New startup tackles permit system
Frustration at waiting for approval to get started on dangerous work has inspired a new approach that could cut permit wait times to a matter of minutes.
The winning team of this year’s Startup Weekend Taranaki seek to continue the development of Easy Permit - an app aimed at streamlining the Permit to Work System (PTWS) used in the engineering and industrial sectors.
PTWSs are used to control certain types of hazardous work, giving permission for authorised and competent workers to carry out a potentially dangerous job.
Team member Tara McKerrow said the idea was born out of frustration with the current on-site paper-based process that could take up to an hour and a half to complete. The app could reduce that to just 20 minutes, she said.
‘‘You can arrive on the job with pre-populated permits and tweak it however needed and send it for sign-off from both the permit issuer and the manager.’’
The Ha¯wera woman and her husband Daniel attended the third annual Startup Weekend Taranaki event with no intention of leaving with a business plan.
The 54-hour event, held at Manifold co-working space in New Plymouth at the weekend, invited people of varying backgrounds to build a new venture from the ground up as a way to network and learn new skills. McKerrow, who works as a process manager for Fonterra, explained her husband wanted to attend the event to get new ideas to grow his business, Dmack Engineering.
The couple and their two teammates took out the top spot and, combined with ‘‘a lot of really great feedback’’, decided to pursue the winning concept.
‘‘It really cemented our idea we actually got something,’’ McKerrow said.
The current PTWS procedure asks workers to visit a permit station where they hand write a form.
"Right now the team need to take baby steps. There is plenty of opportunity here in Taranaki but the potential for it is huge."
David MacLeod
Once complete, the worker must wait for both a permit issuer and a manager to review the form and sign it off.
McKerrow said the new app would have personalised profiles with pre-loaded permits with managers and permit issuers able to electronically sign forms.
‘‘We still have a lot of work to do for development.’’
Taranaki Regional Council chairman David MacLeod, who served on the panel of judges at the weekend, said he has seen firsthand the inefficiencies of the PTWS set-up through his own business, Greaves Electrical.
He said the time consumption could cost site owners and contractors a huge amount of money.
‘‘When I heard their idea I thought, ‘Why haven’t we had this yet?’.’’
MacLeod, who is also a director at Port Taranaki and Fonterra and sits on the board of Parininihi ki Waitotara, said he could see enormous potential in the permit app idea. ‘‘If they can get this to a commercial outcome, it could really go worldwide,’’ he said.
‘‘But right now the team need to take baby steps. There is plenty of opportunity here in Taranaki but the potential for it is huge.’’