Lifting equipment inspection app
Lifting and hoisting equipment must be inspected periodically, and every item carries its own certificate. The problem is rarely the inspection itself but the overview: which item is where, when was it last inspected, and has the rejected one really been taken out of circulation. Appfront builds the app that tracks this per item, with a scan on the item itself as the way in.
What the inspection obligation requires of you
The Dutch Working Conditions Decree (Arbobesluit) requires employers to have work equipment that is subject to wear inspected periodically by a qualified person, and for lifting and hoisting equipment that requirement has been tightened. In practice this means at least annually, and more often with intensive use or harsh conditions. It covers cranes, lifting slings, chain sets, shackles, lifting tools, rigging equipment and the associated attachment points.
What sets lifting and hoisting equipment apart from other tools is that every single item has its own paperwork. A lifting sling arrives with a certificate stating the working load limit and manufacturing details, and that certificate belongs to that one item. If the link between the physical item and its paperwork is lost, the item can no longer formally be used, even if there is nothing wrong with it.
That is where the real problem lies. Equipment moves between projects, travels in vans, gets lent out and sometimes never comes back. A rejected item left lying in the container is simply used again the following week. A spreadsheet list does not follow that movement, because it is updated in the office while the equipment moves around the site. That is why we tie the registration to the item and not to the list.
Amusement rides and playground equipment fall under a different regime, with a certificate per ride and an inspection interval that depends on the type of equipment. See the page on software for the inspection file per amusement ride.
How we build your inspection app
We start with the question of how an item moves through your organisation. If the app does not follow that movement, it becomes a second set of records alongside reality.
Which types of equipment do you have, how many, and how do they move: fixed installation, tool van, project container or hire to third parties. For each type we determine the inspection frequency and who carries it out, internally or externally.
A label has to survive a workshop and the weather. Together we choose the identification: engraved codes, RFID tags or coded labels, depending on the item. A lifting sling calls for something different from a crane hook, and a wrong choice here makes everything else unusable.
We work in sprints and begin with scanning and recording inspections. Your inspector and the people on the shop floor get involved; only when someone scans an item wearing wet gloves do you know whether the design works.
Labelling an existing stock is the most work and we do it in one focused round, not piecemeal along the way. After that comes a handover with agreements on who inspects, who rejects and what happens to a rejected item.
What the app actually does
Six components that make the difference between a list and a system you can rely on at the gate.
Scan on the item as the way in
Every item carries a code. Scanning shows the status, the last inspection, the working load limit and the certificate. Anyone about to use something sees within two seconds whether that is allowed, instead of having to look it up or take a gamble.
Certificate linked to the individual item
The certificate is attached to that one item and not to the batch it arrived in. In an inspection or an incident, the provenance can therefore be demonstrated down to the individual item, including working load limit and manufacturing details.
Inspection interval per item
The frequency follows from the type of equipment and the conditions of use, so it can differ from item to item. The system plans ahead, groups what is at the same location and flags items well before anything expires.
Rejecting means taking out of service
A rejected item does not just get a status; it disappears from issue: scanning it triggers a block, with the reason shown. That rules out the scenario where a rejected sling is back on the hook the following week.
What is where
For each location, van or container, you see which items belong there and which are missing. At project start and handover it becomes a count instead of a search, and losses show up while they can still be traced.
Issue and hire to third parties
If you hire out equipment or hand it to subcontractors, the app records who received what and when, and when it came back. On return, the condition check is a step in the same app rather than a separate list.
Who we build for
Four situations where this pays for itself. The difference lies mainly in how much equipment you have and how far it travels from the office.
Construction, infrastructure and installation
Equipment moves between projects and vans, and the client checks it at the gate. Often combined with a work order app that the same people already use.
Industry and maintenance
Fixed installations such as overhead cranes alongside loose lifting equipment, with an in-house technical department. If this connects to your maintenance planning, inspection and maintenance happen in a single round.
Hire and logistics
Your equipment leaves the building and comes back in varying condition. Here the issue and return check matters more than the inspection itself, because that is where the damage arises that you later have to recover.
Healthcare and institutions
Patient lifts and hoisting aids fall under the same inspection obligation, with the difference that the user is not a technician. The app then mainly needs to make clear whether something may be used, and ask as little as possible beyond that.
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What we use follows from your equipment and your conditions. For work on location, offline use weighs the most: an app that does nothing in a basement or a steel warehouse does not get used, and then the records stop being accurate.
If you want to keep track of the inspections of your own construction machinery, take a look at our software for construction machinery inspection certificates.
If you work with fall protection and want to keep track of each item along with its inspection, take a look at our inspection register for fall protection equipment.
For the certificates and inspections of an inland vessel, planned before they expire, there is our app for certificate monitoring of inland vessels.
Why Appfront
The scan is the shortest route
As long as looking something up is faster than scanning, nobody will scan. Our benchmark is that a status check takes less time than picking up the item; if the design does not achieve that, it is not finished.
Rejection has to block something
A status that leads to nothing is just a note. We build rejection as something that stops issue, because that is the only thing that prevents the scenario this obligation exists for.
Alongside what already runs
Your project administration and your maintenance system stay in place. We build the equipment layer on top so that inspection and maintenance do not become two separate systems.
We tell you what the app does not solve
The inspection remains the work of an expert, and that responsibility does not shift to software. We make sure his judgement is recorded and has consequences; the judgement itself remains his.
Security and privacy
The register holds little personal data, but it does record which employee was issued which item and who carried out an inspection. That is traceable to a person and touches on their professional competence. We use that link for its intended purpose, which is demonstrating that a competent person did the work, and not as a basis for per-employee performance figures.
After an incident, this register becomes evidence, and then reliability is what counts. That is why we log every change to a completed inspection and show it as an amendment rather than as the original. Photos taken on rejection are timestamped and cannot be replaced afterwards. If you hire out equipment to third parties, they get their own restricted role so they only see their own issues. How we handle security ourselves is set out in our information security policy; external reports go through our coordinated vulnerability disclosure (CVD) policy.
If you have the inspection carried out by a certified company, the SCIOS scopes apply, each with its own report format; see scope 8 for electrical installations and scope 10 for fire risk.
Frequently asked questions about inspecting lifting equipment
The Working Conditions Decree (Arbobesluit) requires periodic inspection by a competent person. For lifting equipment, in practice that means at least annually, and more often in cases of intensive use, harsh conditions or after a special event such as overloading. The frequency therefore depends on the equipment and how it is used, which is exactly why we make it configurable per item instead of applying one interval to everything.
The inspection app is generic: you design the checklists yourself and use it for a wide range of inspections. This application is tailored to lifting equipment, where each item carries its own certificate with a working load limit and where a rejection means the item must be taken out of circulation. If you also carry out other inspections, we often build a single app with both flows in it.
A competent person. What competent means depends on the equipment: some installations need a certified inspector, while for simpler rigging equipment a demonstrably trained in-house employee may suffice. We record that authorisation in the app so that only those designated can sign off, but judging who counts as competent remains up to you and your occupational health and safety adviser.
It has to be taken out of use, and that is the core of this software. A status alone is not enough, because the container it sits in knows nothing about it. We therefore build rejection as a block on issuing: scanning shows a warning with the reason, and the item stays blocked until it has been repaired and re-inspected or disposed of. We record disposal too, because otherwise it stays in the count.
That differs per item, and it is a choice we make together. Engraved codes last longest but cannot be applied everywhere. Coded labels made of durable material work well on cranes and fixed installations. RFID is convenient because it works without line of sight, but not on metal without a spacer. For lifting slings, a sewn-in label is often the only durable option.
Usually in part. Certificates arrive as PDFs, and most of the data in them can be extracted by scanning, but someone has to make the link to the physical item once. Labelling your existing stock is the biggest piece of work in the rollout, and we plan it as a dedicated round rather than doing it bit by bit. In practice, bit by bit is never finished.
Yes, and for this kind of work it is a requirement. Building sites, machine halls and steel sheds have poor coverage, and that is exactly where the equipment is. The app stores data locally and syncs as soon as there is a connection. An important detail we design explicitly: what happens when two people have inspected the same item offline.
That depends on the number of items, whether rental or issuing to third parties is involved, and which integrations you want. The scanning and inspection side is usually usable quickly; labelling an existing inventory takes the most lead time, and that is your own work, not ours. We give a well-founded estimate after the discovery phase.
Building an inspection app for lifting equipment?
Tell us how many items are involved and how they move through your organisation, and we'll help you think through identification, inspection intervals and the block on rejection. We build this as a standalone app and as part of a broader project for custom software or an app.