Playbook support

In R9.0 we already introduced Playbook support for Root Cause Analysis management. In this release, we are extending this to Work Permit Management. Since Work Permit Management is a complicated process with often a lot of different people involved, the Playbook is ideal for supporting this. 

Completely build using the Process Automation Designer, the process steps can be easily updated to match the preferences of your organization. The current configuration consists of a Plan, Assessment (more on this below), Approval, Preparation, Work in progress and Closing phase.

Try it out by going to the list view, clicking 'New Task', then 'Permit Request', filling in the mandatory fields and clicking 'Save'. The rest of the steps can now be completed under the Playbook tab.

Preventive countermeasures based on assessment questions

A large part of preparing and completing the work focussed around a Work Permit is preparing and preventive countermeasures to mitigate risks. With the move to Playbooks, it is now possible to load your own Assessment with safety-related questions. Based on the answers to these questions, risk mitigation will automatically be generated. 

There are two different Risk Mitigations: preventive countermeasures (completed before the work starts) and last minute (completed during the Last Minute Risk Assessment (LRMA)) during the daily sign-off. For more details on how to configure these, check out the implementation documentation.

Next Experience UI

Next Experience is the new UI from ServiceNow that makes navigating the desktop application easier. You will notice differences in both the front-end and the back-end. One important change is that the Operator Experience will now be the default starting point for every user. If you want to access back-end functionalities, you can click the 'All' button in the top left of the screen.

For more information about Next Experience UI and how you can activate it, please visit the ServiceNow website.

Knowledge article previewer (Contextual sidebar)

Having the right knowledge available at the right time is one of the strengths of 4Industry. We already had the ability to find any type of knowledge item in the contextual sidebar by clicking the book icon. We now also added the ability to preview all knowledge articles directly from the contextual sidebar. This way, you have all relevant information all in one overview.

Additional task data panel (Contextual sidebar)

The mobile application already longer had a contextual sidebar (by clicking on the ( i ) information icon in the top right corner of a task), but now we also introduced this functionality on the desktop. For those that are new to the contextual sidebar: this pane shows all kinds of additional information about a task, such as the detailed description, the related process and relevant safety measures. In future releases, this panel will be expanded with more relevant information for the current task.

Back-end drive list layout

In previous versions of 4Industry, it has already been possible to configure which information was visible for every task type. In R10.0 we're taking this a step further by introducing the list layout that is completely configurable from the back-end. Where you first were able to set which values you wanted to show in which fields, you can now completely configure the look and feel of every task card. This includes conditional colouring, different designs for tablet and mobile as well as choosing between showing icons, images or progress bars.

Configuration is done by entering a JSON in the back end. For an example of how to set this up, take a look at our implementation documentation.

Delta Sync

Since the majority of the 4Industry mobile application works offline, it is important that all types of master data such as equipment, work areas and task templates are available offline. Keeping this information in sync with your instance was before being done during the 'full sync' and could (depending on the size) take a long time.

Delta Sync allows you to monitor certain master data in the system and notify the mobile application when new changes can be downloaded by showing the 'Sync available' banner on the homepage. When tapped, it will only sync those records that have been changed since the last sync, drastically decreasing the amount of syncing time that is needed.

For information on how to set up the Delta Sync, please take a look at our implementation documentation.

Ability to keep inactive records on mobile

To make sure that the syncs of the mobile application were as quick as possible, any tasks that were Inactive were not synced to the device. We do understand that in certain scenarios it is relevant to keep Inactive records on the device for a certain period of time, such as when completing a set of tasks linked to a Group Task or an Assessment related to a Permit. To support this, we’ve introduced the Mobile Sync field for every task table.

Based on the state of this field (true or false) the mobile application determines whether to keep the file locally available. In the current setup, two scenarios are supported:

• When a record becomes inactive, it will not be synced to mobile, unless:

  • The parent active is still active, in which case the record will remain on the device as long as the parent is still active.

Of course, this can be extended with any other use case. We do advise keeping the number of tasks that will be synchronised to a minimum to improve the user experience.

Two-way sync for partially completed assessments

Assessments are an important flow of every shop floor. It has already been possible to collaborate with your colleagues on one assessment, while you were working on the same device. In R10.0 we are expanding this functionality to also support collaborating between mobile devices, as well as between a mobile device and the desktop version of 4Industry.

In order to make your results available to your colleagues, you need to make sure that you are in the same work area, or that you assign (eg hand-over) the Assessment to your colleague at the end of your shift.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save for later’ button when you are on mobile, so all changes are saved to the database.

Form Actions

Within 4Industry, we strive to get you as much in a 'flow' as possible. One way of doing this is by reducing the number of clicks you have to do to perform a certain action. With Form Actions, this became a bit easier again. We have three different Form Actions that you configure:

1. Form Actions that change the state of the current task on your mobile device. For example, setting a task to Resolved.

2. Form Actions that do something on the server. Think for example requesting Maintenance with just a single click or sending out a notification to all workers in the current shift. (Online only)

3. Form Actions that open a new window with external information such as a Shift Handover Dashboard that is configured on your instance.

As always, for more information about how to configure, check out the implementation website.

Ability to change Pincode

In the previous release, we’ve added multiple security features such as required to enter your Pincode or login again after a certain period. In this release, we are adding the ability to change your Pincode. This can easily be done by going to the settings menu and clicking ‘change your Pincode’.