Effective PPE Managment

Effective PPE management on a construction site is probably one of the most important jobs a site manager has. Ensuring everyone has been allocated the correct PPE, the equipment is in good condition and well maintained plus replacing defective and expired PPE is dealt with promptly is critical. Tracking PPE has traditionally been managed on paper or on an ad hoc basis. Since COVID lots of businesses understand the power of going to a digital management way of working for their processes. These benefits can be realised for effectively managing your personal protective equipment.

Work Wallet has developed an innovative system to streamline PPE management. In this blog, we will look at the importance of effectively managing PPE usage and how going online can help make management easier and reduce costs of wasted and lost PPE.

What the law says

This information is directly from the HSE website: “The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (with an update in April 2022) place duties on employers to ensure that PPE is:

• properly assessed before use to make sure it is fit for purpose
• maintained and stored properly
• provided with instructions on how to use it safely
• used correctly by workers
• Employers must ensure workers have sufficient information, instruction and training on PPE use.”

Every employer will be aware of the PPE that must be used on their site and for the activities their employees are undertaking whilst in the workplace.

Managing PPE and people

Where things get tricky is making sure everyone has the correct PPE without having to appoint a dedicated ‘police’ person within your organisation who checks daily.

Whilst digital tools don’t mitigate people checks happening, they can help to better understand who has been issued PPE, how often it is being replaced, and what dates certain equipment must be replaced due to expiry dates.

The primary objective of PPE usage is to protect workers from potential hazards and effective PPE helps minimise injuries and illnesses that can result from exposure to various risks present in different industries. That comes at a cost to a business, whilst a necessary cost it still can be a high one if PPE management is not effective.

Digitalising PPE management

One way to reduce the costs of PPE whilst ensuring everyone has the correct equipment for the tasks they are undertaking is to go digital.

PPE Manager, the latest new feature from Work Wallet, gives you the digital tools to help with PPE accountability.

Once set up it’s easy to view the stock you are holding, the PPE stock you’ve issued and the PPE stock that is missing. It’s an effective method of producing a footprint of PPE usage within your organisation using QR technology.

Going digital provides

• Accurate PPE records for individuals
• Easily maintained stock records
• Access to real time records of PPE
• Quick view of PPE expiry dates

Using this tool will ensure that you don’t hold onto stock that has an expiry date and waste it because it’s lifespan has come to an end before it’s even used. That will provide an immediate cost saving if this is something your organisation has experienced.

There’s a footprint of everyone who’s been issued with company PPE within an organisation (even large multi-site organisations). This means you can start creating reports using your Work Wallet data to understand how often PPE items are being replaced or used, departments or sites that use the most PPE and people who loose or break their equipment regularly. Having this overview means you can challenge PPE usage with correct real time data if necessary.

Having an overview of subcontractor equipment usage becomes easier with PPE Manager too, you can easily see how much PPE you have issued for them to come on site to work on the job they are contracted to do. You can see how many people from a certain contractor company have been issued PPE, when and what. It provides a picture that can help you better understand the costs to you of employing the contractor when it comes to PPE that’s required by legislation.

Managing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) usage is an essential aspect of ensuring workplace safety and compliance with regulations in the UK. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) sets the standards and companies adhere to them. The next step is to ensure that your people are always compliant and have the right personal protective equipment issued to them.

Put your equipment store room online today and access the multiple benefits that PPE Manager provides. Click here to get started.

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