Risk management: the critical components you should see within your Service Reporting
An accurate well documented Service Report is your dashboard, and provides you with instant visibility of operational status, and the general condition of your equipment. However, there are many critical factors that cannot be overlooked and are paramount to the accurate gathering and reporting of the correct information in order to provide an accurate health status of your equipment for your organisation and site.
Servicing and accountability via a report is vital when your equipment is sitting quietly just waiting for that opportunity to spring into action. Your generator needs to be ready to prove itself with only a few seconds notice, to undertake the critical tasks it has been designed to power.
The most prominent areas our generators & servicing support:
– the safety of personnel
– smoke & fire services
– critical life care services
– loss of stock and/or services
– critical information services
– general comfort & wellbeing of clients and staff
So, we have established that your generator is critical, but what should you be looking for in each Service Report to keep your people & services safe? The following items may give you a little insight into what it takes to provide the final report document that you may only ever know about as the client.
The procedure
The procedure for undertaking any complex data gathering must be prepared and evolved over time, by engineers & technicians with specialised experience in the field, in order for them to be equipped to accurately inspect and monitor crucial items. This procedure must also follow the entire process from gathering equipment & site details, planning & undertaking the service works, through system trending & document control.
The documentation
A detailed service report document must be prepared with careful reflection of the evolving procedures (based on your site’s changing needs and any broader regulatory changes). This aims to allow your technician to accurately document the required status & parameters of the equipment presented on site as well as the follow-up analysis & events.
The Technician & Training
Any procedure or document is ineffective unless it is correctly & effectively communicated to skilled technicians (at your site) by those that have developed the procedure & fully understand the application. Ongoing development & training on modern equipment & control systems must be researched & put into practice by the trainers, and effectively communicated & passed on to the technicians.
Technician Auditing
Any procedure and data gathering is still reliant upon an individual on a particular day. Detailed procedures and training will help to minimise any errors and reduce risk. . As a further risk mitigation step, auditing of a technician’s ability to fully understand & carry out the required procedures & training, and apply it to varying equipment and applications must also be undertaken regularly to ensure maximum continuity of service.
Cross Checking
All documentation, images & other data gathered from your site should be cross checked by a before a final health status & report is processed for release to your Facilities Manager.
Follow-up & remediation action reporting
Any actions or recommendations derived from the service or analysis must be promptly detailed to key staff within your organisation, clearly explaining any possible risk to the site’s operation or preventative works to mitigate costly failures & potential downtime.
Repeat from start
An effective service regime does not stop here, all the above actions must continue to be re-developed, re-trained and re-evolved …….
A thorough and detailed service report contains a lot of vital information gathered by the technician on site, but what does all this information actually mean to anyone that is not an experienced technician?
At PGS, our service reports have a summary status gauge right at the top of the documentation so there is no need to sift through the data or ‘Google’ all the terms you are unsure of. The PGS status gauge provides a simple but very effective snapshot into the health of your equipment with an instant summary of any works required, items of awareness or the ‘all good’ status. Our status gauge is then supported with the technical detail, should you wish to ‘deep dive’ into the details.
Items to consider from your service provider
- Has the service document provided to you been developed by that service provider or simply been copied from another organisation’s service documentation without a full understanding of its meaning, nor established methodology to adequately conduct a report?
- Is there a procedure to adequately describe the actual meaning of the dot points that are present on the service report?
- Are the technicians undertaking your service adequately trained & experienced in the equipment they are reporting on?
- Does your service provider undertake audits & ongoing specialist-training of their technicians?
- Does your service provider cross check and authorise each service report before they are released to you?
- Is your service provider an expert in the industry with strong industry & factory support, with specialisation in this field?
- Is your service provider also equipped to provide integrated specialist electrical, mechanical & engineering resources to accommodate a major failure of breakdown?
If you are unsure of the answers to any of these items, please reach out to the PGS team – one of our specialist will be happy to support you in identifying gaps and what you should be requesting from your technicians. Call 08 8349 7854 or https://www.pgsys.com.au/contact/