Sensitive Inspection automates Vale’s Lift Line routes

Lift Lines are pieces of safety equipment that complies with Brazilian standard NR-35, which is essential for Vale’s teams working at height. Line inspection is considered a CAR activity (critical activity requirement).

On the Vitória-Minas Railroad (Estrada de Ferro Vitória-Minas (EFVM)), which currently has 88 lift lines, the process was poorly automated, generating more exposure to risk for inspectors, less productivity and less reliability in the data obtained. 

Here’s a comparison between the old inspection process and the current one. The sensitive inspection solution, highlighting topics such as SAFETY, PRODUCTIVITY and RELIABILITY. 

Safety

Initially, before using the sensitive inspection module, the inspector would go into the field to check lift lines and would have to spend a lot more time exposed to the risks of this activity. This was because the employee had to record too many images. He would have to analyze all the photos on the equipment to make his notes in a spreadsheet later.

Currently, inspectors take their cell phone which has the inspection route and the checklist activated in the app. This way, the inspector knows exactly if photos need to be taken and what records need to be made, a more objective job with less exposure time. 

Productivity

Before, with little automation, a Vale employee used to spend up to six hours to carry out the entire process of inspecting the lift lines. The hours were divided into recording photos of the lines, going back to the office, viewing all the photos, answering around 23 questions on a spreadsheet. Finally, they had to prepare a report detailing each item included in the spreadsheet (spending an average of 3 hours per report).

Now, with the inspection module (DynaSens), the inspector goes into the field with the application ready to take photos and answer all questions in real time. It takes the inspector 30 minutes on average to complete the process and have his report generated on the Dynamox platform, with details and photos of the lift line. 

Reliability of information and equipment

With the more manual process, the information was more susceptible to errors, whether it was filling in the spreadsheet or registering the images. Moreover, without the app and the sensitive inspection solution, there was no geolocation, which allows you to see that the employee is carrying out the inspection in the correct place, avoiding possible mistakes.

In addition, reliability regarding the condition of lift lines has also increased. This is because information was previously attached to a system that made it difficult to see if there were any anomalies. Now, with the dashboard provided by our solution, it is possible to call in a specialist to handle maintenance cases. This happens before the lift lines have to be interdicted, as has happened in previous experiences. 

Vale’s combination of sensitive inspection + Lift line Inspection is proving to be a success. The advantages brought by the new process ensured optimization and agility in lift line inspections on the Vitória-Minas Railroad.

Did you like the content? You can find more cases like this on our blog, in the “success cases” section. You can also read “Dynamox detects a failure in a fluosilicic circulating pump“.