Blog Archives
October 2006
Key Performance Indicators (KPI's or Metrics)
Effective key performance indicators (or metrics) are a valuable tool for triggering corrective action. Often however, metrics are worthless since they do not provide worthwhile indications of performance, particularly when this performance is below acceptable levels.
The key to this is that a KPI should normally have a trigger level set on it that is used to initiate some corrective action. If no trigger has been set then the metric is ineffective. If no one has defined the level on the metric where performance becomes bad enough to require corrective action, then there is no point in producing it.
A realistic period must also be used for each metric - in some cases this may be one hour while in others it could be one year.
So what is the definition of a KPI?
- KPI - Key Performance Indicator, a measure of a factor that is critical to success
- API - Additional Performance Indicator, an indication of the performance of an activity that may be used as an alternative to a KPI or provide some analysis of a KPI
- SPI - Secondary Performance Indicator, an indicator of the performance of an activity that is of secondary importance to success
The key is to ensure what you wish to measure is relevant, measureable and meaningful. In fact many KPI's are none of these! So don't just record it, be sure you need it and be sure you take action on the results.
Source: Perspective CMMS, Construction Excellence KPI pack & Ai Solutions
Bronze memorial for dead workers
About 200 people gathered in Tower Hill in the City of London as the £100,000 "Building Worker" was uncovered.
The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (Ucatt) had the sculpture made as part of a campaign for a new corporate killing charge.
Sculptor Alan Wilson created the figure which sports a hard hat, weighs 300kg and holds a spirit level.
Ucatt general secretary Alan Ritchie unveiled the sculpture, which is close to the Tower of London, during a ceremony on Wednesday.
A total of 351 construction workers have died on sites since 2001 and a two-minute silence was observed in their memory.
Watching the unveiling was Mary O'Sullivan. Her 54-year-old husband Patrick O'Sullivan was working on the new Wembley Stadium in 2004 when he was killed. The cause is still not known and a criminal prosecution has not been ruled out.
"He was crushed to death that morning," she said. "And they crushed us to death as well."
Mr Ritchie said: "Our union will continue campaigning for a new law so that individual directors and senior managers are held accountable for accidents at work," he said.
It is hoped wreaths will be placed by the statue each year on 28 April which is Workers' Memorial Day.
For more pictures and streaming video of the news report, see BBC News
Source: BBC News (includes video)
CDM2007 Regulations final approval
The final draft of the Regulations and ACOP have been submitted for approval to the October meeting of the HS Commission. Subject to approval the Regs will be launched in April 2007. With the finalising of the Regs and ACOP attention now turns to realising the benefits that this revision will bring. My team are looking at the operational implementation of CDM. This is an important period to ensure that the new messages from the regulations are understood. The revised regulations will require a major shift in attitude by some duty holders; especially where they have developed an unhelpful reliance on paper based systems, rather than actually focusing on reducing risk. We will all need to get involved next year to ensure that this message is clearly understood by duty holders.
To recap briefly the aims of the new regulations are to have the right people for the right job at the right time to reduce risk, reduce paperwork and encourage teamwork. The focus is on effective planning and reducing risk. Not the production of paperwork. We want CDM 2007 to deliver clear benefits, not just CDM 2004 business as usual.
This is an opportunity to draw a line under the previous debates of this group and to now look forward to the launch. I would like to thank members of this discussion group for their contributions. I am taking over as manager of this site and would welcome any constructive debate about the launch, and how the new messages about CDM can be effectively delivered.
I am attaching copies of the final draft ACOP and Regulation to the doucments page of this site, which have been submitted to the HS Commission.
Thank you Andrew East (HSE)
Source: HSE Webmaster
The Official Ai Solutions Blog - Welcome!
Hello and welcome to the official Ai Solutions Blog.
What we are going to talk about
Each of the teams here will be talking about the following topics on a regular basis.
- News about new and updated Ai Solutions products
(when new versions, updates, service packs etc. are released) - Tips for how to make better use of features within our products
- Discussion of our current marketing activities
- Appearances at conferences, exhibitions, etc
- Often requested support issues
- Success stories on how companies have profited using our products
How this affects the newsletter
This blog is an accompaniment to our monthly newsletter which is available on our website and distributed by email. We will include details of when the new edition is published in the blog, so if you would rather subscribe to the feed than the email you can do so.
Newsletter - October 2006
The October 2006 edition of the Ai Solutions Newsletter is now available: October Newsletter.
ToolKit Compliance System Update
Our regular six monthly product update is now on release to our customers. The update, code number 11f, includes:
- New Knowledge Base Viewer
- CDM
- Enhanced CDM Management Console and Statistics
- Automated update of Project events
- Personnel website and email addresses more visible within Projects
- Ability to select Explorer folder during Project Wizard
- Asbestos
- Enhanced Management Console and Statistics
- Export Item Data to CSV from within each Property
- Survey History sub-form
- Enhanced Location Wizard
- Ability to select Explorer folder during Property Wizard
- Organisations / Personnel
- Obsolete flag to hide organisations and personnel from selectors
- Mobile phone numbers more visible
- Documents / Reports / Print Preview
- New column-based layouts in sub-reports
- Previous Versions available for Reports
- Document Editor enhancements
- Administration
- Updated User Account list
- Viewing of Audit information from within each User Account
- Enhanced support for SQL Server Replication
This is an important update for our ToolKit CS™ customers and sets the stage for the CDM2 enhancements which will be released in time for the new legislation.
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