Custom app for recording noise and vibration exposure
An employee's daily exposure is determined by two things: the level of what they operate and how long they operate it. The first is in a measurement report. The second is recorded nowhere, because the roster says who was present, not who stood next to the saw for how long.
Where the dose actually arises
Above a daily exposure of 80 dB(A), hearing protection must be available; above 85 dB(A), wearing it is mandatory; and the limit value of 87 dB(A) applies at the ear, so with protection taken into account. For hand-arm vibration, the action value and limit value are 2.5 and 5.0 m/s²; for whole-body vibration, 0.5 and 1.15 m/s².
All four of these values are doses over an eight-hour working day. This means the answer to whether someone exceeded them is not found in a measurement but in a sum of time. And that time is not recorded anywhere, in most companies, at the level where it matters.
In practice this disappears into the average. A department gets one figure, and the employee who spends the whole day on the loudest machine vanishes into that same figure alongside colleagues who rotate. When a hearing damage claim arises, that average is no evidence.
There are also moments that a daily dose does not capture. A peak is not an average: peak action values are 135 and 137 dB(C), and a single bang can cause damage even if the rest of the day was quiet. Anyone who wants to record that must do so at the moment it happens.
How we build this
The core is the task on the shop floor. Who performed which activity and for how long, with the machine involved, is the input the whole calculation rests on.
A code on the machine starts the task with the corresponding level, without anyone having to search through a list.
Time keeps running until the task is closed or handed over. That is more accurate than filling in an estimate afterwards.
A peak, a faulty damper or missing hearing protection is reported at the moment itself, with a photo attached.
The tasks feed into the exposure record, where the daily dose per person is built up and checked.
What the app does in practice
Recording task and duration is the foundation. What else you need depends on how varied the work is and whether you use temporary agency staff.
Starting a task with a scan
A code on the machine or workstation opens the correct task. Anyone who has to search does not record.
Duration without estimation
Time runs alongside the work rather than being filled in afterwards, because an estimate made later will always come out too low.
Capturing a spot measurement
A reading taken with a handheld meter is saved together with the conditions, because without those a value cannot be weighed.
Reporting a peak
A bang or a crash disappears into a daily dose. The app records it separately, with time and location.
Works without signal
Production halls, basements and outdoor sites rarely have coverage. The app works offline and syncs as soon as a connection is available.
Checking protection
Whether the prescribed hearing protection was present and working belongs with the exposure record, not in a separate notebook.
Who we build for
Who carries out the recording varies from company to company. Four situations.
Operators
They know exactly how long people stood somewhere, but only at that moment. A day later, it's an estimate.
Foremen
They allocate the work, which in practice determines who ends up with which dose.
Occupational health coordinators
They need data per person, but usually receive an average per department.
Agency workers and shifting crews
Anyone who shadows the team for a week doesn't fit any fixed assumption. That's exactly where the record breaks down.
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Machines get replaced, tasks shift and standards are revised. Tasks, levels and units of measurement should be configurable and not hard-coded into the app.
Why Appfront
Time is half the standard
A level without a duration is not a dose. We build duration first, because that is exactly what is never recorded.
Filling it in afterwards understates the exposure
Nobody overestimates how long they stood by a noisy machine. That's why we track time alongside the work itself.
A peak belongs on its own
What disappears into an average also disappears from the record. Peaks get their own track with us.
We don't take your measurements
Measuring and assessing remains the job of your occupational hygienist. We make sure the data underneath is correct.
Security and privacy
Exposure data can be traced back to individual employees, and a record of who stood where and for how long is also a record of where someone was. That calls for restraint. We set access by role, show a foreman their own crew rather than the rest of the company, and log every access. Anything stored locally on the device is encrypted and can be wiped remotely if a device is lost.
For this subject, the reliability of the moment is what matters. A task duration that was shortened afterwards, once the dose turned out higher than expected, is no longer a record. We store tasks in an unalterable way with time, location and person, even when synchronisation happens later, and any correction appears as a visible amendment alongside the original entry. How we handle security ourselves is set out in our information security policy.
Frequently asked questions about exposure recording on the shop floor
Because a rota tells you who was there, not who stood at which machine for how long. The daily dose depends on the latter, and that only arises on the shop floor.
No. The phone's microphone is not a measuring instrument. The app records which task took how long, and stores measurements from your own meters, along with the conditions at the time.
For noise, 80 and 85 dB(A) as action values and 87 dB(A) as the limit value at the ear. For hand-arm vibration, 2.5 and 5.0 m/s²; for whole-body vibration, 0.5 and 1.15 m/s².
Yes. Production halls and outdoor sites rarely have coverage. The app works offline and syncs as soon as the connection returns, keeping the original timestamp.
In the exposure record, where the daily dose per person is built up and assessed. We describe that record on our page about software for noise and vibration exposure.
That's exactly the point. Scanning instead of searching, and few fields, so anyone can understand it in five minutes. See our approach to building an app.
Do you know how long your people stood by the loudest machine?
Take one shift and one week, and try to work out for each person how many hours they spent on which machine. If that turns out not to be measurable, your daily dose is an assumption. We build this as a standalone app or as part of a broader custom app development project.