NQCranes

Challenge

NQCranes needed to address their inefficient process for collecting and processing forms manually completed in the field. With 20,000 pieces of equipment requiring inspections every three months, hundreds of forms were filled out across a number of remote locations each day. Once completed, these forms had to be physically delivered so that the documented information could be manually re-entered into business systems, resulting in significant time wasted on administrative tasks.

Solution

NQCranes digitized and fully customized their forms using GoFormz. Utilizing dynamic, digital features forms can now be completed faster and more accurately in the field, resulting in significant efficiency gains for their technicians. Utilizing integrations between GoFormz, Dynamics 365, and SharePoint, NQCranes seamlessly routes form data directly to their critical business systems, streamlining reporting, centralizing record-keeping, and simplifying administrative tasks on the back end.

Results

• 40+ administrative hours saved per week
• 50% reduction of time spent completing field technician paperwork
• Fully automated process from end to end
• Creates an audit trail of inspection logs in both GoFormz and SharePoint
• Achieves significant time savings

Forms

• Equipment Inspection Forms
• Timesheets
• Repair Reports
• Toolbox Talk Meetings
• Vehicle Inspections
• Meeting Notes
• Quotes

About NQCranes

NQCranes is “Australia’s largest independently owned overhead crane service business and one of Queensland’s largest overhead crane manufacturers.” Specializing in the manufacturing and servicing of lifting gear, the NQCranes team strives to provide excellent service and stellar customer support.

Triplicate Book Challenges

As a team that works tirelessly to provide exceptional service, paper forms simply could not support the massive amount of data that needed to be collected by NQCranes personnel. Field teams would often be dispatched to inspect a customer’s equipment on site, which required that a technician not only complete their own inspection form but also a form for the customer and one for the back office. To support this process, NQCranes field teams were burdened by triplicate books, which required NQCranes employees to manually deliver documentation to the office at the end of each week. This meant that time and fuel were spent hand-delivering documents from days prior, which would then need to be rekeyed into back-office systems. “We have about 20,000 pieces of equipment that are serviced every three months on a regular cadence across the region,” explained Stephen Goodson, IT and Business Manager for NQCranes. With hundreds of forms being completed by hand daily, this process became very inefficient and was due for an overhaul.

Transitioning from Paper to Digital

As the only platform able to preserve the exact formatting of their existing documents, NQCranes selected GoFormz as their digital form solution, enabling a seamless transition to a fully digital operation. “What attracted me to GoFormz was how easy it was to set up forms. We took our existing triplicate book, turned it into a PDF, and put that PDF into GoFormz,” explained Goodson. This transition allowed the NQCranes team to easily adapt to their new digital processes. “GoFormz was the easy part of this transition because all we did was keep the form as close as possible to writing on paper,” explained Goodson. “Instead of writing on paper with a pen, the team now clicks, types on an iPad, or even speaks their comments directly into the digital form. GoFormz has been the easiest digital adoption that we’ve had to go through as a company.”

Smarter, Better Digital Data Collection

With their forms digitized, NQCranes leveraged a variety of digital features to simplify the daily collection of information. “We made the forms really smart so the technician experience was easier than filling something out on pen to paper,” explained Goodson. “When we created the mobile forms we built in databases with automatic answers and color coding and the ability to complete a section of a form by just hitting a button.”

These ‘smart’ features helped to significantly streamline form data entry, especially when completing lengthy, detailed inspections. For example, within one of NQCranes’ overhead crane inspection forms, over one hundred data points need to be entered to complete the form. This form is especially important because it is used to note the safety of equipment and record any maintenance that may be necessary. Leveraging Dynamic Field Properties, NQCranes implemented a variety of hidden fields, to instantly mark numerous related inspection points as completed. Similarly, when grading the condition of equipment (on a scale of A to E) a Checkbox is used to auto-fill all of the graded points within a specific section.

If an inspection point receives a poor grade, comments detailing why must also be included. To simplify this process, NQCranes implemented more hidden fields. “Rather than have them type the comment in, based on their selection we have another hidden field that will give them commonly-used comments,” explained Goodson. “So if they choose a ‘C’ condition on access to the main isolator, up will come four commonly used comments about the main isolator. If they chose a D or E there, three or four different answers will come up.” This process had previously taken NQCranes personnel a significant amount of time and often resulted in missing data (from forgotten or overlooked fields). Now, with digital forms, NQCranes technicians can effortlessly expedite their inspections and data entry. “It’ll take them two minutes to fill out a form when previously it would have taken them ten.”

Connected Systems

When NQCranes first adopted GoFormz, they were solely using the platform to capture information digitally, without any automation in place. “We created these digital forms initially for our technicians to fill out and then we didn’t have automation set up on the back end to bring those forms in, save them to the right places, or pull data out of the form to put into our databases,” explained Goodson. “So our technician would complete a form, the customer would get a copy, and then our office would get a copy but the difference was they still had to enter all that information into our existing systems.”

“While the workload was streamlined for the technicians, the admin team still had a lot of work to do to get that data to the right place so that we could generate reports for our customers.” Recognizing there was room for improvement in their digital transformation journey, NQCranes connected GoFormz to Microsoft Dynamics 365 and SharePoint. “The job will start in Dynamics, I will then send the form with the header filled out with the job number, crane ID, and all of the information the technician needs in GoFormz,” explained Goodson. “They’ll have the draft form which they will then fill in their bits of information when they conduct the inspection. When they press complete, the customer gets a copy, and GoFormz saves the form in Dynamics and in the SharePoint libraries behind the job and library number, which is our asset.” This information is then pushed into a database to be used in Power BI reporting, enabling NQCranes to eliminate the need for time-consuming administrative tasks. “It’s all completely automated. Every piece of information captured in GoFormz goes into our databases with no input from an administrator.”

These integrations have also enabled NQCranes to utilize GoFormz internally on their own equipment. “We also do all of our own internal HSE documentation through GoFormz which includes our vehicle inspections, equipment inspections, and toolbox meetings,” explained Goodson. “All of those records are all done through GoFormz and then we automatically route them back into SharePoint. We then dashboard them up because they’re electronic forms and we can meta tag them as they come back in, that’s what makes it so simple for us to be able to prove that we’ve met our HSE requirements.”

“Everything is faster for our technicians to do their work, it’s quicker for customers to get their reports, and it’s a lot quicker on the admin side for that data to get into its proper database and for us to be able to then run meaningful reports on that data.”