Leading steel contractor William Hare has saved more than one million sheets of paper after moving all its quality, safety and operations to a single connected digital system.

William Hare estimates that since introducing the mobile-first SafetyCulture platform 10 years ago, it has conducted more than 180,000 inspections and saved a million sheets of paper. It has managed to standardise most processes through more than 500 templates logged on the platform.

Mike Buckley, William Hare 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.”

However, the data sat in handwritten forms, spreadsheets and filing cabinets was a bigger issue. A lack of real-time visibility meant there was no way to spot patterns. 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 safety 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.”

Right first time

As well as quality and safety, the digital solution now underpins William Hare’s ‘Right first time’ approach. “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,” added Buckley.

When auditors have queries and requests, Buckley’s team can respond in real-time via the dashboard. “They ask a question, and we literally respond to it on the screen live,” he said.

William Hare intends to expand its use of SafetyCulture by logging its 6,000 assets onto the platform, enabling servicing schedules, locations and maintenance history to be tracked.

SafetyCulture is also used by other companies including Aecom and ArcelorMittal.