19th Feb 2010
ENGINEERING firm Sinclair Knight Merz will next month start rolling out a customised version of the CINTELLATE safety management software that has become a staple feature of many other companies' operations. The new software is expected to automate 20% of relevant business processes and will be a paperless repository for vital health, safety, environment and community (HSEC) data.
"SKM is about to launch the CINTELLATE HSEC data management system, which has been customised to our needs and re-branded as e-HSEC," Peter Power, the company's major project HSEC manager, told HighGrade.
SKM started investigating options for HSEC data management two years ago and launched an exhaustive assessment process.
"Stakeholders throughout the business in various functional areas were identified and involved in contributing towards the development of a detailed business requirements scope of works in January 2008," Power said.
"Running concurrently with the development of the business case various stakeholders within SKM were reviewing all available HSEC information system products and undertaking an evaluation using a weighted scoring system. The purpose of this was to short list preferred products and vendors. A detailed review of the short listed products was then carried out using the detailed business requirements."
Power said CINTELLATE had been "formulated" over many years of application and development, mainly in the resources and utilities industries.
"CINTELLATE's standard modules can be configured to suit business needs and/or client needs which is unlike many other off-the-shelf products available on the market," he said. Other products were also more health and safety orientated and lacking in environmental data management capability.
"CINTELLATE also has the added advantage of being able to be used in several languages which meets SKM's global objectives," Power said.
"It provides value for money when compared to other options in that you only get what you need. CINTELLATE also has the ability to provide project management services for development and implementation of the systems, and a comprehensive through life support capability."
Power said effective implementation of health and safety management systems, and associated processes, was essential to safely managing large capital, construction projects with multi-tiered levels of contracting staff. The CINTELLATE software would automate 20% of current business processes, making it "easier to track and manage remedial actions through the reporting and escalation process inherent in the software". More importantly, it would eliminate a large percentage of current paper systems and be a repository for essential HSEC data.
SKM has been running an online incident notification and reporting system, allowing reporting and analysis of data from a number of sources. Occasionally the firm used a client's HSEC data management systems on specific projects.
"e-HSEC will enable us to have an holistic HSEC data management system for incident notification, reporting and analysis for all major projects," Power said.
"Like most HSEC information systems, the capture of HSEC data means that performance can be analysed for trending, tracking against targets and raising actions and alerts when certain unacceptable levels are reached."
Contractors engaged by SKM would also have access to input information for incidents, audits/inspections, training, registers and hazards. Contractors' performance could be reviewed monthly, weekly or daily against a pre-determined suite of leading and lagging indicators.
"CINTELLATE has an integrated reporting tool which can be used by SKM to report on any of the stored information, and produce dashboard style output," Power said. "This tool is extremely powerful for mining HSEC data for trends and recurrent events.
"While SKM recognises the benefits of procuring an information system, we also wanted to ensure that it would support SKM's obligations as an EPCM and program manager by being workable for the construction industry and user-friendly for contractors. So we went to great lengths to ensure that the functionality specifications matched our aspirations."
CINTELLATE software, developed by the Australian company of the same name, is widely deployed in the mining industry with Gold Fields, Leighton Contractors, Lihir Gold, OZ Minerals, Sedgman, Sandvik Mining and Construction, Incitec Pivot, Xstrata, and Anglo American Corporation among a long list of users.
"SKM is in the final stage of rollout of e-HSEC, with a go-live target of February 2010 with the system deployed on the Ministro Hales project, which SKM is undertaking in Chile for Codelco," Power said. "This project required translation of the product to Spanish and will be used as a test pilot for e-HSEC. e-HSEC is also being prepared for deployment on the Chevron Gorgon project in Western Australia.
"We are currently reviewing the application of e-HSEC across the whole business."
ASX-listed SAI Global acquired CINTELLATE in October last year for about $A14 million.
Source: High Grade
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