Level up with Fulcrum: automating workflows, part II

In our last post, we talked about how workflow automation can increase productivity in safety, quality, and other inspections. 

But inspections don’t just need to be fast. They also need to be rigorous. How do we achieve that balance?

Increasing inspection speed and rigor without sacrificing flexibility

To get speed and flexibility, we need to set up our safety and quality inspectors for success — even in a dynamic environment with changing requirements. 

First, inspectors need to know exactly what they’re looking for and take data appropriately. There should be minimal variance in the way they collect data, even as the specific data elements change. 

Second, inspectors need support in adapting to changes. If there’s a new item to check, they need to know immediately what that item is, what the inspection standard is, and what specific data elements they need to collect about it. If they don’t have that information directly in front of them, then we leave open the possibility of significant errors in inspections.

For example:

• They will skip the item through force of habit.
• They will do as well as they can without guidance, but that will leave room for unwanted variances among different people — or even the same person during different inspections. 
• They will provide the data in a form that leaves room for interpretation after the fact, such as leaving the comment “adequate” instead of the measurement “38.2°F.”

Third, supervisors and managers of inspection teams need to be able to make changes rapidly and immediately have all inspectors using the same checklist in the same way.

Paper doesn’t cut it

Paper-based checklists aren’t as rigorous as we sometimes need. Even a well-thought-out paper checklist can leave a blank for a measurement, at which point an inspector can write “adequate” instead of “38.2°F,” as in our previous example. 

Nor do they provide the speed that we need. Certain delays are built into the paper-checklist process: 

• Getting the paper spreadsheets from the office, or downloading and printing them.
• Driving, mailing, or sending by courier the pieces of paper back to the office.
• Transcribing them into applications or (Heaven forbid) spreadsheets.
• Creating and sending post-inspection reports.

Worse, in their efforts to be precise, they often sacrifice flexibility. 

• Inserting a new item into a paper checklist means that everyone has to know to download or pick up the new version.
• Changing standards means that inspectors have to pick up or download-and-print a separate document explaining it. If supervisors are worried about inspectors forgetting to download the new standard, then the requirements need to be embedded directly into the checklist.