Cloud Inspections is not about looking skyward. It is about using the digital cloud to make the whole business of inspections easier to manage.
It’s one thing to carry out inspections and something else to document them for follow up, then index them and file them where you can actually find them when you need them.
According to the people who dreamed up the idea, Cloud Inspections help make sure that whatever is broken gets fixed. Cloud inspection documents are also much easier to produce on short notice, whenever and wherever they’re needed – like while a government official is standing next to your desk.
The person doing the inspection can be a technician in your yard or at a remote location. It can be a driver doing a pre-trip or out on the road. It can be any authorized person in your company.
The inspection can be of a vehicle, naturally, but it can also be of almost any product being delivered or picked up, or any piece of equipment – mobile or stationary, that needs to be inspected on a regular basis.
ADAPTABILITY
Cloud Inspection provider Inspection Data Systems (IDS) (www.inspectiondatasystems.com) stresses the adaptability of the technology.
“Cloud Inspection is particularly useful with any kind of commercial vehicles that are spread out around the country,” says Tom Heine, CEO of IDS, “especially those trucks, trailers, buses and vehicles that are required to be inspected by the DOT.”
But inspections are required for more than rolling stock, he pointed out.
“For example, we have a major trucking fleet that delivers new motorcycles to dealerships. They conduct a cloud inspection for each bike they deliver and those inspections are instantly available to the carrier, the logistics provider and the manufacturer.”
STRAIGHT FORWARD OPERATION
Heine, who is very much a Cloud Inspection evangelist, explained how cloud inspection works.
“Your people simply log into an inspection app on a smartphone or tablet. The app will include your company’s lists and check boxes for whatever needs inspecting – a shipment of specialty lumber; a backhoe, truck, trailer or container; a pallet of birdseed; or anything else.
“They do whatever the inspection involves, document their work in the app with photos or notes, geocode the location of the inspection, whatever. When they’re done, they file the finished inspection to the cloud.
“The cloud inspection company then forwards a copy to wherever it needs to be,” continues Heine. “Maybe that’s your office. Maybe it’s the home office in Des Moines, Iowa. Maybe it’s the repair shop. Or maybe it’s sent to a state agency that oversees the handling of, well, whatever that product is.”
The Cloud Inspection company retains a copy, he notes, so inspection documentation is never lost.
“It’s always available, no matter who shows up asking for it, and it hardly matters where in the world the inspection is done. The documentation is in your system instantly and backed up besides.”
TEMPLATES
Inspection templates are available for many inspections and they can be revised to suit any particular company’s needs.
Josh Naylor does vehicle inspections for transportation logistics company Joe Tex Xpress (www.joetexusa.com) using the IDS Cloud Inspection System. Joe Tex fields 150 trucks in the lower 48 states and operates an eight-bay shop with 10 technicians in Mineola, Texas.
Using an iPad, Naylor conducts up to an hour-long, very detailed inspection of every company truck that comes into the yard.
“I was able to add many items that were not on the standard form,” Naylor notes about the IDS system.
When he’s done with an inspection, it’s immediately available to supervisors in the office as well as to upper management an hour’s drive north in Mt. Vernon.
“Once you’ve done an inspection, you can add to it,” says Naylor. “We attach notes to it and we use a camera sometimes and attach pictures. It’s much better than the paper forms we used to use.”
RESPONSIBILITY
IDS' Heine was surprised to learn how many maintenance and operations people are responsible for inspections beyond their fleet.
“Some are responsible for products coming out of a manufacturing facility or for the raw materials coming in,” he says. “Some need to track the condition of materials moving through a process to avoid disputes over who might have damaged what.
“Some need to document the condition of goods in a warehouse. They have to inspect products tendered to carriers or put out for delivery by private fleets, and they all have to keep inspection records.”
Ben Ellard is a freelance writer who covers maintenance and technology issues.
