Case Study . Argest Building and Compliance
Argest uses Clarinspect for Fire and Smoke separation reports.
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Can set-up an inspection at your desk and put in the site details and floorplans before heading onsite
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Can use voice to text onsite and no longer have to type up notes later in the office
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No more wasting time putting photos into a report
About
Argest Limited have benefited from using Clarinspect for many years; Clarinspect was originally used on fire sprinkler inspections and from there Argest implemented other sectors of their business into the Clarinspect service.
Recently Argest were engaged to do fire and smoke separation assessment reports for the Ministry of Education. Malcolm Christie, the Passive Fire Program Manager at Argest, knew there had to be a faster way than the current manual methods to get through this large contract.
When Malcolm approached Argest management with this idea, they immediately said to contact Clarinspect. They knew Clarinspect would be able to deliver, and could automate this process to meet Malcolm’s needs for data gathering and produce reports in a much faster time frame.
What Argest needed
The current manual methods involved a clipboard and camera, and spending hours cutting and pasting images into reports and tediously marking up locations on floor plans. Malcolm Christie, a highly experienced passive fire subject matter specialist and inspector, knew that in 2020 there had to be a better way.
Malcolm was inspecting school campuses and providing feedback on the separation's details, some photos and state if it was compliant or not. He also needed to provide photographic evidence of failures and recommendations on what action was required. These assessments are very valuable as the school is made aware of any issues and risks that need to be addressed before they get their full Building Warrant of Fitness inspections from the council.
The Fire QA (Clarinspect) approach
There was an initial design meeting for Clarinspect to learn more about Malcolm’s process and workflow. This enabled us to create a Clarinspect app based on his wealth of experience and specific field work approach.
Malcolm already had a report template that he had created, and he did not want to have to compromise on this format and make changes.
Clarinspect was able to put the data into his pre-formatted and branded template. Clarinspect can produce reports in Word or PDF, in this case, Malcolm preferred a Word output so he could do a final proofread and add more comments when needed. After some training Malcolm was off producing reports at a rate he never had before.
Malcolm used the automated number generation in-app to mark-up floor plans. This was yet another time-saver. As part of the commissioning process Malcolm worked with Clarinspect to make an efficient inspection and could really simplify the data capture effort required.
Using the app on-site to capture images
Clarinspect in the field
Business outcomes
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Easy job set up with the ability to duplicate data
Malcolm found the ability to duplicate job setups a great feature, along with being able to set up assessments on the hub at his desktop prior to going out on site. He found it a simple procedure to put the initial data in and upload the floor plans. When it was loaded, he would synchronize his device and all of the preloaded inspections would be available on his device, ready to start inspecting in the field.
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Ability to mark-up on the site plan
The ability to add text boxes, lines and arrows to floor plans in the Clarinspect App has been another efficiency gain for Argest. The manual process has been replaced with easily dropping a pin on an image while onsite. Once an inspection is completed the report contains the floor plan fully marked up and ready for the client. With Clarinspect, Malcolm can mark up the floor plan and the system remembers his previous specification of the line, e.g. colour/size/transparency, driving consistency of markup throughout the inspection which is great and exactly what he needs.
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Voice recognition feature saves time
The voice recognition feature made it much faster to dictate observations than typing them in. This has improved the quality of his observations as he no longer has to expand on his short written notes later when back in the office. He can give a full paragraph while onsite and looking at the location.
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“My initial process took me hours and hours due to the cutting and pasting of images. The time I have saved in writing, editing and preparing the reports has been huge. The ability to take a photo on site, comment on it then and there and send it straight through to the report saves an enormous amount of time. The voice recognition tool is also great to use.”
- Malcolm Christie, Passive Fire Program Manager
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“With Clarinspect having the ability to remote access into my device to navigate me through any questions was appreciated and very useful."
- Malcolm Christie, Passive Fire Program Manager