“It didn’t make sense any more to carry on the way we were.”

Challenges

Since 1986, Central Insulations has designed and built temperature-controlled environments for the food and pharmaceutical sectors. Workplace safety is a key success criterion for Central Insulations and its customers.

Andy Kirk, Health & Safety Manager at Central Insulations, has wide-ranging responsibilities – from managing PPE standards, to accident/incident investigations, site audits and compliance, to risk assessments and training.

When he joined Central Insulations six years ago, having previously worked for a large blue-chip company in the pharmaceutical sector, Andy identified several opportunities to improve the processes and systems in place. In particular, the system used for risk assessments and method statements (RAMS) was clunky and out of date.

Solution

Central Insulations had been using its existing RAMS software for five and a half years. Andy says, “It would have been good 15 years ago, but by today’s standards it had flaws. It was taking too much time and effort to use and it was getting very difficult.”

The inflexibility of the incumbent system meant staff often had to supplement RAMS with paper addendums to fulfil customer requests. The inflexibility was also affecting Central Insulations' ability to win new business. Andy began looking for alternative solutions that would eliminate paper processes, serve clients better, deliver time savings to the business and reduce user frustrations.

He looked at a number of solutions, including HandsHQ. He was immediately impressed by the simplicity and flexibility of the HandsHQ solution. Andy says, “HandsHQ was cleaner, crisper, neater and better than the system we were using. The graphics were better. The COSHH was organised better and offered new flexibility. We could adapt the report for each client and it was straightforward and easy to use.”

By early 2020, Andy was ready to progress the solution. However, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that the project was delayed – something Andy bitterly regrets. “If we could have implemented it earlier, it would have been even better. We would have benefitted from the ability to change PPE specificities.”

Results

Central Insulations has now been using HandsHQ for several months. Already, Andy reports that it has delivered significant time savings. The project managers are now empowered to do much of the RAMS work themselves and this will save further time for the health and safety team.

“I have already recommended it to other companies working in the food and beverage sector,” Andy admits. “It will save me hours. It’s easy to use, simple, timesaving and efficient – it’s just brilliant for us.”