Speeding up testing of a large site....

[Tiny Spark]

Hey all,

Ime looking for some ideas from people who have done large PAT jobs for some speed up advice.

For those who dont know i recently changed jobs.
Ime now part of a team of 6 and one of our responsibilities is the PAT.
Now its a large site and we are talking many thousands of items here which as you can imagine is slow work.
So much so we are a few thousand behind schedule!!

We have primetest 300's and 350's.
Ime thinking a barcode reader and label printer would speed things up but i have never used that type of system so i am unsure if it would help us or raise any issues.
We also download all data onto the pc using the seaward pat guard software so the system would have to be compatible with them.

Cheers for any help guys

 

[TJ Anderson]

Hey all,

Ime looking for some ideas from people who have done large PAT jobs for some speed up advice.

For those who dont know i recently changed jobs.
Ime now part of a team of 6 and one of our responsibilities is the PAT.
Now its a large site and we are talking many thousands of items here which as you can imagine is slow work.
So much so we are a few thousand behind schedule!!

We have primetest 300's and 350's.
Ime thinking a barcode reader and label printer would speed things up but i have never used that type of system so i am unsure if it would help us or raise any issues.
We also download all data onto the pc using the seaward pat guard software so the system would have to be compatible with them.

Cheers for any help guys

Pre write your labels, couple of cans of redbull and start kicking ---

 

[Leesparkykent]

Must be completely mind numbing having to PAT test thousands of appliances, I don't envy you mate

 

[Leesparkykent]

Pre write your labels, couple of cans of redbull and start kicking ---

And a pack of pro+ lol

 

[Silly Sausage]

C9H13N 1-phenylpropan-2-amine

 

[Tiny Spark]

Pre write your labels, couple of cans of redbull and start kicking ---

Not possible sadly.
Due to the way its set up we have to write unique numbers on each label atm.

And yes very brain numbing.
Not to mention awkward as everything is cable tied to everything else!!!

 

[Tiny Spark]

C9H13N 1-phenylpropan-2-amine

???

Sorry whats that mean mate?

 

[Guest125]

The barcode and scanner idea will take the first year longer to set up but the next year will start showing results. We do about 16,000 per year so we know what you mean.

 

[ruston]

I have the Seaward bar code scanner and printer for the machines you are using . All that is required is to set up a barcode and away you go.
As previous post the barcode will identify the item on next test and store the results automatically into your software, there you have the option to print out the certificates. The printer will print automatically as you go.

 

[ian.settle1]

Can you not spread the PAT testing across the year instead of doing them all in one go

 

[Guest125]

I cannot remember our make but it saves all the results onto a flash drive and he sends me the results which the tester puts onto a spreadsheet. We can update last years spreadsheet and the client knows exactly what is where.

 

[Guest125]

Can you not spread the PAT testing across the year instead of doing them all in one go

That is what we need to do. No need to have 10 guys flat out over 1 month when you can keep 1 man busy all year.

 

[Silly Sausage]

That is what we need to do. No need to have 10 guys flat out over 1 month when you can keep 1 man busy all year.

How much do you pay him?
I've known 40p per item, but 16000 items would take me considerably less than a year!

 

[7029 dave]

Tiny, what happened to the hospital job.?

 

[ruston]

This link will give you the gist.
There is a cheaper printer that uses paper rolls and is thermal bluetooth.
Phone them they are very helpful. The barcode scanner is also bluetooth.


http://www.seaward.co.uk/downloads/seaward_printer_datasheet_rev13_v1.3.pdf

 

[Guest125]

How much do you pay him?
I've known 40p per item, but 16000 items would take me considerably less than a year!

Haha... It is not his only job. He is PAYE. We try not to do subbies. He also does the visual inspections, emergency lighting tests and re-lamping jobs.

 

[test electrical]

Sub it out 50p an item if you have more than 1000 items,and no liability and you can make it look good on a risk assessment that your using specialist contractor.Who will use muppets but the HSE love paper work.

 

[Tiny Spark]

Blimey lots to reply to now so bare with me
Sorry just got home from a afternoon of PAT'in LOL

Well firstly....

The hospital job well that was a kind of blessing in disguise as it turned out it would of been a bad call!
In a nut shell though I was offered the job and waiting for the written confirmation before handing in my notice. Anyways after a few days I had not heard anything so rang the manager that I had met who who then informed me that accounts had put the brakes on my employment and decided they didnt need anyone to replace whoever left.
But then because I had not been taken on apparently they lost staff hand over fist due to excesive work load so god knows what happened there in the end!

Back to topic....

So I will explain the circumstances a little better, The team I work in is small and our main job is to tend to the facilities (Electric, Water, Gas, AC etc) We also have to attend breakdowns and carry out various maintenance etc etc.

And then we have the PAT testing which is spread over the course of the year, But due to the equipment being in use, access etc we only really get the chance to do it on lates and the weekends (providing we have nout else that commands our attention!) But we are talking 10k+ items!
Just to add a additional fish slap accross the face most of the stuff is not easy access, We are not talking getting stuff off desks here.
Alot of stuff is mounted to frameworks above conveyor belts, Long extension leads tied to unistrut frames (dont get me started on that), Cables tied to everything and anything to keep them "neat" you get the idea.....

So as ime sure you can imagine its a really time consuming task, If I can do 60 items in a shift ime doing bloody well!

So currently all known and previously tested items have a barcode sticker with a unique number, a asset number and of course a pass label.
All of that info is kept on a central database (PAT guard) and thats what we work from as best as we can.

God knows we wish we could contract it out but due to the awkwardness of the job I dont think any companies want it, except for ones who wont do it properly (we trialed a few).

So yeah I was thinking the barcode system would be the way to go, Am I right in thinking the barcode labels we use allready would be compatible with the barcode scanned for the seawoods? I assume they are all the same?

And to the guys who have used these systems before, How does the process work exactly?
Ive always done it olde school with pen, paper and stickers but I must admit trying to write out a label when doing the splits accross a conveyor is not easy!!

 

[Guest125]

Sub it out 50p an item if you have more than 1000 items,and no liability and you can make it look good on a risk assessment that your using specialist contractor.Who will use muppets but the HSE love paper work.

If you sub it out you are still responsible for the job.

 

[Silly Sausage]

If you sub it out you are still responsible for the job.

Do you follow the 4th edition CoP for ISI&TEE, or do the usual annual test, or test on demand?

 

[Guest125]

Do you follow the 4th edition CoP for ISI&TEE, or do the usual annual test, or test on demand?

I am not even going to pretend that I have opened the book mate. We do the test annually as requested by NR.

 

[ruston]

Blimey lots to reply t0


And to the guys who have used these systems before, How does the process work exactly?
Ive always done it olde school with pen, paper and stickers but I must admit trying to write out a label when doing the splits accross a conveyor is not easy!!

You won't need the pen and paper lol.

As the assets are already stored in your pat tester it should just be a case of plug and play. When you scan an asset the details will appear on your machine with the options for your test. If your test is a pass just print the label off there and then; you won't want failed items labeled I assume, so fix and print.

When you add a new asset scan it and add the details to your tester, they will be there till you delete them, you can bring stored asset details up at any time by just scanning the item.

The printers can be clipped to your belt for those awkward places too.

As you already have Patguard I assume you are familiar with the record keeping facilities, but incase you don't know it has a test due warning facility that can be emailed to yourself or your customer. It can also print out all the asset records and test results that may be required.

You can download all the instruction manuals and loads of other information from Seaward, or phone them , they are very helpful.

 

[Tiny Spark]

Thanks Ruston,

Just out of interest do you know if the scanner will read any barcode or will it only read the seaward label barcodes?

 

[ruston]

It will read it and let you assign it to a new asset. It will not have the previous details unless they are stored in your tester. if you have the previous details you can enter them into your tester but I am not sure if they will auto load to Patguard, you may be able to store them as a new client.
It will read all the barcodes and results if they are in your tester.


If I can find the disc I will have a read up tonight. I am a bit rusty as I have not used it for awhile.

 

[Tiny Spark]

Cheers.

 

[Tiny Spark]

Ive got seaward coming in to give us a demo
Must say very helpful customer support/sales!

 

[ruston]

Yes, they are tremendously helpful.