Pisys 360 PTW System At The University Of Essex

The management of safety and compliance for high-risk activities at The University of Essex was fraught with complex challenges:

• Diverse and Open Campuses: The university’s extensive estate, including public facilities alongside academic and administrative buildings across three campuses, complicates the management of permits for work and access.
• Busy Operational Environment: The necessity to perform work within a bustling university setting, where students, staff, members of the public, and traffic are often close to job sites, significantly increases the risk and complexity of managing such activities safely.
• Contractor Coordination: A large team of contractors, performing tasks ranging from routine maintenance to complex and high-risk activities such as work in confined spaces and at heights, works alongside university staff. This diversity of work scopes necessitates a robust system to manage and monitor all activities effectively.
• Diverse Asset Portfolio: The university’s assets include a wide variety of building types and facilities, from historic buildings to modern lecture theatres and high-rise accommodations. Each type of asset requires a different approach to planning and executing works, adding another layer of complexity to the management of permits and safety protocols.
• Identification and Communication of Tasks: The size of the overall sites and the diversity of activities make it challenging for the university’s Estates Senior and Strategic Managers to identify which tasks are being performed in specific areas. This information is crucial to mitigate the risks associated with simultaneous operations (SIMOPS), where multiple jobs happening in the same area could lead to dangerous interactions or conflicts.

Essex’s response to its complex operational challenges was the implementation of the Pisys 360 Permit to Work (PTW) system. This cloud-based solution was chosen for its ability to provide a comprehensive and centralised view of all activities across the university’s extensive campuses. The system is designed to offer rigorous control of work framework, ensuring that all tasks, from the routine to the high-risk, are meticulously planned, approved, and formally signed off upon completion.

Key features of the Pisys 360 PTW system include:

• Centralized Activity Monitoring: The cloud-based platform allows for real-time oversight of all campus activities, ensuring that university administrators and the HSE team can maintain a clear view of ongoing and planned works.
• Automated Work Control Processes: By automating the application, approval, and sign-off processes, the system significantly reduces paperwork and streamlines the management of work permits, enhancing efficiency and reducing the potential for errors.
• Enhanced Safety and Compliance: The Pisys 360 PTW system enforces a rigorous control of work protocol, which is crucial for planning, executing, and completing tasks safely, especially in environments where multiple operations occur simultaneously.

The implementation of the new PTW and PTA system has yielded remarkable results:

• Increased Efficiency: The time to process permits has been reduced by over 50%, significantly speeding up project initiation times.
• Enhanced Safety: Real-time monitoring and better compliance with safety protocols have led to a noticeable likelihood reduction in incidents on campus.
• Improved Satisfaction: Feedback from staff, students, and contractors has been overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the ease of use and effectiveness of the new system.
• Improved Compliance: Improvements to the interrogation and retrieval of historical permits leading to improvements in lessons learnt and contractor monitoring, forming part of the ‘Golden Thread’ of information.

A strong partnership was formed between the university and Pisys while enhancing campus safety protocols, forming the basis for further developments to the system.