Modern manufacturers face many challenges driven by ever-evolving rules and regulations and the constant pressure to keep up with technological expectations.
Regulations such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) all demand strict compliance, which includes meticulous record-keeping to ensure preparedness for potential audits.
Then there’s the task of securing your facility against bad actors and keeping everyone inside safe from injury. Without proper safety training, people could get hurt, creating a liability for you and putting both the facility and business at risk.
Manual processes can be a time thief, creating workflow bottlenecks and decreasing productivity. Printing and filing forms and agreements for safekeeping diverts time away from other important tasks and duties.
Finally, it’s crucial to know where all of your facility’s visitors are located in the building at all times. For example, you can’t have a UPS delivery person wandering into a restricted area where their safety or sensitive products and machinery could be at risk.
A visitor management system (VMS) can ease the burden of these issues.
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The Challenges of Running a Successful Enterprise Manufacturing Operation
Let’s examine some of the significant challenges facing today’s manufacturers.
Regulations and Compliance
These regulations – meant to maintain quality, safety, and security in manufacturing facilities and the goods they produce – can add time-consuming work despite their obvious importance.
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS)
PCI-DSS (or simply, PCI) is a set of security standards designed to ensure that ALL companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. While not required by law, PCI compliance is within the contract terms of a merchant or payment service provider and the card networks. The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council is an independent body of card networks that manages PCI security standards while the enforcement of these standards falls to the card networks and payment processors. There are 12 PCI compliance requirements, including restricted physical access to cardholder data and the development of security systems and processes. A manufacturing visitor management system directly contributes to adherence of these guidelines. Learn more about PCI-DSS on the PCI Security Standards Council website.
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)
- Ask visitors to confirm citizenship status and provide a photo of their approved government I.D. upon check-in
- Alert relevant personnel if visitor is not a U.S. person
- Mark badges with citizenship status for clear and immediate identification of visitors inside the facility
- Screen visitors against terror and watch lists
- Store records of all of your visitors in a secure log for as long as needed — and set a custom incineration schedule
Export Administration Regulation (EAR)
- Ask visitors to confirm citizenship status and provide a photo of their approved government I.D. upon check-in
- Alert relevant personnel if visitor is not a U.S. person
- Mark badges with citizenship status for clear and immediate identification of visitors inside the facility
- Collect signatures on relevant NDAs and legal documents
- Store records of all of your visitors in a secure log for as long as needed — and set a custom incineration schedule
Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
- Show key safety and health training videos during the check-in process and require signatures to confirm they’ve been watched
- Track real-time visitor movement into and out of production areas and keep a secure record of who has accessed those spaces
- Ask visitors to confirm health status each time they check into your facility and sign symptom or exposure declarations
Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)
- Restrict access to any food production areas and track both visitor and employee entry and exit times
- Require signatures on waivers and legal documents preventing visitors from bringing in potential contaminants
- Store visitor vehicle registration information and parking locations in your visit log to ensure all vehicles are approved
Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT)
- Track visitor traffic across all of your facilities
- Screen visitors against key terror and watch lists
- Store a personalized screening list of individuals you don’t want in your business, including ex-employees
However, there are tools and processes that can make compliance easier to manage.
Safety and Security
Not every manufacturing facility has a security guard or even someone at the front desk. If your entrances are unstaffed and unlocked, you risk inviting problems into your facility.
Bad Actors
Individuals with malicious intentions to damage operations or steal intelluctual property may try to enter your facility. How are you deterring them?
Following Security Protocols
Certain visitors are only allowed in specific areas to protect sensitive documents, materials, or processes. How do you know these areas are secure?
Bodily Safety
Everyone who enters certain areas must have the proper safety training, especially when large machinery and/or chemicals are present. How do you ensure they receive this training?
Visitor Tracking
Whether your facility is a metaphorical revolving door of visitors or you only receive a few visitors a week, people come through your building for a variety of reasons, and all of them require some level of oversight to ensure their safety and security.
Visitor Types
- Employees
- Truck Drivers
- Raw Materials Delivery Personnel
- Customers
- Shareholders
- Contractors and Repair Technicians
- Maintenance Technicians
- Auditors and Inspectors
- Tour Groups/VIPs
- Everyday Visitors: last-mile delivery drivers, job applicants, food delivery drivers
Setting Your Facility Up for Compliance Success
Lay the necessary groundwork to ensure the following issues don’t happen to you.
Problems with Manual Processes
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- Loss – Paper logbooks and files can easily be misplaced or thrown away prematurely.
- Theft – Bad actors with nefarious motives could steal the logbook.
- Destruction – If a natural disaster were to occur (and they do), the logbook could become too wet, too ripped up, or too non-existent to read.
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Where’s the Visitor?
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- Safety – Those without proper safety training could be injured if they get too close to dangerous equipment or chemicals.
- Security – You may want to keep certain visitors out of highly secure areas to protect your sensitive business information.
- Theft – If your facility produces high-value goods, there could be bad actors interested in finding out where they are stored.
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When Things Go Wrong
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- Proof of Compliance – When audits or inspections happen, you must be able to show that you have adhered to the relevant rules and regulations.
- Accidents – In case of injury, you will need proof that everyone in your facility received the proper safety training to avoid further issues and potential litigation.
- Security Breaches – If someone who isn’t supposed to be there does successfully enter the premises, or if someone wanders into a restricted area, you’ll want to understand how it happened so you can prevent breaches moving forward
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Leveraging Receptful to Cover Your Actions
The Receptful visitor management system was built from the ground up to serve the complex needs of large-scale manufacturers regarding the acceptance, processing, and tracking of visitors while assisting operational leaders adhere to strict compliance requirements.
Features
Digital Visit Log
Authorized users can access a cloud-based visit log to see where and when visitors were in your facility at any given time, documenting movements from any specified date or time.
Badges
Print badges with relevant visit details within seconds, or integrate RFID/BLE badges (through partner organizations) to track real-time visitor movements throughout the building.
Agreements
Have your visitors sign important digital agreements, such as NDAs, before entering certain areas of the facility itself. This will allow you to keep a record of their signatures.
Safety Training
Configure your check-in process to ensure visitors view safety videos before entering high-risk areas.
Customizable Configurations
Ensure different visitor types go through different check-in processes dependent on their reason for visiting and their level of security.
Information Collection
Capture important information from visitors to keep records of materials delivered, safety procedures implemented, time in and time out, permit and bill of lading details, and other CYA details.
Broadcast Notifications
Communicate with every checked-in visitor simultaneously and immediately in case of an emergency or time-sensitive issue.
ID Capture
Keep a record of vendor, driver, or contractor identification.
Request a Demo
Let our team guide you through some of the most popular features and functionality