This article is one of our favourites from around the web. We've included an excerpt below but do go and read the original!
Sime Darby Industrial is a mainstay of the Australian mining industry, and its Pakka Jacks brand is known for being the market leader in the heavy lift.
Beginning in the early 90’s, the Pakka Jacks team patented a unique technology that allowed large excavators and rope shovels to be lifted without cranes. Jacking from below, the Pakka Jack unit self-packs as it lifts, supporting the load so that work can be carried out beneath with less risk due to the load no longer being classed as a suspended load.
Today, Pakka Jacks is used widely on mine sites across Australia. With many technicians in remote field locations, Pakka Jacks technicians often face conflicting work fronts and need to manage client requirements as they change on a daily basis.
Recently, the Pakka Jacks team began preparing for a forecasted doubling of their unit capacity. To achieve this, they needed to plan for an increase in skilled technicians and availability.
Scaling their technicians however was not an easy feat. “We're in a cycle at the moment where it's certainly very challenging to find good, skilled, trained technicians”, explains Tony Liddelow, General Manager of Strategic Solutions. “We have a bit of a bespoke product. So that in itself also causes us challenges."
Turning to HINDSITE, the Pakka Jacks team quickly experienced lifts (no pun intended) across several of their challenges. The team started implementing HINDSITE Workflows that are enriched with expert video from their Mackay HQ, so that technicians could complete work with little to no external input and meet quality standards.
Tony explains that where previously the Pakka Jacks team would refer to written task procedures and safe work statements separately, HINDSITE allowed them to combine the most immediately relevant parts of both into Workflows.
“We are now able to bring those two documents together. So as they read the procedure statement to utilise the hy-torque, we can now put the safe work statement [right next to it]...so I can read them both together and fully understand the procedure and make sure we do it safely each and every time”.
Mitch Rays, Field Service Supervisor, explains that “It's quite good when we get to combine our paperwork, our documentation, our quality assurance as well as our procedures, and bore that all into one workflow for us, which is magic. It's something that we have to be able to do or haven't seen anywhere else.”
The result in using HINDSITE workflows has been not only a better outcome for the customer, but a safer one that stems from documentation being followed as intended.
The dangers of being on site lifting heavy equipment are myriad. They are multiplied when circumstances aren’t as expected or the job doesn’t go by the book. Mitch explains how HINDSITE has mitigated these risks with branching Workflows:
“Typically when you get a worker to go down a different path, it usually incorporates a whole lot of safety risks. With HINDSITE on the job steps, you're going to have a guidance note to say where to go next instead of waiting for a decision or having to do a workaround, which in our industry is, it's not doable. We need to be following the right procedures in the right steps.”
The team have adopted this new way of working to the degree that it is now considered a risk to stray away from HINDSITE.
“If you were to go outside of the parameters that we set, then potentially you're putting people at risk, you're putting equipment at risk”.
“So it's short, it's quick, it's efficient, it works”, says Mitch about the benefits of having video guidance alongside work instructions.
“You get to capture so much more information with a video. Something that takes 30 seconds and you can cover three or four pages of documentation in that one delivery.”
Tony also explains how HINDSITE has allowed them to operationalise previously intangible experience from their experts.
“We've got two very experienced lift supervisors that have a lot of knowledge that they've gained over many years, and we are now able to get some of that information from them and put it into video. And then it's sitting there alongside guide a workflow process.”
The nature of working maintenance schedules on mine sites mean that job timeframes can shift at any point.
“The work is extremely challenging at times”, says Mitch. “Your focus can be taken from the job that you're doing onto something else; another work front could be conflicting with your work front”.
The team has used HINDSITE’s pause and resume functionality on workflows to ensure that progress is both being made and being recorded.
“They use it day to day as a reference point to know what to do next, as in job steps and the way work flows on, as well as capturing the quality assurance documentation and figures and facts that we need for our day to day.”
Over all else, HINDSITE is helping the Pakka Jacks team to ensure that their work quality is to the standard that they are known for.
“It's assurance and guarantee that we're following the procedures that we set out and we are doing the work that we say we're going to do”, says Mitch.
HINDSITE Workflow reports are able to be provided to Pakka Jacks’ customers, and form part of the assurance that work is done both safely and efficiently.
From a governance perspective, Tony explains “Certainly for us, it’s allowed us confidence that the information that our teams have is the correct up-to-date information for them to do their work task.”
HINDSITE is proud to have been able to deliver a platform for Pakka Jacks that not only allows for faster onboarding, but lifts the level of service excellence that existing technicians can provide.
“In the conversations that I've had with our customers, they've certainly embraced the technology that we're bringing to the table.“, says Tony,
“I certainly feel like I am part of their [HINDSITE’s] business and I know that we've worked hard to ensure and they've also worked hard to ensure that they understand our business front to back.”
‘It's allowing us to be at the cutting edge, really”, remarks Mitch, “It's allowing us to have the right information when we need it, when the guys need it, whether that's during the day or at night.”
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