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Why a digital safety management system?

By Ajoy Gonsalves

Partners EHS Industry

September 18, 2020

10 reasons to choose a digital safety management system

DG-360 is a safety management system, specially designed for BRZO companies, and completely digital. It is based on years of experience within the BRZO world, especially in the field of VBS design, implementation and maintenance, at companies such as Versteijnen, NBK and UPS. This knowledge is combined with software that is perfect for the use case, as proven at companies such as Ardagh Group and Vestas. Why should our system now be just as good, if not better than the current Safety Management Systems? We explain this in the following 10 points.

1. It's completely paperless

All inspection rounds, comment forms, audit forms and quarterly reports are performed digitally. Things that are not as they should be according to the company or VBS manual are automatically picked up and converted to a task. Results are immediately converted into KPIs. These are immediately visible in the dashboard.

We have all worked hard for 3 years to get the concept ready for use and to test it for reliability. We have now been live with our first customer since January 1. The results are not only encouraging for us, but the customer is also very pleased with the possibilities of the system, and especially with how happy the staff is with this system.

We are now ready to roll out the concept further.

Christian Ackermans, DG-360

We now understand that you may not be eager to convert your (very complex) safety management system. But it doesn't even have to be in one go. What we are doing is setting up a 'shadow VBS'. This ensures that you can compare the results of your current VBS with the results of DG-360. You can then make the business case yourself. You can have your own (external) safety advisers take a look. You can even let the controlling authorities watch, if you want even more impartial feedback.

2. Language problems can significantly increase the risk of major accidents

A recent study by the University of Delft shows this.

DG-360 is available in 6 different languages and can be translated into any language if desired, by us or by yourself. You can therefore prepare every control round, training or sign-off list in different languages. These can then be assigned per group or even to individual employees. Not only useful for your own Polish, German, Turkish or British employees, but you can also prepare the forms for the external foreign drivers in Romanian, Czech, Greek or Russian.

Task in another language, result in your own language.

Christian Ackermans, DG-360

3.DG-360 uses the best available techniques

Our government considers it important that companies comply with the best available techniques across the board, but especially with regard to environmental regulations.

5G, Internet of Things, Artificial intelligence and Blockchain. 

Domestic Governance

When we think of BAT, we often think of the design, construction, maintenance (ageing) and possible dismantling of installations and buildings (such as asbestos). But just as important is the operational management and safety systems of an installation.

DG-360 is designed with the best available techniques in it. The system is 5G ready and can recognize trends with the help of AI before we see them ourselves. The system has been designed in such a way that digital (API) partners (after your permission) can access the system, for example to report the warnings of your fire alarm system or the water level of your bladder tank, directly to you, and not just to the party that is contractually obliged to carry out the maintenance. In addition, all information can be written directly to the Blockchain, if you wish. This prevents any information from ever being lost. (see also point 3 and 4).

Digital developments follow each other at breakneck speed. We don't yet know what can cause disruption in 5 years' time. Our system was built with this certainty in mind. We release our updates 10 times a year as standard. We have made our system super agile so that we can implement your wishes, the wishes of the authorities, and the wishes of the progress within a month.

Our system consists of a portal and an app. The app is used to run control rounds and to make observations via the (ATEX-approved) phone or tablet. The user receives tasks sent from the portal. In the portal you can create, schedule and send out new inspection rounds yourself and see the results. The concept is flexible enough that you don't have to submit a change request to us for every little thing, but it is so robust that every change is logged and data can never be lost.

4. Audit trail 

During the audits, our government is curious about the results of your company, but is also curious about the way in which the results have been achieved. You must be able to demonstrate where the results came from.

This so-called  audit-spoor is extremely transparent in DG-360. An observation (e.g. a leaked barrel) leads to an observation report, leads to evidence that this is known to the right internal and external parties, leads to a research report with findings and recommendations and ultimately leads to the results of the implemented improvements. All through our powerful business intelligence solution. Easy to find, with a few mouse clicks.

5. Self-regulation

One of the major challenges in our economy is trust. Trust drives cooperation, trust drives development and trust drives the capital market.
In the business world, there is a lack of trust. Companies do not (always) trust the government and the government does not (always) trust the companies.

Blockchain is one of the most talked about technologies when it comes to trust. Bringing companies closer together and providing governments with controlled information shifts the balance from enforcing individual exceedances to identifying problems across the system.

DG-360 stands between government and business. We don't have to share information if we don't want to. But we can, if you want. We can show you how your security figures compare to those of comparable parties. We take the in-transparency out of the market with the help of numbers. You can trust us. We promise that your SMS is always up to date with the latest legislation and with the best available techniques. If you have a problem, then we have a problem. Skin in the game! And that is why the government can also trust us. We all have the same goal. But we proactively warn you of impending doom, not only when the ship is already half sunk.

6. Potential brake on staff shortage

More people, or doing more with fewer people? See also magazine Logistiek maart 2020 pagina 37 en Logistiek.nl.

We are now in the middle of the Corona crisis and the business community is busy keeping their own heads, and those of their employees, above water. This will have a major impact. In the short term, you are more likely to have too many employees than too few. However, this will not take too long (if the companies keep their heads above water). In about 6 months, the economy will get going again, and the catch-up race will be fierce. All hands on deck.

DG-360 reduces (depending on the control round) about 4 minutes per control round. This time can now be used by the person walking that round for his actual work (in the case of shift leads and foremen, for example). DG-360 also reduces administrative actions approximately 7 minutes per inspection round. Time that your safety coordinator can spend analyzing the results and translating them into improvements. Your company enters a 'continuous improvement loop', instead of the 'extinguishing-of-fire loop'. (Proverbial, of course). 

7. Influencing your safety culture.

From the quick scan safety culture among 19 companies in the Rijnmond area.
The status of your safety culture is a good indicator of how easily you will pass the audits. But how do you measure this? We have poured all our experience with regard to safety, RIEs, devising scenarios and change management into our system. We know what the government wants, and we know how to deliver it.


Safety management system pyramid

8. Compliance as a service

As discussed in point 5, we offer certain guarantees to our customers through our platform. We can do this because all your VBS, from manual to control rounds, is in our system. We keep track of changes in the law, and we know for every manual, every process and every KPI how any changes in regulations affect your SMS. This is how we offer CaaS.

We will let you know which documents are out of date, and help you to adjust the documents if desired. You can fully focus on your revenue model. We focus on what we can do well, and that is the VBS.

9. A purely Dutch company

A number of things have become painfully clear during the Corona crisis. In the event of a real crisis, a number of certainties suddenly disappear. Borders can indeed be closed. Emerging economies are not yet as stable as we thought, and the international software companies are focusing on the companies from their own country first.

DG-360 is a purely Dutch company. The IP is Dutch, all our staff is Dutch and all our software-partners are Dutch. The company is registered in the Netherlands, is established in the Netherlands and pays taxes in the Netherlands.

We base much of our knowledge on European regulations from Brussels and insights into safety from around the world. We translate this (literally) to the Dutch situation.

10. Last but not least, the cost

Your current VBS costs money. Perhaps not so much in terms of software, because you do a lot in Word and Excel, but at least in terms of personnel costs, because of the heavy administrative burden. DG-360 is faster, more efficient and clearer to use (see point 6). The break-even point is about 200 rounds of checks per month. Then the time that your employees save is approximately equal to the monthly costs of DG-360.

However, many companies are not even very interested in the possible business case. The monthly cost of DG-360 is relatively low compared to anything you get for it. Believe us when we say that you will not be shocked by the monthly costs.
You are in control of the initial implementation costs. We can program your entire (shadow) VBS, but with some tips and tricks from us, your safety experts and logistics engineers can also do this themselves.

You can take control rounds from our library and convert them to your company-specific needs. You can also build each form from scratch yourself. The audit preparations are much faster. The audits themselves too. These benefits are not even included in point 6.

An additional advantage is that DG-360 is so logically put together that it takes much less time and uncertainty to make someone responsible for this. If your DG coordinator unexpectedly disappears, the replacement can read up on the current state of affairs in no time thanks to the powerful BI and the support of DG-360.

We hope this has given you a glimpse into what we can offer your company. If you are interested, please send an email to Chris@DG-360.nl, or give us a call. You won't regret it.

Onwards and Upwards!

Christian Ackermans, DG-360