“The DEKRA Safety Platform Offers Us Great Added Value”
Author: Matthias Gaul
Dutch consultancy, engineering and project management company KH Engineering uses DEKRA’s cloud-based safety tool to sustainably optimize processes on construction sites and to ensure smooth and safe operations.
The engineering and construction of tank farms in the storage and logistics market, the realisation of new plant facilities at chemical complexes or the pharmaceutical industry or the implementation of projects as part of the energy revolution; all these multidisciplinary, complex projects have formed KH Engineering’s day-to-day business for more than 70 years. The engineering company with headquarters in Schiedam is strategically located near three main harbour areas in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp, and offers its customers everything in terms of project development and management from a single provider.
“It goes without saying that safety is our top priority – safety is part of our DNA, especially on construction sites, given the risks involved”, emphasises Björn Erkens, responsible for Risk Management at KH Engineering. After all, incidents or accidents can lead to serious human and project impact, which should be avoided at all times. Not to mention the damage to the company’s image that may result. “Loss prevention is therefore a central priority for us in every project,” adds Björn Erkens. Managing a safe construction site is a complex job, due to the larger number of different contractors and suppliers involved. Therefore, Björn Erkens welcomes the digital DEKRA Safety Platform, which has recently been introduced at the subsidiary of the internationally active Ludan Group.
The digital DEKRA Safety Platform
Behind the innovative solution lies a cloud-based system consisting of numerous modules that support the coordination of relevant safety measures of construction activities in real time and ensure efficient networking of all parties involved. “The system, which is tailored to the customer’s specific requirements and individually configured by us, guides users through daily safety tasks and provides the necessary information along with descriptive photos, videos or construction and site plans,” explains Vincent Grijfrath, Manager Sales & Business Development at DEKRA Industrial Safety in the Netherlands. This way, risks, incidents and safety measures taken or urgently to be taken can be bundled, controlled and evaluated on a central platform. The information is available on- and off-site both to the HSE (Health, Safety & Environment) experts and the project managers and specialists on their smart devices such as tablets or smartphones. This provides real-time insight into the site safety status.
Incident prevention on any level
“Being able to access the easy-to-use and well-structured DEKRA Safety Platform from anywhere and get an overview of construction progress and potential safety risks is great added value for us,” says Gert Olde Hanter, Senior Safety Advisor at KH Engineering. Considering the fact that he personally can’t be present at all the various construction sites every day, the digital tool with the DEKRA GO app as an essential component makes daily work immensely easier. “This way, we know the status quo on the construction site, can see if something isn’t running optimally at any time and thus can react immediately,” continues Gert Olde Hanter. At the same time, everyone involved can see the potential danger posed by an identified risk, such as poor site cleaning or inadequately secured scaffolding, what action needs to be taken in a specific case and who is assigned the task in question. So everyone knows what they have to do. Finally, it is also possible to record when a measure is considered completed. “All this proactively contributes to a safe construction site and optimized processes at all levels, especially since our customers and contractors also have access to the tool and make active use of it,” says the safety advisor.
In addition to real-time monitoring, KH Engineering uses the data stored on the DEKRA Safety Platform as basis for their morning briefings. They also use the tool to explicitly document everything that went well on a construction site in order to develop incentive programs and reward a pronounced safety mindset on construction sites.
One future plan is to use the platform to set up the work permit process, toolbox meetings and short safety briefings, for example via Teams or Zoom. In addition, the platform will provide a management dashboard that generates all important site safety data. Last but not least, the company is planning to incorporate the information from the DEKRA Safety Platform into its own incident management system to utilise one point data entry further as quickly as possible. “DEKRA’s digital application is characterized by an immense depth of use and we’re only at the beginning of exploring all possibilities,” as Björn Erkens sums it up. However, even with the applications in use today, the tool already provides such valuable information and, what is more, generates great enthusiasm with the users that the company no longer wants to do without it. “A next step forward into our roadmap of digitalization.”
Schematic: The DEKRA Safety Platform’s functionalities at a glance