Managing the Safety Paper Trail
Managing Health and Safety in the workplace is a matter of gathering information and acting on it. Analyzing the data collected is of paramount importance in order to quickly assess and put an action plan into place to prevent re-occurrence or be proactive.
We have found that most companies are utilizing spreadsheet programs which are effective to gather and somewhat organize information, however…they are not good at organizing the information into a top-level view of what the information means. There is no relationship.
To collect and organize data properly, one has to use a relational database not a two dimensional (columns and rows) spreadsheet system.
Here's why a database is a better tool for managing Health, Safety, Environment, Quality and Productivity:
Easier to share: You can have two or more people editing a database at the same time. But spreadsheet users have to wait until nobody is using a file before it's free for them to use. Additionally, spreadsheets are generally proprietary to the person that created it. The programming is hard to document or debug.
Better security: Along with the ability to better share information is the ability to better secure it. You can protect private information better with a database. You can also protect users from their own mistakes by providing drop down tables, built-in forms.
More efficient: Databases are relational, allowing you to link related tables to minimize duplication. Here's an example. Say you have a person who got cut and First Aid was required. The FA person filled out the form and you entered the injury as an FA type in your spreadsheet. Now that cut is infected, medical aid is required and there will be time lost and a claim instated. With a database such as S2Console™, you simply update the information which populates the form 7 and off you go.
Use of Memory: Spreadsheet data and calculations are RAM resident, if a file is not saved data is lost if power is lost to the computer. Database Uses both RAM and hard drive memory, with most databases data is saved to the hard disk as soon as a the data enterer leaves the record.
Organization: Spreadsheet data cells are independent, formulas can specify specific cells by name. Formulas access one cell at a time. Database’s are organized by fields or records. Formulas or queries work on specified fields in a record, or on selected fields for all specified records.
Reports: WYSIWYG, prints tables as are. It is possible to link multiple spreadsheets, but databases make this far easier. A report does not need to look like the table, each field can be placed anywhere on the form, and used multiple times. It is easy to combine data from more than one table into one report.
Data Entry: Spreadsheets have limited ability to design forms and create “look up” tables which limits the flexibility of the system. Possess excellent ability to design special forms that show only fields needed and include instructions on how to enter the data. Can also contain read only fields.
Queries: Spreadsheets have limited query abilities. Databases can perform complex queries on multiple tables and can use set theory.
