/Illness (Matrix)