Improved SHEQ Incident Reporting at Tronox

With nearly 7,000 employees on six continents, Tronox is a leading titanium dioxide producer with a broad global footprint and rich diversity.

Tronox mines a range of materials to manufacture products that add brightness, whiteness and durability to paints, plastics, paper and other everyday products.

Working with raw materials can be a dangerous environment if not properly monitored and managed. Therefore, as part of the firm’s uncompromising focus on safety, reliability and responsibility, Tronox sought out a modern Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality (SHEQ) software system.

The primary reason Tronox selected Pro-Sapien was the value the software offered, in two respects: capital investment and time investment.

Secondly, given the corporation had invested in Office 365 the year prior, it made sense to choose a software solution that could leverage it for SHEQ—therefore, Pro-Sapien’s unparalleled integration with SharePoint Online was another key driver in Tronox’s decision.

Specifically, this case study will look at the Tronox site in Hamilton, Mississippi. It was the first Tronox facility to adopt Pro-Sapien for Incident Reporting.

Aims

Tronox and Pro-Sapien identified the primary aims of the project which focused on timesaving.

Furthermore, as Hamilton would be the pilot site, Tronox required the SHEQ software to be flexible to incorporate new users and features over time.

The aims of the new SHEQ software project, which encompasses Incident Management (Incident Reporting) and Monthly Returns, included:

Quick determination of open incidents and status in process
Eliminate manual collation of data for reporting purposes
Ensure all incident reports are approved by an appropriate person
Send automatic notifications required by Tronox management structure
Ensure actions are completed and verified with a full audit trail
Reduce hold-ups/bottlenecks in the process where possible

The Pro-Sapien development team continuously consulted with Tronox to make sure all software functions were fit-for-purpose and relevant to the project’s aims.

"We had, and continue to have, a really good relationship with the Tronox team throughout planning and implementation. The key stakeholders started with an excellent understanding of what the company needed in the software, which enabled us to not only deliver a fit-for-purpose solution but enrich the Pro-Sapien system with their constructive feedback on product features."
– Dieter Visser, Senior Developer, Pro-Sapien Software

Results

The Pro-Sapien roll out went smoothly. Because they were familiar with SharePoint, Tronox users quickly became comfortable with the new system.

Since then, the Hamilton facility has experienced a number of positive results. For example, the site has improved incident processing speed with the help of Pro-Sapien’s automated notifications and workflows.

Tronox also has a broader view of data. Information collected at each stage of a form workflow is viewable (security-trimmed) throughout the follow-up process, ensuring data integrity.

Furthermore, better transparency in the event follow-up process has helped facilitate the timely closure of incident reports.

The software’s automation and business intelligence capabilities are estimated to be saving the Hamilton facility an average of five hours per month on data consolidation—time better spent on SHEQ training, planning and strategy.

"We use Pro-Sapien solutions to report a wide variety of SHEQ events. Use of this system has allowed us to react to solve a variety of problems more quickly, and it has introduced a level of transparency we did not have before. The Pro-Sapien support team are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful which means we not only have a functioning system, but a valuable partner to ensure our continued success."
– Bill Caldwell, Senior Safety Specialist, Tronox

Overall, Tronox has improved its ability to address SHEQ-related issues, helping the company become safer, more reliable, and an even better place to work.

Tronox