Centralized Site Quality and Process Monitoring Through Remote Approval [Case Study]

Project Details - Large scale Solar project (Details confidential)

About Company

Hero Future Energies (HFE) is the part of Hero Group and is one of India's leading Independent Power Producer (IPP) with operating plants in wind, grid-connected solar and rooftop solar. HFE provides clean power to industries, businesses, educational institutes, non-profits, and governmental organizations. 

Team

  • Mr. Akshay Bhatt, Lead - Quality
  • Mr. Saurabh Dubey, Lead - Quality
  • Mr. Devendra Sharma, Lead - Quality

Past Approach

Used Paper-based checklist format for Quality control conducted on site, these checklists were scanned on site and were sent to the central quality monitoring team for approval at regular intervals. This affected the Project schedule and sometimes can cause delay in approval due to the process. Also, the Paper based process of quality control was not environmentally friendly to generate renewable energy.

Challenges

  1. Quality control conducted through paper-based format on site required scanning and sent to the Quality control team for approval.
  2. This scanning of documents takes an engineer's valuable productive time.
  3. Also, the data was not sent immediately as it was sent at regular intervals and real time monitoring was not possible.
  4. Quality procedure was taking more time and was affecting project schedule.
  5. Maintaining hard copies on site was difficult and it also created issue to retrieve quality data in case it was require for quality analysis and process improvement
  6. There was no assurance of quality control on site as documents do have any photographic proof of actual inspection done on site.
  7. Spreadsheets were made manually to maintain quality log on site which was time consuming
  8. Quality teams were not able to have full control on the quality process as there were multiple sites.

New Approach

The above challenges were understood by the digiQC implementation team and recommended a new approach which matches our organization requirement.

  1. After understanding the process all the paper-based checklists were implemented in digiQC through their easy checklist upload process.
  2. Contractor used a request for information (RFI) checklist with approval features to inform the site quality control team for inspection. 
  3. To ensure quality team visit site checklists were set with mandatory photograph features which were to be taken from the phone's camera only.
  4. Quality control checklists were set with approval which were Quality team in head office. As soon as checklists are completed, instant notification mail is received by use. This process drastically reduced the time required for scanning and delay in reporting.
  5. This approval mail has all the details of quality control on site with actual site photographs. Once Approved or Redo, instant notification is sent to the site team which again reduces communication time required.
  6. Also due to compulsory photographs in checklist points, the defect observed on site drastically reduced and it made inspectors conscious that they are being watched remotely.
  7. Quality control data that was captured on site can also be viewed on digiQC web module in form of dashboard, logs, and detailed report for deep analysis.
  8. Due to availability of data for analysis, process improvement was possible which further increased the site workmanship quality.
  9. Logs were automatically created which eliminated extra processes for site engineers.
  10. Smooth communication was done between site and office team due to transparency in quality data.

Example

As our project mostly involves installation of fabrication parts after civil work, this makes civil work crucial and any deviation from drawing will make installation difficult. After implementation of digiQC the deviation was minimal, and failures were eliminated. Also, the schedule was achieved as planned due to faster communication.

digiQC also made it possible to remotely monitor critical activities like Transformer, cable, Lv panel, etc. installation.  

With data available in the log tab and dashboard we are able to track the progress achieved on site.

Results

Communication was faster with an increase in data transparency which helped us to make decision making easier as quality data was photographic documented.

Process improvement made it easier to handle multiple projects remotely.

Due to a well defined quality control process, Quality failure reduces by 90%

Due to digitized processes in digiQC, time required to complete the process is reduced by 75% compared to paper-based processes.

Delivering projects became faster by 25% compared to paper-based processes as now approval was instant and real-time.

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