South Jersey Industries is using leading-edge technology to offer employees enhanced measures to improve safety with the launch of a new safety management system, or SMS, at South Jersey Gas and Elizabethtown Gas.
“One of the key benefits to the new SMS is that it’s on a digital platform that our employees are familiar with using daily—Office 365—where we currently utilize Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Power BI,” Craig Stewart, vice president safety and quality, SJI Utilities, told American Gas. “This digital integration makes it easier for employees to report issues, manage action items, and promote environmental, health and safety information.”
The transition to the new SMS resulted in increased employee engagement in the safety system, an increase in reporting near misses and many other benefits, he said. “With more frequent and sophisticated employee responses, we are better positioned to implement safety improvements for issues that may have previously gone unreported,” Stewart said.
In addition, as part of its ongoing efforts to enhance safety, South Jersey Gas and Elizabethtown Gas implemented virtual reality, or VR, training modules that allow field crews to simulate a wide variety of critical response situations. VR training places new hires in high-stress and potentially dangerous situations without risk and is a great training tool to add to the utility’s toolbox of techniques.
“We utilize VR to supplement new hire training, incumbent refresher training and operator qualification sessions,” Stewart said. “It’s also beneficial for non-fieldworkers by helping them learn the operational aspects of the natural gas industry and to further grasp what the fieldworkers are up against daily.”
Stewart said the utility sees great potential in VR in developing more operational training modules, operator qualifications sessions and driver training. “We frequently hear employees say they wish they had this type of training when they were newly hired years ago because they see the value it brings to situational preparedness,” he said.
The financial commitment to the technology is well worth the investment, Stewart added, noting that sharing module development with others in the industry can help reduce costs.
