Volume 3. No 2
Information Technology News of the University of California, Davis Winter 1995
Information Technology News of the University of California, Davis Winter 1995
Two years ago the staff at UC Davis Environmental Health and Safety looked around and realized something was gaining on them. State and federal regulations governing the way hazardous materials were handled and stored were becoming more complex, requiring more and more information to be collected and reported. New regulations incrased the university's of accountability in the creation and handling of hazardous materials. Increased enrollments meant more courses were being offered, many of which would generate hazardous substances. And budget cuts were squeezing staff resources.
Charged with responsibility for developing and carrying out health, safety, and environmental protection programs on campus, the task of EH&S was already formidable. By 1991 the volume of hazardous materials stored in various buildings on campus amounted to 81,000 gallons of hazardous liquids, 31,000 pounds of hazardous solids, 4,600 compressed gas cylinders, and 15,200 millicuries of radioactivity. More than 7,500 hazardous chemicals were in use on campus, not counting new chemicals produced as a result of research activities. Laboratory space was projected to increase by 69% by the year 2005, bringing with it the promise of ever-more hazardous waste.
In short, just as its staff was shrinking because of budget reductions, EH&S saw that its responsibilities were burgeoning.
"We knew we had to change," says EH&S Acting Assistant Director and Information Manager Evelyn Profita.
The answer was reengineering -- meaning a top-to-bottom restructuring of tasks to incorporate computer technology wherever feasible. Now, two yars into the process, Profita says the results are impressive.
"We've been able to maximize personnel resources by eliminating redundancy in tasks, and the campus as a whole has benefited because we're able to respond to requests in a more comprehensive and organized way," she says.
How did they do it? The first step was a systematic look at how they were already spending their resources--and the results surprised them. They expected the analysis to show that most of their efforts were being devoted to environmental monitoring, and in fact, the survey put that share of the workload at 28%. But the study also revealed that a fully equal amount of time and effort fell into the category of information management--sending and receiving information--with a much lesser share, 10%, allocated to managing hazardous materials.
With that information in hand, EH&S began looking at how processes could be combined or reengineered to electronic format. The idea was not to merely impost echnology on existing tasks, but to make structural changes in the way tasks were accomplished.
With the guidance of Joan Gargano, Director of Distributed Computing Analysis and Support, and other Information Technology staff, EH&S bought the necessary hardware and software to set up a Local Area Network. The LAN allows staff to share files, software programs, and printing from a central computer, as well as to use e-mail to communicate with one another and with the campus at large.
Through the Campuswide Information System (CWIS), EH&S also began making resource materials available online. Now any campus computer user can obtain environmental health and safety class schedules, safety handouts, product recall notices, workplace health and safety postings, material safety data, and other information simply by accessing the CWIS.
They also purchased a SUN server, which will enable them to convert the task of hazardous materials monitoring and tracking from a manual, face-to- face operation to an electronic process. They hired a programmer, Catherine King, who has been working since late January to develop a program that will allow departments to report directly to EH&S through an electronic network. EH&S will no longer have to send staff to laboratories to gather information or require departments to send reports on paper.
Next King will develop similar automated programs to help EH&S and other campus departments comply with regulatory requirements in such areas as injury-illness prevention, the handling of blood-borne pathogens, and laboratory safety standards.
In the meantime, EH&S has also begun automating its internal office practices. With the PROCITE software program, they were able to revamp internal filing processes and create a tracking system, eliminating the need for the same document to be filed in more than one place.
As a result, says Profita, information is shared in a much more systematic way. The automated filing system, "allows us to give a more coherent response," says Profita.
With the re-engineering well in hand, Profita has a request from the campus at large. "We'd like to know from our customers what automation projects might make our service better for them."
Profita can be reached at Environmental Health and Safety, 752-0368.
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