Ryan Ellis is a Walkway Auditor Certificate Holder (WACH) from the National Floor Safety Intitute (NFSI), and has been certified since 2017. Through his training and experience, Ryan owns and uses a tribometer which is an industry standard instrument used for measuring floor friction and sliding.

The NFSI is the gold standard in training, research, and reporting for floor safety and is fully recognized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). For more information about the NFSI, visit their site at www.nfsi.org.

Highlights of the audit:

1. Custom end to end turnkey solution.
2. Routine inspection providing evidence of compliance and high risk areas that require immediate repair.
3. Field data audits through deployment of highly trained experienced auditors.
4. Overall Project Management utilizing the right technology including scheduling and routing; GPS accuracy and fault measurement.
5. Documentation and record keeping: all daily audits are fully documented with notes; observations and accurate pinpoint location of the GPS coordinates of the locations in question. Data collected is uploaded daily and quickly dispatched to Public Works where work order flow and scheduling is generated.
6. Data collection forms are customized to meet the requirements of the client. The process covers a) business rules; b) scope of defects; c) what data gets collected.
7. Data management: the processing of the data has all information collected with a GPS coordinate and street reference. All information is transferred automatically and available on a website immediately. The image shows the date, time, and the measurement taken.
8. Data collected gets processed in an automated manner, real time transfer of information along with images. Accessibility becomes burden free and easy and simple to access.
9. Data Access:
   1. Web Portal to access condition data; available to Public Works; Risk Management; other authorised stakeholders.
   2. GIS/Map Centric
   3. Dynamic data gets uploaded as its collected.
   4. Historical tracking
   5. Exportable data formats
   6. Customizable data layers
   7. User Access levels

Data Analysis:

1. filtered condition list for operations crew; includes trip locations
2. overall “block by block” condition analysis for long term capital planning.
3. Network level analysis; historical performance; is the network improving.
4. Are claims being reduced.

Service Requests:

1. Tracking and reporting of corrective actions to be completed.
2. Automatic routing of requests to appropriate location and person; department; maintenance district; crew.
3. Operational Analytics: are the people/crews correcting the identified issues in accordance to the standards set.
4. dynamic data
5. Service Requests (SR) are automatically opened and assigned for every issue requiring immediate attention (ie. trip hazards).
6. SR’s contain all detail gathered during the audit, including images.
7. History of every issue is easily tracked up to and beyond corrective action.
8. images can be easily added to an SR showing the issue before and after the corrective action is taken.
9. Production rates for repairs are easily tracked and compared against the level of service objectives.

Benefits of the NWSA audit:

1. Reduced injury claims and payouts by demonstrating how a proactive approach is taken using third party auditors fully trained in walkway safety and auditing.
2. Effective litigation defense. Voluntary compliance will reduce claims of negligence and will serve in building an evidentiary trail of due diligence.
3. Insurance premiums could be reduced as underwriters may soon require walkway audits and use the data for basing future premiums.
4. If left unchecked, this can overpower the Municipality’s ability to effectively manage its bottom line. However, if properly identified and addressed, slipandfall claims can be managed and can even become a profit center. This concept is easy to implement , but is often difficult to convince management that they need to do so.