Permit to Work (PTW) is one of the highest-risk processes in any industrial operation. And for many organizations, it’s still managed across disconnected paper forms, spreadsheets, and email trails instead of a single, unified platform. That disconnect creates inefficiencies, but also risks safety blind spots, slows down approvals, and makes audits far harder than they need to be.
In our recent webinar, Kasey Zientek, CSP, HSE Product Analyst at MCG Energy, walked through the real-world challenges of manual PTW processes, how digital tools reduce/eliminate them, and a tangible framework you can use to quantify the cost of manual permitting for your own stakeholders. You can watch the full 20-minute session below, or keep reading for a deeper look at what’s covered.
The Hidden Challenges of Manual PTW Processes
Anyone who has managed permits on paper knows the pain points, even if they’ve never put a name to them. Kasey walked through a real, redacted safe work permit pulled from an archive to illustrate the issues that show up again and again across industries:
- Incomplete entries. Required fields get skipped, whether from time pressure, oversight, or a rushed handoff between shifts.
- Vague or illegible information. A two- or three-word job scope, or handwriting that’s difficult to read, leaves gaps in understanding the true scope of work. That’s a real problem when a contractor needs to review and sign off before arriving on site.
- Delayed time on tools. Every minute spent filling out paperwork is a minute not spent on the actual work that needs to get done. In HSE-heavy environments like safe work permits, JHAs, and LOTO documentation, this adds up fast.
- Inconsistent terminology. One person logs equipment as “Breaker-12345”; the next abbreviates it “BRK-12345.” When that information lives in spreadsheets or SharePoint, inconsistent naming makes records difficult to search and easy to miss.
- Inability to manage validity dates. Most PTW processes involve permits valid for a shift, a day, or up to two weeks. Tracking those windows manually, and knowing when a permit has expired, is difficult to do reliably at scale.
- Non-searchable formats. A stack of paper permits in a binder or filing cabinet can only be searched by physically flipping through it.
The downstream result of these issues, according to Kasey, tends to show up in two consistent ways: poor communication across teams and shifts, and poor PTW visibility for leadership. Managers are often left unable to see what permits are active, where, and under what conditions, without manually compiling that information themselves.
How Digital PTW Tools Solve These Problems
The core value of a digital PTW platform, as Kasey puts it, comes down to one thing: reducing, or even eliminating, the potential for human error, while giving your team more control. A few of the foundational capabilities covered in the webinar:
- Validity dates. Start and end dates (and times) are managed electronically, with controls in the background to ensure procedures around expiration are actually followed.
- Required steps. The system won’t let a user submit an incomplete permit. Required fields have to be filled in before an entry can be created, eliminating the incomplete-permit problem at the source.
- Full edit and log history. Every version of a permit is timestamped, with changes tracked user by user. For management and auditors, this gives complete visibility into who changed what and when, something that’s nearly impossible to reconstruct from a paper trail.
- Automated process workflows. If a permit is for confined space entry rather than hot work, the system can skip irrelevant questions entirely, saving time and reducing clutter for the end user.
Specialized Controls for High-Volume Operations
For organizations running hundreds of permits a day – think large construction sites, LNG plants, or refineries – the needs go beyond the basics. Kasey highlighted a few more advanced tools built for exactly this kind of scale:
- Role-based authorization control. One client Kasey works with manages more than 50 distinct roles in their system: electrical authorities, senior electrical isolators, mechanical authorities, radiation safety officers, and more. Digital systems make it possible to manage those permissions, competencies, and training requirements across geographies without the process becoming unmanageable.
- SIMOPS risk assessment tools. Simultaneous Operations (SIMOPS) create real hazards when unrelated tasks overlap, for example, hot work happening near painting or coating operations. Digital PTW systems can flag these combinations automatically and surface a risk rating, helping management catch dangerous overlaps before they become incidents.
- Permit revalidation and relinquishment. For high-volume, multi-day permits, this allows a permit holder and approval authority to revalidate an existing permit each day (rather than recreating it from scratch) and formally relinquish it at the end of a shift. It streamlines a process that would otherwise require a full rewrite every single day.
What Does Manual PTW Management Actually Cost You?
Perhaps the most practical part of the webinar was a real cost comparison Versify built with a high-volume customer, quantifying exactly how much time a digital PTW process saves versus paper, based on an estimate of 1,000 permits per year at a single site:
| Task | Paper (Minutes) | Digital (Minutes) | Permits/Year | Annual Time Saved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creating a Work Permit | 40 | 30 | 500 | 83 hrs |
| Duplicating a Work Permit | 40 | 10 | 500 | 250 hrs |
| Revalidation / Relinquishment | 20 | 2 | 750 | 225 hrs |
Total: roughly 558 additional hours on tools, per site, per year (about 13 to 14 weeks of productive time returned to the workforce).
As Kasey noted during the session, these exact numbers won’t be identical for every organization, but the framework is designed to be adapted. Swap in your own time estimates for creating, duplicating, and revalidating permits, and you have a tangible, dollars-and-hours case to share with your own stakeholders.
Ready to Talk Through Your Permit to Work Process?
If you’d like to know more about our digital PTW platform, we’d love to schedule a 15-30 minute intro call to learn about your business needs and/or challenges.
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About the speaker:
Kasey has over 12 years of experience working directly in HSE roles, most recently holding the title of Head of HSE for an Oil & Gas Company in Houston, TX. He holds credentials as a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), as well as Certified Lead Auditor for ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management Systems) and ISO 45001:2018 (Safety Management Systems).
Marketing Coordinator at MCG Energy Solutions