Case Study . Canterbury District Health Board
CDHB uses Clarinspect to digitalise thousands of service penetrations.
-
Captures the build of each penetration electronically
-
Inspect and report on the penetrations using the same system
-
No more need for paperwork or double handling of reporting
About
Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) has the mission "To promote, enhance and facilitate the health and wellbeing of the people of Canterbury."
Part of this mission requires that all buildings owned and managed by CDHB are kept in suitable shape to maintain the BWOF (building warrant of fitness). The Engineering and Maintenance Department are responsible for ensuring the buildings have a periodic check on all existing passive fire penetrations (where cable, ducts or pipes cross through a fire-wall), as well as ensuring that all new installs are done to specification, whilst the Site Redevelopment Unit are responsible for delivering both new and refurbishment projects.
What CDHB needed
CDHB have thousands of service penetrations in their existing buildings and they are creating new ones with each refurbishment or new build.
The Passive Fire Manager / Project Manager (SRU) at CDHB, Simon Hemmings, has taken a pragmatic - and NZIOB award nominated - approach to the full passive fire penetration lifecycle from procurement, through installation to ongoing maintenance.
To support this endeavour CDHB needed a system that allowed for installers to record their work in sealing penetrations, print off QR labels using a Bluetooth printer, review the as-built reports for each penetration and then release the reports and data to the CDHB - all electronically.
The system also had to allow for independent inspectors (as well as CDHB maintenance staff) to inspect penetrations, generate an inspection report which, on approval by the independent inspector, was then released to the CDHB.
Clarinspect was chosen as the software of choice to support this endeavour based on market experience and collaborative approach to engaging with their clients to meet their needs.
The Clarinspect (Fire QA) approach
Clarinspect are already established as the leading passive fire install logging software, so applied their know-how to the requirements of the CDHB.
The report and build log format had already been established by CDHB, so using the Clarinspect prototyping approach the processes were explored and the electronic forms and reports were finessed and exercised to ensure they were appropriate.
Dropdown lists of products from different suppliers were included so installers could specify what was used. The build log also allows the user to select a floor plan, and then annotate the floor plan with the exact location of the installation.
During the process walkthrough another form and report was identified to enable discovered penetrations to be catalogued, so this form and report were produced and added into the wider system.
To enable Simon and the installers to collate and analyse the install data Clarinspect supplied "Linked Spreadsheets". This is Excel authenticated into Clarinspect so data, reports and photos can be downloaded and reviewed on the user's PC.
The Bluetooth printer used for labels
Floor plan from an example penetration build log
Business outcomes
-
Captures the build of each penetration electronically
Canterbury District Health Board have a system that captures the build of each penetration electronically, including photos and annotated site plans saving them paper, and time, and supporting the consistency and quality CDHB expect from their installers.
-
Inspect and report on the penetrations using the same system
The fire engineers can inspect and report on the penetrations using the same system, with all data collated by the Passive Fire Manager.
-
No more need for paperwork or double handling of reporting
The system has been used on new build sites, and has removed the need for paperwork, the double handling of reporting and notation currently required to achieve the level of detail necessary.
-
“Clarinspect enables the CDHB to achieve the level of consistency required in recording the passive fire programme.”
- Simon Hemmings, Passive Fire Manager
-
The Clarinspect system is so easy to use. The installers record the installation on their tablets, sync it to Clarinspect where the installers QA it and approve it. I can then get all data and reports at the click of a button - from all installers!"
- Simon Hemmings, Passive Fire Manager