Introduction to Object Roster Protocol

SafetyStratus EHS & Operations Management Software: Object Roster Protocol (ORP)

What is EHS Management Software?

SafetyStratus is an EHS application. It is a compound product that consists of multiple modules working cohesively to assist in managing environmental, health, safety, quality, and sustainability operations across workforces and locations. With the help of SafetyStratus, you can track chemical inventories, safety inspections, hazard assessments, assets, injuries, permits, and other internal business workflows. Our approach to Business Process and Risk Management is built on top of our Object Roster Protocol (ORP).

Using this simple concept, SafetyStratus can connect and associate users to locations, assets, and many other objects in the system. Before we take a closer look at how ORP works, we will go over “Locations,” “Organizations,” “Users,” and “Assets,” four primitives that are core building blocks to the SafetyStratus approach.

1. Locations:

Locations or Spaces are central to a risk management system. These can be rooms, labs, or areas within a university or a manufacturing company. For standard implementations, locations are organized into a three-tiered hierarchy. The following examples show how this hierarchy might apply within an industry:

• In a university, a room would be listed within a building that is part of a campus.

• In a manufacturing company with worldwide facilities, a work area would be listed within a facility at a particular location.

• In a nationwide construction company, a project would be listed within a city in a specific state.

2. Organizations:

In addition to physical locations and spaces, the Organization will reflect an institution or business’ organizational chart, which is critical to organizing users, spaces, and any additional objects within a risk management system. For standard implementations, the organizational chart is arranged into two tiers, the organization and the departments within that organization. Two examples of this approach are a college with departments in higher education and a department with its associated cost centers.

3. Users:

Users are the people at every level of an organization–team members, department heads, factory managers, and principal investigators. Within the SafetyStratus platform, a user is given one of four system roles that will determine their access: Administrator, Inspector, Area Manager, or General User. In a standard implementation, Administrators make program decisions and drive change within the platform. They have access to all areas of their site. Inspectors perform inspections, conduct follow-ups, and have the potential to access multiple departments, organizations, or objects within the platform to do their job. Area managers are users whose work necessitates visibility into a particular location, department, or other objects. The Area Manager role is assigned to individuals who have responsibilities similar to a department chair or cost center supervisor.

4. Assets:

Assets are equipment, machinery, or any physical object in an organization that needs to be tracked, updated, and inspected. Commonly tracked assets include chemical fume hoods, fire extinguishers, eyewash stations, showers, forklifts, and AEDs. Assets are associated with the organization, locations, and users.

Object Roster Protocol (ORP)

Now that we have a basic understanding of these building blocks, let’s dive into ORP. We connect and associate Users with Locations, Assets, and other Users by employing Object Roster Protocol (ORP). For example, an Object– Room “123” has Users “Alice,” “Bob,” and “Charlie” on the Roster, meaning these three individuals are associated with “R123.” Taking it a step further, we can assign “Roster Roles” for Room “123,” giving Alice the role of “Safety Coordinator,” Bob the role of “Fire Safety Associate,” and Charlie the role of “Chemical Safety Manager.” “Alice,” “Bob,” and “Charlie” are now associated with Room “123" and their Roster Roles could determine what actions they may take in any business process involving Room “123.”Using Rosters and Roster Roles, any person within the organization can be associated with an object- users, location, or assets. This opens the door for roster-role-based permissions, automations, notifications, complex workflows, and configurable risk management systems. Let’s look into a few examples of roster roles and this modality’s applications in various industries, starting with Academia and moving to R&D organizations. Higher Education : Principal Investigator runs a research lab that encompasses 3 rooms. Within those rooms, there are 2 assets to track, a fume hood and an eyewash station. The people working within the rooms include the PI, a lab manager, students, and a chemical safety manager. When performing operations for the PI (such as hazard assessments, inspections, or inventory,) all of the previously-configured pieces (assets, rooms, users) may now be associated with that PI. This creates an easy-to-follow overview of risks and responsibilities. Such information may then be opened up to department chairs for a clear picture of the overall progress of the department.

Manufacturing : Similarly, when looking at an area, line of business, or asset within a manufacturing facility, Users can be associated with these previously configured objects. Users can be added to areas or asset rosters, enabling end-to-end visibility to the individuals responsible for following up on safe and unsafe observations. This information can then be escalated to supervisors (those with an area manager role) as needed. Let’s recap. The SafetyStratus Object Roster Protocol is a critical component of getting sites up and running. The ORP impacts every module of the SafetyStratus platform, and the associations it creates help make reporting more streamlined and effortless.