Work Clearance Management

The figure, SAP Fiori Launchpad - Role-based Entry Screen, above provides you with an overview of the Fiori Launchpad.

Maintenance safety solution / Work Clearance Management (WCM) has the objective of providing an integrated process between Asset Management and EHS to communicate pertinent safety risks and control the maintenance work being performed.

The solution provides you with the following capabilities:

• Full electronic support for controlling hazardous work using permits and isolation procedures
• Support for various levels of work permits and multilevel approvals
• Manage necessary operational lists, tags, and test tags within the isolation procedures
• Natively integrated with master data in the SAP Enterprise Asset Management solution and the maintenance work order process
• Mobile app for Work Clearance Management supporting Lockout / Tagout Procedures

Customers can benefit from the following:

• Completing hazardous work safely, while reducing the cost of maintenance and increasing equipment uptime
• Prevent safety violations and incidents

Subsequently, the SAP standard maintenance safety process is described. Depending on company-specific requirements, this process can vary and the process in the solution can be adjusted to meet the user's needs.

An example of the process is as follows:

• The maintenance planner creates a work order for the repair. A work order is called a maintenance order in SAP.
• Since the work involves high risks and hazards, the technician who is designated to carry out the work requests a level 1 work permit for the work order, which is valid for a certain period. The work permit describes the work to be carried out and the requirements to be fulfilled. The responsible person prepares the work permit and applies for an approval for the work permit.
• Due to the high risks and hazards associated with the work order, an Isolation Plan can be added to the work permit. This is an optional step.
• The responsible person approves the work permit in the next step.
• In this example, the work area needs to be isolated. This means that certain safety precautions or controls need to be applied. The necessity of this step depends on specific requirements and, therefore, might be an optional step.
• Afterwards, the approved work permit will be issued. This usually means that a print-out of the work permit will be handed over to the maintenance person, who has been assigned to execute the actual maintenance job.
• When the work permit is issued, the prerequisites are fulfilled so that the maintenance job can be executed. Therefore, the maintenance planner releases the work order.
• Now, the technician carries out the work.
• When the technician has completed the work, they return the work permit. All returned work permits are closed in the system.
• Afterwards, the work area will be de-isolated.
• The final step is the closure of the original work order. This is the end of the process.

Create a work order, which is used for planning work as well as ensuring that safety measures are performed before beginning the work.

By using work permits, you can ensure that safety measures for carrying out certain works are complied with, and safety barriers are not taken out of service unless compensating measures are put in place. The work permit is an operational safety barrier to protect against undesired incidents.

A work permit is a written document that authorizes specified persons to carry out specified work at a specified time. It describes both the work to be carried out and the requirements that must be fulfilled. At the same time, it ensures that necessary and adequate safety measures are carried out before work can start.

It is the duty of everyone involved in the planning, approval, and execution of work to evaluate the need for a work permit for a particular piece of work.

Work permits are categorized in different levels, depending on risk considerations and the need for coordination.

Create a work permit to ensure that safety barriers are not taken out of service unless the work is finished.

Within a work permit, you can also assign Safety Certificates - if they are required for the maintenance job.

The Safety Certificate is a WCM object that is used for the lockout / tagout of technical objects and for other safety certificates like Excavation Certificate, Radiography Certificate, and so on.

Maintain the list of technical objects to be isolated during the performance of maintenance work. Choosing Set Prepared finalizes the required list of isolations.

Request approval for the work permit comes from those responsible for worker safety.

The business process step, Approval (of work permits), allows for the flexible design of approvals, automatism, and hierarchies.

Isolate the electrical equipment and tag it so the equipment is ready for the maintenance execution.

Tag Ready and Safety Environment have to be approved.

The work permit can be issued.

The maintenance worker receives the work order in his job card.

The maintenance planner, having ensured the successful issue of the work approvals, now releases the maintenance order for carrying out the maintenance work.

The responsible person of the maintenance team receives the job card, which contains the details of the job to be executed.

The job card is a printable PDF document that contains the data of all the shop papers associated with a job's reference document, for example, operation control ticket, time ticket, and pick list. If the reference document is an order and the order has a safety plan, the job card also includes safety information.

The maintenance worker confirms the job after the completion of the maintenance tasks specified in the job card.

The planner sets the system status as work completed after verifying the confirmation of the maintenance tasks.

The work permit has to be closed.

Items have to be untagged, the work permit is closed, and equipment is normalized from isolation.

The system status has to be changed to completed in the work order.