Ideagen Plant Assessor and Gamuda

Working on large-scale infrastructure projects, engineering company, Gamuda, required a solution to more efficiently manage the safety and compliance of a large range of machinery. The company selected Ideagen Plant Assessor for its comprehensive, machine specific and industry leading machinery risk assessments.

About Gamuda and the Sydney Metro West - Western Tunnelling Package

Gamuda is a global infrastructure and engineering company, mostly focused on road, rail and property projects. Its Australian division is based out of both Sydney and Melbourne, and some of its current projects include the Coffs Harbour Bypass and the M1 extension at Raymond Terrace.

The Gamuda and Laing O’Rourke consortium (GLC) jointly secured the Sydney Metro West - Western Tunnelling Package (SMW-WTP) in Sydney, NSW, which was awarded in early 2022. It will see the construction of a 9 kilometre, underground rail tunnel between Sydney Olympic Park and Westmead upon its completion.

A wide variety of machinery types are being utilised across the SMW-WTP project including excavators, dump trucks, rollers and tunnel boring machines, just to name a few. Some of these machines are assets owned by Gamuda, while others are brought on site by subcontractors.

Challenges

A project the size of the SMW-WTP sees dozens of machines on multiple project worksites at any one time. One of the main challenges faced by GLC is ensuring all machinery on site is safe and compliant, regardless of whether they are owned or hired.

“If we were to manage plant equipment on any major project, and we're not using Plant Assessor, you'd probably see piles and piles of documents in an office or typically in folders”, says Ben Kirkbride, Head of Health and Safety at Gamuda.

However, Mr Kirkbride says the piles of paper documents further compound their existing challenges with monitoring the compliance statuses of all machines in an extensive fleet.

“What happens when you have paperwork in folders? Things go missing, it's hard to track. You can't find things easily and it makes it a real difficult process to be able to manage manually” he says.

“Visibility of compliance becomes quite difficult because you're looking for paperwork somewhere in a folder”, Mr Kirkbride says.

Why Plant Assessor?

Gamuda discovered Ideagen Plant Assessor, attracted by its comprehensive, industry leading machinery risk assessments. However, the main drawcard for the team was the extensive database of 120,000 makes and models of machines from which risk assessments can be conducted. 

“One of the things we certainly look for in understanding what software we're going to use is one that basically built our risk profile and that's where we felt Plant Assessor was most strong in”, says Mr Kirkbride.

Given the size of the project and the sheer number of machines required to achieve completion, an easy to use platform was also high on the list of requirements for Gamuda’s compliance solution.

GLC’s HSE Coordinator, Jasmin Singh says Ideagen Plant Assessor simplifies her job.

“If I need to see when it was onboarded, what it has and doesn't have, or if there's any faults on it, it's as easy as going on the website and just looking up the registration number or the plant ID number, rather than me having to leave my desk and then walking down and having a look at it”, she says.

Not only does the GLC team find Ideagen Plant Assessor easy to use, some of the project’s subcontractors have also discovered the platform’s benefits. 

“Plant Assessor is super easy to use for onboarding. It's a quick and easy upload and we can literally share directly to the principal contractor”, says Karen O’Connor, Operations Lead at Kono Services.

Ms O’Connor has also enjoyed having the support of the Ideagen Plant Assessor team in quickly getting her machines on site at the SMW-WTP.

“If there's any bit of an issue, there's always someone on the other line to quickly help you to sort out the problem”, she says.

Results

GLC has benefitted from more streamlined safety and compliance processes for onboarding subcontractor and owned machinery to the SMW-WTP’s project site.

Ms Singh says she and her team have peace of mind knowing that once a machine has passed the standardised site acceptance checks, it is safe and compliant with the latest letter of legislation.

"Plant Assessor makes sure that any equipment that we get to site is fit for purpose and meets all those safety requirements even before we use them on site."

- Jasmin Singh, HSE Coordinator, GLC

Gamuda’s operations on the SMW-WTP were also subject to a Federal Safety Commissioner audit. The use of Ideagen Plant Assessor enabled workers to prove the project’s machinery compliance with ease and ensured Gamuda could continue to tender for large government funded projects.