In your manufacturing facility, you likely have areas—such as receiving, production, and shipping—that are off-limits for certain personnel and visitors. Depending on what you produce, you may also have clean rooms, climate-controlled areas, or storage for hazardous materials.
What’s more, many manufacturing facilities contain industrial equipment that could be dangerous to those who don’t know how to operate it. This might include forklifts, balers, cranes, or others, in addition to the production line machinery. Harsh chemicals need to be stored properly away from those who aren’t authorized to use them. And if you produce pharmaceuticals or electronics, you must keep those environments sterile.
You are likely to receive visitors, many of whom are not allowed in certain restricted areas for various reasons. If a person who is not an employee enters your facility, you’ll need to know where they are at all times to ensure safety, security, and compliance. A visitor check-in system specifically for manufacturing facilities can help you keep track of everyone and everything.
Manufacturing Visitor Check-In
When you hire an employee, you likely train them on safety first. This usually includes information about handling hazardous materials or chemicals safely, operating machinery proficiently, and/or keeping sensitive or proprietary information private.
When a one-time or infrequent visitor checks in, though, you likely won’t have the opportunity to train them as thoroughly on various safety and security procedures. These visitors may include:
- Vendors
- Auditors and Inspectors
- Truck Drivers
- New or Temporary Employees
- Customers
You may already have some systems in place to help you manage visitor safety, but are those systems robust enough?
How a Visitor Management System Can Help
A visitor management system (VMS) like The Receptionist for iPad or Receptful is the key to successfully routing visitors through your facility. A VMS has many features designed to help you keep your facility safe and secure, no matter who is there. Here are a few that can also ensure compliance.
Safety Training Ensure all visitors know the proper safety protocols and security procedures. When visitors check in, you can have them watch required safety training videos and answer questions about previous experience or existing certifications. Customizable conditional logic will help determine who is eligible for entry and who should be restricted.
Agreements To protect proprietary information, or to collect data in the event of an audit, you can have visitors sign documents agreeing to specific requirements about privacy or safety.
Digital Visit Log With paper logbooks, organizing visitor data for future reference is nearly impossible. But with a cloud-based visitor log, you can review data from any date and/or time to help maintain compliance.
Customizations You may have different locations with differing entry requirements. You can customize a visitor management system to ask your visitors the most important questions that will keep them safe—and keep you covered.
Badges A VMS can easily connect to a badge printer, which will help identify visitors with their names and photos and indicate which areas they can access.
Two-way Notifications If you’re expecting a visitor but running a bit behind, send them a brief message through the system when they check in. You’ll receive a notification about their arrival and can then let them know you’re on your way.
Broadcast Notifications In the event of an emergency or urgent situation, send an alert to every person currently checked in, rather than wasting precious time messaging people individually.
Your responsibility is keeping your facility running smoothly, which becomes difficult, if not impossible when you don’t have a clear view of where all of your visitors are. Avoid potential issues like security breaches and safety infractions that can harm your business.
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