What are the Benefits of Digital?
Something that many organisations and businesses today are wondering when considering taking their inspections paperless is what the benefits are. Taking on a digital process that you may be unfamiliar with can be daunting, especially if you are unable to quickly and easily identify why it may be useful. Below we outline the 7 most common benefits that users report they experience with taking their inspections digital.
7 reasons to go Paperless – The Benefits of Digital
1. Eliminate Paperwork
One of the great difficulties that many departments have is the vast amount of paperwork that needs to be gone through. Unsurprisingly, organisations and businesses often have more than they need. For just one daily inspection, it is easy to see just how much paper can stack up with the reports, industry guidelines, checklists and manuals that relate to just that one inspection. Users of digital solutions benefit from paperless synergy; electronic checklists where the solution has the industry regulations and manuals built in as electronic reference material. The other obvious benefit is the ability to share these reports without printing endless copies.
2. Help Reduce Human Error
With electronic systems, the human error is greatly reduced. Not only does it remove deciphering handwriting and potential pitfalls of incorrect information being recorded, but the double data-entry aspect is removed. As the inspection data is automatically uploaded into the system, one human step is removed entirely. This is after the inspection has been recorded, where the inspector can only make recordings that the solution deems as an acceptable input value. In short, several steps where human error could unknowingly affect the information are removed with Digital.
3. Remove Complex Filing Systems
As was noted above, the vast amounts of storage systems that are required for paper checklists and forms can become a task to operate in itself. When an employee leaves who knew the ins and outs of the filing system, it can become a logistical nightmare to find and organise information. Luckily with paperless solutions, this issues is removed and replaced with a logical and intuitive system that can be accessed by anyone necessary.
4. Automate Processes
Many processes today across industries and sectors fall under the category where they can be automated with great efficiency. Human input and operation works well with complex processes whereby higher intelligence is required, but lower level processes can be automated with sometimes higher efficiency. Automating steps such as data entry, analysis, report generation or work order scheduling can provide both accuracy and organised operations.
5. Speed Up Inspection
Inspection carried out with manual paper-based checklist processes are both long and ineffective. Besides the checklist that has many subsections that cannot be streamlined dependent on earlier inspection inputs, the process of searching for reference materials from manuals or contacting others for advice on corrective actions is highly time-consuming. With paperless, checklists can analyse inspection data and only require what is necessary from an inspector; reducing unnecessary steps. With attachment of any reference material to sub-parts of forms and pre-configured corrective actions built in, digital inspection can markedly reduce the time spent on inspection, without sacrificing and rather improving the data recorded.
6. Increase Efficiency
By gaining better insights with more actionable data, in less time, the efficiency of inspections is on average increased. Inspection processes that are repetitive can be streamlined to be quick and building off previous information. With the removal of double data-entry, automatic notifications of work orders, and implementation of pre-configured corrective actions, the inspection process efficiency is undoubtedly bettered. With information being shared quicker and being easier to interpret and use, the overall organisational or business working time for several tasks can be reduced.
7. Boost Proficiency
In conjunction with increased efficiency, paperless inspection solutions can help organisations and businesses to boost their proficiency. Enforcing a high standard of inspections across the workplace is likely to find issues faster, meaning solutions can be drawn up faster. Promoting excellence and best practice not only gives more accurate and detailed inspection data, but feeds through to employees and customers; with the knock-on effect often being that organisational or business proficiency receives a welcome boost.
Are there other Benefits?
The benefits outlined above are the most common improvements that users have commonly reported experiencing upon switching to digital from paper-based inspection. For certain organisations and businesses, the benefits may be different depending on operational size, structure and industry sector. As the digital inspection solution is often tailored to meet specific needs and requirements, the benefits are best discovered through implementing a system that works well with your existing inspection setup. Only through doing this, is it possible to maximise the potential rewards that digital brings.