Nearly one fifth (17%) have received enforcement action in the past due to assets not meeting HSE compliance standards, with over 10% receiving an HSE fine. The new research on 2,000 UK businesses, commissioned by enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions specialist, BPD Zenith surveyed organisations operating in the utility and renewable industries, including telecoms and broadband, as well as the defence, transport, pharmaceutical, and healthcare sectors.
The findings revealed that nearly 50% of these organisations’ moveable or fixed asset data isn’t detailed, nor updated or recorded accurately enough to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 or other HSE regulations that apply to their sectors.
Latest HSE figures for 2022/2023 show that there were 60,645 employee non-fatal injuries reported by employers during this period and 135 deaths as a result of work-related accidents. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 legally and duty bounds companies to ensure the safe working environment for employees and third parties, including the public, who may be affected by an organisation’s activities.
The HSE compliance standards work alongside the Health and Safety Act, designed to protect people and the environment. Penalties for failure to comply can include fines, orders for operations to cease, and imprisonment if the misconduct is found to be serious enough.
Nearly half of all responses (47%) said recording data in the field, not being able to record data at the point of work, a lack of intuitive forms, and not having technical data and maintenance manuals at the point of use, as the biggest challenge to keep asset management and maintenance data updated. Access to real-time inventory levels (18%) and struggling to plan, schedule, and dispatch work to multiple crafts and contractors (11%) were amongst the other challenges organisations faced.
Roger Walker, Group Head of Innovation at BPD Zenith, said that the survey results have identified that 80% of these companies probably are not where they need to be in their asset management digital transformation journey.
“What they need to identify though is ‘why’, and if they have the right asset management strategy, processes and tools in place. If not, is this due to a lack of resources, either through investment in the right equipment, or software, or people, or it may be a case that data collection and analytics are not sufficiently high on their list of priorities.”
