How do you document your safety equipment inspections?

Most facilities are required to perform periodic inspections of safety devices. These often include several types of safety equipment that are located at many locations around a facility or campus, including:

• Monthly Fire Extinguisher Inspections
• Weekly Eyewash Testing
• Quarterly Fume Hood Flow Checks
• Monthly Fire Aid Kit Inspections

There are several ways to document these inspections. These include

Work Order
Local Tag
Electronic Data Collection

Work Order - In many cases the documentation for safety device inspections will consist of a work order that is generated periodically. The work order serves as a reminder that the task needs to be done. It also allows the costs associated with effort (labor, materials) to be attributed to the effort. One disadvantage of using a work order as the sole documentation is the lack of granularity of whether a specific device was inspected, when it was inspected and whether any deficiencies were found.

Local Tag - Safety inspection documentation often involves tags at the individual devices. These tags are then dated and initialed when the inspection is performed. Tags are commonly used to record inspections for eyewashes and fire extinguishers. One benefit of the local tags is that the occupants in the area can easily see when the device has been tested or inspected. A disadvantage of relying on local tags for documentation is that the manager responsible for ensuring the inspections get done can not determine easily if any devices are not being inspected. Often times this verification is done in an annual audit, which is very time consuming and may allow devices to go months without inspection.

Electronic Data Collection - Safety device inspections can also be documented electronically using handheld computers with barcode scanners. In this method, a barcode label is placed at each device location. The barcode contains identifying information about the safety device(s) at the location. After scanning the barcode the user may be prompted to answer a few questions about the device inspection. Timestamped results of the inspection are saved to a database. Managers can easily determine if any inspections are being missed, minimizing the risk of device inspections "falling through the cracks" and the safety equipment not being capable of performing when needed in an emergency.

Our software solution, which includes the mobile application FDPMobile and the web application FDP Plant, is designed to make very effective management of safety device inspections extremely easy. With no added effort on the part of the inspector(s) or managers, you can havedetailed time stamped records of your inspections and easy to use reports that help identify missed inspections. For more information follow this link. (FDP)