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Environmental & Risk Management / EH&S / Track / Track Employee PPE Types task

Tracking PPE for Individual Employees

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is usually assigned to employees for safety-related reasons. In some cases, such as a respirator, it is required because the employee works with a hazardous substance that can be released as air-borne particles that should not be inhaled. In other cases, PPE might be a standard safety precaution, such as all manufacturing employees wearing safety shoes.

Tracking PPE is important because it helps safety officers comply with in-house requirements, employee union requirements, and regulatory requirements. In addition, some PPE has a finite life span and must be periodically renewed or replaced. The PPE tracking function manages the replacement schedule and enables you to monitor the delivery and replacement of PPE items.

Using the Track Employee PPE Types task, you can manage PPE-related information on an employee-by-employee basis:

• review an employee's PPE and its periodic replacement
• assign routine and one-time scheduled PPE deliveries to employees
• update scheduled PPE delivery with the results of the actual delivery.
• change a scheduled delivery date for PPE

Note: If the NotifyPpe parameter is set to YES in Application Parameter background data, the employee will be notified by email when a PPE is scheduled to be delivered the first time and when it must be replaced.

The Date Fields

In reviewing PPE items, note the "Date Put in Use" and the "Delivery Date" fields. The date that the PPE is actually delivered is stored in the Delivery Date field. If recurring scheduling is in effect, you complete the first Date Put in Use field with the date from which future PPE replacement will be scheduled .

Suppose you set up a recurring schedule to replace a pair of gloves every January 1. You enter today's date for Date Put in Use as the schedule starting point, and use the Assign PPE button. The system generates records with January 1 as the Date Put in Use field, and no values for Delivery Date. (Today's date that was used to start generating the schedule never appears in the generated records once you run the Assign action.)

When the user actually receives the gloves, you complete the Delivery Date field for each event.

Suppose the gloves are damaged and you need to immediately replace them; you cannot wait until the next January 1 scheduled delivery (Date Put in Use) and are issuing a new pair today. You load Track PPE, and select this event. Typically, you would enter the date you are distributing the new gloves in Date Put in Use. You can then elect to either:

• update the delivery schedule. For example, if the PPE has a fixed lifetime and the replacement or service cost is high enough to offset the administrative overhead.
• keep the PPE renewal schedule unaltered so the employee gets back in sync with the original schedule at the next delivery date. This is typical practice for a less expensive, disposable asset that a company supplies in bulk or simply issues broadly on a certain day of the year for all employees.

To view an employee's PPE:

You may need to check all PPE types for an employee. This includes PPE that is assigned based on workplace incident, PPE assigned via work category, and PPE assignments that are entered for individual employees. You can also see the schedule for replacing PPE items.

1. In the Process Navigator, select EH&S/ Track / Track Employee Personal Protective Equipment Types.
2. In the Filter pane, select the name of the employee and click Show.
3. A list of PPE assigned to the employee is displayed in the middle pane. The view shows both upcoming PPE scheduled deliveries, and those events that have already passed.
4. To see the details of any PPE event, click on the event. The system displays the details in the bottom pane. Be sure to note the Date Put in Use (scheduled delivery date) and the Date Delivered (actual delivery date) values.

To assign new one-time or routine PPE scheduled deliveries to an employee:

Although you might schedule the majority of PPE deliveries to an employee based on the employee's work category, there are situations in which you will need to assign scheduled PPE delivery (both one-time and replacement) to individual employees.

For example, an employee might be the only person who will work on an upcoming special project which requires specialized PPE; this PEE is not scheduled by work category because it is unique to only this employee's upcoming task. Or, an employee's PPE breaks and he immediately needs a new item; he cannot wait until the next scheduled delivery date. In this case, you can assign a one-time delivery of this PPE item directly to the employee.

1. In the Process Navigator, select EH&S/ Track / Track Employee Personal Protective Equipment Types.
2. In the Filter pane. select the name of the employee to which you want to assign a new PPE event.
3. A list of PPE instances assigned to the employee is displayed. Note that a recurring PPE event (that is to say, a PPE item that needs to be periodically replaced) has multiple instances with a scheduled delivery date (Date Put in Use) for each instance. Review this list to be sure that the PPE event you wish to enter does not already exist.
4. Click Add New at the top of the right pane.
5. The Assign PPE to Employee form opens in the bottom pane. Complete these fields:

• PPE Type Code -- From the list of existing PPE types, choose the type of PPE to assign to this employee.
• Date Put in Use -- Enter the date of estimated delivery, or the date beginning from which the scheduling routine should determine the schedule and generate PPE events.
• If a recurring schedule pattern has been established, the system consults this pattern and determines the scheduling dates based on the Date Put in Use value that you specify. For example, if you enter June 11, 2013 as the Date Put in Use, and PPE delivery is to re-occur yearly on March 1, the system will create the event records and complete the Date Put in Use field beginning with March 1, 2014 and running until March 1, 2024. (The June 11, 2013 value is entered only as the scheduling starting point and does not display in the generated records.) For more information, see Scheduling Routine (Concept).
• If a recurring pattern is not in effect, the system will schedule the PPE delivery for the date that you specify in Date Put in Use. In this example, the PPE delivery will be scheduled for June 11, 2013.
• Delivery Building/Floor/Room -- Optionally, you can enter the building/floor/room to which the PPE should be delivered. This can help ensure that PPE is delivered to the proper employee. For example, you might enter the department manager's room so that the department manager can hand-deliver it to the employee; or, you might enter the employee's location.
• Related Incident -- If this PPE is required due to follow-up from a workplace incident, you can enter the incident in this field by choosing from a list of incidents that the employee has been involved in. If the employee has not been involved in any workplace incidents, you cannot complete this field. The field will already be completed with an incident if you linked the incident the PPE requirement using the Track Incidents/Incident Response tab).

6. Click the Assign PPE button. The system generates the PPE events and updates the list of events in the top pane to include the new PPE events.
7. If necessary, you can further edit or review the new PPE events by clicking on an event. The system will display the event's details in the lower pane.

To enter the details of delivering PPE:

Once the PPE is delivered to the employee, the Safety Manager will want to record the exact delivery date and location. This type of documentation can be important for complying with workplace regulations or providing an audit trail of your company's execution of PPE requirements. You can also compare scheduled and actual delivery dates and determine your rate of on-time deliveries.

1. In the Process Navigator, select EH&S/ Track / Track Employee Personal Protective Equipment Types.
2. In the Filter pane, select the name of the employee. A list of PPE types and scheduled delivery dates assigned to the employee is displayed in the middle pane.
3. Select a PPE instance to edit from the list. Details about the instance are displayed in the bottom pane.
4. Edit existing values as needed. Typically, you will complete the entries as follows:

• Date Put in Use -- This value shows the scheduled date for the PPE delivery.
• Delivery Date -- Once the delivery occurs, complete this field with the date that the item was actually delivered. Updating this field is key from a liability standpoint to document that the PPE was actually delivered.
• Delivery Building/Floor/Room -- As part of defining the delivery schedule, you can enter the building, floor, or room to which the PPE will be delivered. Now that the PPE has been delivered, you can update these fields with the exact location to which the PPE was delivered. Completing these fields is important for closely monitoring the PPE. Was the PPE delivered to the department manager for distribution, or was it delivered directly to the employee?
• Delivery Receipt -- Optionally, upload document that shows receipt of the delivery of the item. For example, the employee may sign a receipt that they accepted delivery of their PPE.
  • For information on working with this document field, see Using the Document Management System.
  • The system will automatically add this document to the document library, where the "Document Assigned to A..." field will indicate that this document is attached to a PPE requirement. For information on the document library, see Documentation/Track EH&S Documents task.

5. Click Save.

To change the scheduled delivery of PPE for an employee:

Perhaps a PPE breaks and needs to be immediately replaced; you cannot wait until the next scheduled replacement date (as generated by the system and stored in Date Put in Use). In this case, you will update the Delivery Date with the new delivery date; you do not update Date Put in Use. By comparing Date Put in Use and Delivery Date, you can see that the item was delivered before schedule.

1. In the Process Navigator, select EH&S/ Track / Track Employee Personal Protective Equipment Types.
2. In the Filter pane, select the name of the employee.
3. A list of PPE assigned to the employee is displayed in the middle pane.
4. Click on the item whose scheduled delivery date you wish to change. This item will have no value for Delivery Date and Date Put in Use will show the next scheduled delivery.
5. Enter the date on which the employee received the replacement gloves in Delivery Date field. Retain " Date Put in Use" with the its current value

See Also

Track Safety Program Requirements for Employees Individually (Overview)