Established in 1969, Adchem is the largest producer of Copper Oxide globally. They employ about 60 people and have around 150-200 contractors coming to site each year. With such a niche market, Adchem exports their goods to countries all over the world. They are located on one expansive site in South Australia.
THE CHALLENGE
One of the main challenges Adchem was experiencing was the lengthy and time-consuming manual induction process. Every time a contractor came to site, they had to go to reception and ask for one of the managers to meet them. The manager would then have to drop what they were doing on site to meet the person. The contractor worked their way through an induction including about 50 sheets of paper, with the manager watching over them the whole time to ensure full comprehension. Given there were only 3 or 4 managers on site who had permission to do this, they were unsurprisingly beginning to tire of the process.
“The main challenge for us was lost time for guys like me on a shut down when we actually needed to be out on the plant at the coalface doing work with the contractors, instead of stuck in an office.”
– David Hook, Maintenance Superintendent
The other major issue Adchem was facing was the security of everyone on site in the case of an emergency. Using the existing procedure, there were 4 locations on site where people could sign-in on a piece of paper. However, using paper was not only inconvenient, but also risky. For example, in the case of an emergency, someone would have to go to each of those site locations and get the paper, then bring it back to the meeting point. If one of those buildings was on fire, however, then there would be no way of getting the paper and accounting for those who had signed in on it earlier. Adchem disliked this process as they value the safety of people and wanted to ensure the security of those on their site.
“Because our site is spread out, and there’s guys in various locations, getting them all to one point and knowing they’re here is very important to us.”
THE SOLUTION
A quick internet search for solutions to the problems Adchem were facing quickly highlighted to management the abilities and cost-effectiveness of Rapid Global’s products.
“That was one of the key points of me being able to purchase the system; I did a cost analysis on it all to prove that it was worth putting the money into it.”
Using Rapid Induct, Adchem have been able to develop courses specifically related to the personnel types who come to their site. They have two main inductions: one for contractors which is in-depth and goes through issues such as hazards on site and safety systems. At the end of this induction are some questions which the contractor must pass correctly in order to enter the site. This induction is beneficial in that it can be done by the contractor off site wherever they have internet access, instead of having to waste precious time on site doing it. The other is a briefer induction for visitors which only goes through the essentials. This can be completed on the Rapid Access terminal.
“It would have saved a stack of time for me and the other 3 people that had to do the manual inductions, but it’s also saved us money in that if we were paying a contractor per hour, when he gets to site he can do that online, offsite before he gets here, and they can get straight into the job.”
Once these inductions have been successfully completed, the contractors or visitors can finish signing in to site at one of Adchem’s two Rapid Access terminals. The terminal will only let contractors on if they are personally inducted, and if their company has uploaded the necessary documents and been approved by Adchem using Rapid Contractor Management.
THE RESULTS
“Before we put the Rapid Global system in, there were 4 locations where people could manually sign in to the site. If we had to evacuate, we had to rely on someone to go and get those pieces of paper and bring them to the muster point, to check if everyone was here. But now we print it out on the app and we know who’s here and who’s not. So we can cover off who’s on site very quickly if we did have to evacuate in a real emergency.”
The Rapid Global Admin Tools App has therefore proved to be very helpful to Adchem staff. Furthermore, those completing the inductions and signing in at the terminals have reported the whole process to be a positive experience.
“Many contractors we’ve had come to site and use the system have been very, very impressed with it. A lot of them haven’t come across a system like it and have said ‘this is really impressive; we should be doing something like this back at our business’. All I’ve heard is positive comments about it… and the online induction was really easy for them.”
Given the success of the two existing courses, David is now looking at creating a specific course for employees which will be even more in-depth than the existing courses. The intention is for it to refresh their existing staff on how Adchem has evolved each year, given that conditions are always changing on site.
