Leveraging Inspection Forms for Job Hazard Analysis (JHA)
John Todd, Sr. Business Consultant/Product Researcher, Total Resource Management (TRM)
Posted 3/27/2025
Performing the daily and job specific hazard analysis (JHA) with your crew has been a long-standing element of your safety culture. Everyone carries around the booklet, forms, and perhaps a logbook to fill in and keep as a record in some fashion. As a reference, here is the link to the OSHA definition and approach to Job Hazard Analysis.
The trouble is, as always, how do these paper records make their way to an official archive location for future reference? While the policy and procedure to protect these records may be well described and followed, there is always the possibility that the form blows away in the wind and is lost forever.
Going Electronic
Let’s look at the Inspection Form feature/function that has been a part of IBM Maximo (and now MAS Manage) for some time. The idea of this feature is to be able to construct forms that users in the field can access and fill in from a browser or application on any mobile device. The forms are pre-built with all the questions and types of responses that are needed. The forms can be associated with Asset and/or Location records, Job Plan tasks, Route stops, or even used for ad-hoc or unscheduled “inspections.”
If you are in a Maximo/Manage instance, the creation of the forms is under the Planning module, and the conduct of the “inspection” is under Work Orders. Creating the actual forms is done via a traditional browser-based application, while the use of the form(s) can be either through a browser or mobile application.
Building the Job Hazard Analysis Form
Using the Manage Inspection Forms application, you can create, activate, and revise the forms as needed. Since we are focused on replicating a JHA, you would create questions to cover the elements you wish for a typical analysis. You can simply ask a question and have an open field for users to type their answers in, and/or you can have them pick responses such as yes/no, or from lists of choices. Text entries such as comments, work order numbers, etc. are all possibilities.
Further, you can have the users upload pictures to the form, and even have them sign the form with an actual wet signature. You can have multiple “types” of JHA forms for specific purposes if needed.
Once you are satisfied with the form, you make it Active and now it is available for all to use. Remember, this is a template that can/will be used by many users over time. When they fill in the form, they fill in a replicate of the template that is captured in the database for future reference. More on that in a moment.
As a side note, forms can be constructed with built-in logic to present follow-on questions/responses depending on how the user answers something. Also, when the user gets to the end of the form, they can be presented with more options (perhaps to generate a service request) depending upon how they answered a question as well. This logic/follow-on actions can be rather sophisticated.
Using the “JHA” Form
Since our goal is to have the form/template available to anyone starting work, there are several elements in Maximo/Manage that we can associate with the form for ease of location. Of course, at any time a user can create a “new or ad-hoc” inspection and associate it to an Asset or Location, no matter if they are working on a specific work order or task or not.
In the end, all completed (and pending or in progress) forms are visualized via the Work Details tables on Asset or Location records. Over time, all the JHAs for those records will appear in this section, making a look back into history far easier for supervisors and other reviewers.
The use case looks like this:
The team is gathered around a specific work order (on a tablet) that lists the tasks, skills, materials, etc. that are needed to complete the job. A “blank” JHA form is available either on the work order, the task(s), the Route stops, or is simply associated with the Asset or Location. The form is opened, and the questions/responses are typed in. Team members’ names are entered/selected in the form. Someone optionally signs the form and then the form is marked “complete.” You now have an official electronic record that the JHA for the job was performed.
No matter which direction the form comes from, it will appear on either Asset or Location records under the Work Details section/tables as discussed previously. Anyone with access can view the pending, in progress, and completed JHA forms in one place.
Auditability
Recall in the beginning of this article two points: the first being that inspection forms/templates have revisions; and the second is that the results of a filled-in form are stored in the database. Using revision control built into the function, you can be sure that users will always be presented with the most current revision of the Job Hazard Analysis form. Further, since the forms are stored on the Asset or Location records, no matter the work order being executed, the record is kept in a place that is easy to access.
As the completed inspection forms are kept in the Work Details section, they are right next to the list of work orders and other tactical records for quick cross-reference. The user completing the form, as well as the timestamp of completion, is automatically captured.
Custom BIRT reports (or even application views) can be constructed to show the JHA results more conveniently if needed.
Wrap up – Job Hazard Analysis
This was a very quick coverage of the use of the inherent inspection form feature of Maximo/Manage, but our hope is that you see the utility. If you want to see this in action or need help putting the pieces together, TRM has been working with clients and inspection forms for many years.
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