Despite this, personnel were accounted for using pegboards, magnetic buttons, and visual confirmation. Trying to accurately account for employees, visitors, and contractors as they moved from one area to another within the large facilities became more and more difficult as the company grew. “Given our growth, it was an impossible system to sustain”, says David Sherrard, Safety Manager at American Packaging Corporation.

Search:

As part of an administrative office expansion, American Packaging Corporation started to look for a comprehensive solution that incorporated staff, visitors, and contractors. The solution should also be intuitive and user-friendly.

As the Safety Manager at APC’s Rotogravure Printing and Lamination Division, David Sherrard was assigned the task of finding an evacuation/status solution. Another company division referred him to Savance. He explains: “After demonstrating the software, Savance instilled a confidence that programming could be done in a timely manner to meet our unique needs.”

Solution:

After carefully considering the needs of American Packaging Corporation, Savance put together a hardware and software package that included its Emergency Mustering, Visitor Management and integrated Access Control, provided in collaboration with Savance partners in the security field.

APC now secures exterior doors with outside and inside proximity readers paired with door contacts and buzzers. This enables the company to control physical access, and to account for people as they walk in or out of the building. The door contacts also detect if someone has opened the door from the inside without signing out of the system.

As far as Visitor Management goes, a 15″ touch screen kiosk with a camera and a label printer welcomes visitors. Visitors enter their name, and select their host from a customized list. They also get their picture taken, watch a safety video if necessary, and print a personalized name tag. Once a visitor has been signed in, their host gets alerted via e-mail, text, and/or a popup on their PC.

At the back entrance, contractors use a similar kiosk, customized to allow for a slightly different sign in process. Here, a proximity card can be assigned to the contractor, immediately granting access to certain areas for a given period of time. In a shared area, APC uses a large status board display of employees, their statuses, and other details. Finally, APC implemented Savance Emergency Mustering software, installed on touch screen tablets at multiple muster points, allowing for easy and effective emergency roll-call in the case of an emergency.

Implementation:

American Packaging Corporation initially picked Savance for its existing software solutions, but requested some additional programming and unique equipment solutions in order to fully meet their needs. Throughout the process, Savance was very accessible, as well as very flexible in determining solutions, Sherrard points out. Implementing the system came with its own set of challenges, which Savance met by tweaking its solutions to fit both APC’s visions and its needs. “Over and above the logistics challenges of construction, interim evacuation safety and accountability, we had many programming challenges that were not anticipated”, Sherrard says. “Savance was accessible and helpful in solving these problems”.

Results & Benefits:

Having a complete security and tracking system in place has helped APC’s bottom line of operations, Sherrard says. Personnel are easily tracked, and less time is spent locating staff, or trying to determine who is in and who is out. From a safety perspective, the peace of mind of both managers and employees has increased, knowing that everyone can be quickly accounted for in an emergency situation.

“In addition to savings in staff accountability, the process of accounting for visitors and contractors has also become more accurate and efficient”, Sherrard continues. “Safety, efficiency and financial sense drive most good business solutions. This solution meets all these criteria”.