Inspection and certification of extinguishers: the ROI of Voice Assistance with SpixForCheck
The standards that fire extinguisher inspectors must follow may vary depending on the country and local regulations. In general, inspectors must be trained and qualified to conduct inspections that comply with fire safety, fire prevention, and fire extinguisher maintenance standards. They must refer for example to the NFPA, NF EN 671, NF EN 1866, NF EN 3, NF EN 12579, etc., according to the specific requirements of their field of activity. Meeting these standards ensures the quality of inspections, the reliability of fire extinguishers, and is mandatory to be in conformance with many insurance contracts.
The challenge of the inspectors of industrial extinguishers
According to the standard, the related checklists shall be completed in front of the extinguisher. As illustrated in the image above, this can be complex when the extinguisher needs to be moved up-side-down three times: the operator needs have his gloves on to maintain his own safety. Similarly, while looking at the gauge level, the inspector needs to focus, put the paper or tablet away and then record the value.
Illustration of the tasks where the inspector can be at risk when removing his gloves to type on a tablet, or where the observed value can be mis recorded because entered afterward.
In many situations with extinguishers inspection, the risk is high that the inspector misses one value or creates a safety risk be removing his gloves..
Here are a few reasons why fire extinguisher inspection is important in the industry:
- Fire prevention: Fire extinguishers are essential equipment for fighting fires. Regular inspection of fire extinguishers ensures that they are in good working order, loaded with extinguishing agent and ready for use in an emergency, helping to prevent fires and limit their spread.
- Protection of people: In the event of a fire, fire extinguishers can save lives by allowing the fire to be quickly contained before the fire department arrives. Regular inspection of fire extinguishers ensures that they are effective and available to protect workers and occupants of the premises in the event of an emergency.
- Compliance with standards: Fire extinguisher inspectors must comply with current fire safety standards and regulations. By conducting inspections that comply with standards, companies comply with legal requirements and minimize the risk of fines or penalties for non-compliance.
- Preventive maintenance: Inspection of fire extinguishers makes it possible to identify possible problems with the operation, corrosion or aging of the equipment. By identifying these problems during inspections, corrective actions and preventive maintenance can be planned to ensure the reliability of fire extinguishers.
- Fire Safety Awareness: Fire extinguisher inspection is also an opportunity to educate workers on the proper use of fire extinguishers, fire evacuation procedures, and good fire safety practices. This helps to strengthen the safety culture within the company (reduction of mistakes and non-quality).
How SpixForCheck contributes to the inspection of extinguishers
Fire extinguisher inspection operators in the industry may encounter several difficulties in the performance of their duties. Here are some of the challenges they may face and the benefit they can get using a Voice First user interface to complete the forms and a Voice Assistant to help them:
- Number of fire extinguishers to be inspected: In industrial environments that may be large and have many pieces of equipment, the number of fire extinguishers to be inspected can be significant. This can be a challenge in terms of time and logistics for operators.
–> The Voice Assistant embedded in SpixForCheck helps them to gain time on the checklist completion, to avoid coming twice to the same extinguisher due to missing data (non-quality). This time can be used to focus on the safety procedures of the operator.
- Difficult access: Some fire extinguishers may be in hard-to-reach locations, such as high up or behind equipment. This can make the inspection more complex and require specific means to reach the fire extinguishers to be inspected.
–> In such difficult access conditions, the use of SpixForCheck, with its NoTouch-NoScreen voice interface, enables to continue to report the necessary data, while keeping the digital equipment in a safe place. They do not need to walk back to the tablet to record the relevant data (improved working conditions).
- Diversity of types of fire extinguishers: Manufacturers use different types of fire extinguishers depending on the specific risks present in their installations (e.g. fire extinguishers for class A, B, C, D fires, etc.). Inspection operators must be trained to properly recognize and inspect each type of fire extinguisher.
–> SpixForCheck helps the inspector, reminding the different types of extinguishers to make sure the type under investigation is referenced. This function may help the novice and secure the expert (reduction of mistakes and non-quality).
- Compliance with standards and regulations: Fire extinguisher inspection operators must ensure that fire extinguishers comply with current fire safety standards and regulations. This includes keeping up to date with changes in standards and ensuring that fire extinguishers comply with legal requirements.
–> The checklist completed with the SpixForCheck Voice Assistant and the NoTouch-NoScreen voice interface can be the last one validated by the methods and QHSE authorities. If changes affect the routine work of the inspector, the Voice Assistant can raise an alert to make sure it is considered (reduction of non-quality).
- Documentation and follow-up: “After” inspecting fire extinguishers, operators usually need to write detailed inspection reports, record the results of inspections, and plan for future preventive maintenance interventions. Managing documentation and tracking can be a “time consuming and tedious task”.
–> The introduction of a NoTouch-NoScreen voice interface as i SpixForCheck removes the “after” from this statement, as the report can be generated in real-time in front of the extinguisher. The “time consuming and tedious task” is also removes by a Voice Assistant (low value-added time).
SpixForCheck: a disruptive innovation for the inspection
SpixForCheck is an intelligent voice assistant solution dedicated to inspectors and quality controllers. It provides a NoTouch-NoScreen Voice interactions to releases the constraints of the traditional digital tools.
SpixForCheck brings together three types of complementary technologies for the deployment of a real NoTouch-NoScreen voice interface to digital tools for the field inspectors:
- Robust speech recognition technology capable of translating voice into text in industrial environments in the highest possible performance,
- A Smart Voice Assistance technology also called dialog agent or conversational AI interface to go beyond simple speech recognition and initiate a real intelligent dialogue between the assistant and a user. A text-to-speech technology is also used to provide audio feedback to the user.
- Dedicated voice interactions modes to help the inspector in the management of the checklists and forms, by voice only, keeping his hands free and his eyes focused on his environment and duty.
The idea behind this disruptive SpixForCheck innovation is to radically change the user experience of industrial inspectors, reconcile them with their digital environment, and help them comply with the norms and standards ruling their jobs. This innovation and its implementation in an industrial environment meet the ambitions of the Industry 5.0 program from the EC.
For inspectors and quality controllers to work effectively with the help of a NoTouch-NoScreen voice interface, and for it to be “intelligent” in their work context, it must have characteristics specific to industrial applications:
- Natural Conversation: SpixForCheck allows operators to speak in natural language to trigger multiple actions, as if they were addressing their co-worker.
- Robustness to the work environment: SpixForCheck and its associated audio devices have been developed to withstand the constraints of an operational work environment: noise, humidity, heat, dust, mandatory PPE wearing, frequency bands, …
- Understanding the job: SpixForCheck allows workers to use all the words and phrases used in their inspections and quality control jobs. SpixForCheck feeds on the validated forms and checklist from the industry, or from the standardization organizations.
- Contextual intelligence: SpixForCheck understands a technicians’ voice requests based on their work context, inspection status, expected elements of forms and checklists.
Voice First inspection features
- Binary conformity choice
- Choosing items in long lists
- Selection in several lists
- Entering measurement values
- Entering alphanumerical values
- Entering a short text title
- Entering a free text comment
- Activation of the photo device…
Voice Assistance functions
- Step-by-step instructions completion
- Values confirmation, modifications
- Access to boundaries, verification of the limits
- Modification of the previous value
- Recall of the instruction
- Voice presentation of the choices in lists
- Different level of validation: simple, critical
- Repetition of the instruction
- Repetition of the last input for validation…
This list of features is subject to evolutions as function of the version of SpixForCheck.
NoTouch-NoScreen : for what purpose?
The integration of a voice assistant into the daily life of industrial field operators can bring multiple benefits and facilitate their tasks. Moreover, it may overcome the dependence on the screen and free theirs hands.
A Voice Assistant enables the field operators to use digital tools releasing the constraints of the screen and releasing their hands. The NoTouch-NoScreen innovation is a breakthrough in the use of digital tools while on the move in industrial environments.
The NoTouch-NoScreen approach solves the issues of the field workers while interacting with digital equipment. It releases the constraints of carrying or touching tablets smartphones, keyboards, or mouses to feed an information and removes the constraint of looking at small screens to get an information on the field.SPIX industry is a pioneer company introducing NoTouch-NoScreen applications based on the Smart Voice Assistant Spix that includes advanced voice interaction modes dedicated to such “voice first” interactions to digital content.
- Real-Time completion of information: A voice assistant allows the operator to complete the requested information (measurement, visual inspection, defects, …) in real-time during the operations. This is a major improvement, compared to paper or traditional digital tools. It helps to comply with the norms and standards by drastically improving the quality and accuracy of the collected data.
- More accurate documentation: The voice assistant can allow operators to dictate inspection reports, observations, recommendations, comments, description, and actions already taken, directly in the field, making it easier to document inspection and quality control activities. A more complete documentation helps to strengthen the compliance with the norms, as the documentation is completer and more accurate.
- Enhanced Safety: By allowing operators to keep their hands free and focus on their work environment, a voice assistant with its NoTouch-NoScreen capability helps increase safety during field operations. Removing the constraints of the gloves avoids creating a safety breach, hence improving the compliance to the QHSE and OSHA norms and standards.
The integration of a Smart Voice Assistant that implements the NoTouch-NoScreen principles for industrial field operators can offer them a practical, efficient, and versatile tool to improve their performance, efficiency, and comfort at work.
Conclusion
The need from the industry to strengthen the quality process leads to more sophisticated norms and standards. Consequently, checklists and forms associated to quality controls and inspections become more complex and their quality and completeness more critical.
This generates a particular pressure on the field operators in charge of the inspection tasks and quality controls to complete the checklists and forms as precisely as possible, in real-time and without any missing data. The digital transformation and the introduction of tablets and smartphones pursue this objective.
The digital equipment might be difficult to use by field inspectors or quality controllers to complete their checklists and forms in real-time: hands are busy, tablets are heavy, smartphones too small.
SPIX industry introduces SpixForCheck a breakthrough solution dedicated to inspectors and quality controllers to help them in their digital interactions while working on the field. The key added value of SpixForCheck with its NoTouch-NoScreen voice interface consists in:
- keeping the hands of the operator free,
- release the constraints of looking at a small screen,
- avoid carrying a digital equipment,
- enable to complete forms and checklists in real-time,
- without any compromise with the operator’s safety.
For the first time with SpixForCheck and its NoTouch-NoScreen voice interface, the constraint of the digital screen is removed. Field operators can complete checklists and forms by voice in real-time, hence drastically improving the quality of the collected data. They can keep their hands free, hence improving their safety at work. checklists and forms by voice in real-time, hence drastically improving the quality of the collected data. They can keep their hands free, hence improving their safety at work.
Press contacts
André JOLY – Managing Director
Phone. : +33 (0)6 25 17 27 94
Email: andre.joly@spix-industry.com
Legal entity
Website : spix-industry.com
Linkedin : linkedin.com/company/spix-industry
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“Voice Experience”, “SPIX” and “SPIX industry” are registered trademarks of Simsoft3D SAS.