One of the UK’s leading steel contractors,
William Hare, has transformed its quality, safety and operations after a 10-year digitisation drive with the platform
SafetyCulture. The Greater Manchester-headquartered company, which employs over 2,000 people globally, works on major projects, most recently including 2 Finsbury Avenue in London and Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station.
Through a global initiative which began in 2015 solely for audits, William Hare has moved all its quality, safety and operations from paper-based processes to a single connected digital system.
The company estimates that since introducing the mobile-first SafetyCulture platform, it has conducted more than 180,000 inspections and saved 1 million sheets of paper. It has managed to standardise most processes through more than 500 templates logged on the platform.
Mike Buckley, William Hare’s quality assurance manager, said: “Over the years, we were producing thousands of inspections, each one requiring manual write-up, scanning, filing and follow-up – which was inefficient and wasting so many pieces of paper.”
But the bigger issue was data sat in handwritten forms, spreadsheets and filing cabinets. A lack of real-time visibility meant there was no way to spot patterns. Mr Buckley added: “With everything digitised we’re now far more responsive to putting corrective actions in place and preventing recurrence.” Having digital records has also significantly improved safety, enabling William Hare’s SHE teams to conduct weekly inspections, environmental inspections, pre-use equipment checks and incident reporting.
Dawn Simmonite, safety, health and environmental manager at William Hare, said: “As soon as an incident has occurred on-site, the site management completes a first response report. We get an alert and can respond straight away – it's our golden hour ticket.”
As well as quality and safety, the digital solution now underpins William Hare’s ‘Right first time’ approach. Mr Buckley said: “Right first time is important for us. We give the shopfloor the tools to ensure they do get it right, and it has improved the product and the business in the long-run.”
When it comes to audits, the company is able to respond to auditors’ queries and requests in real-time using its dashboard. “They ask a question, and we literally respond to it on the screen live,” he added.
Research suggests that fewer than one-third of frontline businesses globally – and just 20% of UK businesses – say continuous improvement is fully embedded in how their organisation works, according to The Improvement Paradox, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SafetyCulture.
Going forwards, the company intends to expand its digitisation future by logging its 6,000 assets onto the platform, enabling them to track servicing schedules, locations and maintenance history.
SafetyCulture’s mobile-first platform is also used by AECOM, ArcelorMittal, and Mobile Mini, as well as by thousands of UK companies in manufacturing, infrastructure and other frontline sectors.