NRC Group is the Nordic region’s largest contractor in track-related infrastructure, and also provides services in other transport-related infrastructure such as roads, ports, quays, bridges and tunnels. During CHECKDay 2021, we brought Dorota Mazurkiewicz (HSE manager) and Monica Holm (KS / HSE manager in the Bane division) with us from the company NRC Group to talk about how they work to maintain good HSE routines with smart digital solutions.
NRC has a construction, railway and environmental division. We are 2000 employees in Norway, Sweden and Finland. We have a slogan called “Tomorrow in the making” – Next Field is part of that strategy. We use Next Field for implementation and task management, says Monica Holm.
Monica says that NRC’s values stand for troverdig (credible), omtenksom (caring) and grundersjel (foundational soul). If you merge the first letters, it forms the word tog (train). Therefore, it is easy to remember, and it fits well since they work with railways.
Grundersjel stands for that we provide infrastructure, and not bureaucracy. That is why we have chosen to work with Next Field. It is very clear and structured: We create sub-projects similar to folders, where we store all documentation, including all events and protocols, which can be saved in PDF or used digitally at a later time. This makes it clear and accessible, says Dorota Mazurkiewicz.
We have a project in the center of Oslo for our customers, the Norweigan Environmental Protection Agency, the Water and Sewerage Agency and Sporveien (the tramway). It is a very extensive and complicated project, but we will soon be finished – “Then ‘Storgata’ will finally be great again” as our customers usually say, says Dorota.
We like the structure of Next Field very much. What you see in the picture (above) are different events we can retrieve based on different filters. For example, I can retrieve my own reported incidents, or incidents from others on my team. That way, it is easy to get an insight into what is going on in the projects. It is just as easy to carry out an inspection round: just click on “Create Item” and select the template that is dedicated to the project in question, says Dorota.
The advantage we have seen related to protection and environmental rounds in Next Field, is that we previously performed protection rounds by taking many photos and making a protocol, while in Next Field we can assign deviations or activities directly to those who will handle it further, at the same time as we get the traditional protocol “with the purchase” says Monica.
This is very time saving. I do not have to sit in front of the PC to finish my protection round or my protocol, I do everything in the field where the events take place. It happens that accidents occur in the office in front of the computer screen, but it is better for us to be where the action is- on the construction site!
The nice thing about Next Field is that it is not only easy to perform protection and environmental rounds, but it is also very easy to delegate tasks. It is also just as easy to create your own checklists. When we create our own checklists, we make sure that everything is in accordance with the legislation, the customer’s requirements and the organization’s requirements. We can also easily adapt the checklists if there is something in the project that changes along the way, Dorota says.
I have used Next Field for over a year, and I am very pleased that I can connect photos, descriptions of events and locations on the map in the facility, says Dorota.
When you observe an error, report the discrepancy. Then fill in the description of the error, and you have the option to add a picture of the error. We also use subject pegs to know what types of points we are talking about. Then we can later retrieve statistics and data on how many types of points were registered. Finally, we place the event on the map, says Dorota.
In the “old days” we often had misunderstandings such as: “What did you mean? Where did you mean?”. But now it is not a problem anymore, because everyone knows “what” and “where” something has happened directly in Next Field, she explains further.
The overview in Next Field makes it easy to sort by what you want to see. It is easy to see what is closed, what is “in-progress”, what needs to be done and who needs help to process their incidents.
It is only the imagination that sets the limits for how one will use Next Field. For example, if I want to make colleagues aware of a danger area, I can easily extract specific points and create a mini-report that covers the current dangers. This is especially useful now that it is difficult to have larger gatherings of people. I used Next Field to send out HSE information via e-mail or as a text message, with a link or QR code to the report I had made in Next Field. This makes it easy to share important information.
It has been very useful in a time of infection control to have an easy-to-use electronic solution available, seeing that we are not able to gather so many people at the same time on projects, says Monica.
“The most important thing is that we get to work with safety, and that people get home safely from work” says Dorota.
