[White Paper] Why Inspect?

Executive Summary

This whitepaper will provide a high level overview of the main reasons why building inspections are completed including compliance, preventative maintenance and insurance coverage; the different methods for completing inspections manually or through the use of technology; the benefits that come from completing inspections; and insight into future technologies that will impact inspections. 

Key questions addressed:

• What are the reasons for completing building inspections?
• What are the different methods for completing inspections?
• What benefits are gained from completing inspections?
• What are the trends and future technologies that will impact building inspections? 

Who should read this?

• Facility/Property Managers
• Building Operations Managers
• Security Managers
• Health and Safety departments and committee members 

Why inspect?

Inspections are completed for a variety of reasons including:

• Compliance
• Preventative Maintenance
• Insurance Coverage

Compliance

Inspections are performed because their completion is mandated under certain legislation, codes and bylaws. For example, the Ontario Fire Code mandates that equipment fire extinguishers must be inspected every 30 days. Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act states that inspections of electrical rooms, first aid kits, eyewash stations etc., must be conducted regularly to prevent the development of unsafe working conditions. Legislation also identifies the types of deficiencies and conditions to look for during these inspections as well as how quickly these deficiencies need to be resolved.

So what if you’re not compliant, what’s the worst that can happen?

• Unsafe working conditions
• Worker injury or death
• Property damage
• Tarnished reputation

All of these have a costly price tag associated with it. On top of this there’s also non-compliance orders and fines by AHJs.

Non-compliance Orders

Non-compliance orders are costly because they essentially stop work. This causes disruptions to scheduling, wasted labour costs, and additional costs to rectify the conditions of the order.

Fines

When an incident occurs and the outcome of the investigation determines that a company was not compliant with the mandated laws and regulations, they can be found liable and fined.

Lack of machine guarding is a common incident where companies are found liable because it usually results in someone losing their limbs which is easily preventable.

Preventative maintenance

Preventative maintenance is a proactive work schedule program whereby equipment is regularly inspected for deficiencies as well as wear and tear to prevent equipment failure and injury. Preventative maintenance programs include routine inspection and equipment servicing much like you would do with your own vehicle. It also involves keeping records of these inspections and servicing, as well as planned replacement of parts and identification of hazards. Preventative maintenance provides several benefits such as:

• Reduces worker injury
• Avoidance of work delays and lost time due to equipment failure
• Improves equipment performance, reliability, and efficiency
• Reduces costs associated with equipment rental or unplanned replacement of equipment

Insurance Coverage

Let’s say an incident occurs at your workplace, a flood for example, that resulted from a leaking fire hose cabinet and caused thousands of dollars worth of damage. Questions the insurance company is going to ask you are: “Was this deficiency known?”, “How often was this fire hose cabinet inspected?”, “When was the last time this fire hose cabinet was inspected and by who?”, “Where are your inspection records?”.

If you are unable to answer these questions or provide evidence that you took reasonable measures to prevent such an incident, the insurance company may leave you with the bill or at least a portion of it.

Inspections are an important way to show your due diligence and ensure that you are covered by insurance in the event of an incident.

Now we know why people perform inspections, let’s talk about how they inspect.

How to inspect

There are different ways of satisfying inspection requirements and they have evolved over time. Inspection methods may leverage:

• Pen and Paper
• Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID)
• Barcodes
• Near-Field Communication (NFC)
• Beacons and sensors

The most basic form of inspection uses pen and paper. Personnel go to each location with their paper form or check list and mark down that they have inspected the equipment and note any deficiencies. A manager collects all records of the inspection to review and verify that all areas have been inspected and notify the appropriate personnel of any deficiencies found through email or a work order system. This method of inspection can leave room for human error and the post-inspection work is time consuming.

Over time, technology has evolved to help automate the inspection process.

In the 1990s, a cylinder-shaped tool that uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology became available and gained popularity. Personnel would insert the cylinder into a puck affixed at each location on the inspection route to document that they visited the location. At the end of the inspection, the location results would be downloaded and available for viewing. Deficiencies identified would still need to be documented, reviewed and sent out manually.

More recently, technology has advanced to enabling mobile devices to act as scanners to scan a QR code, barcode or tag with NFC (near-field communication) that has been affixed to the equipment or location being inspected.

Each of these types of tags would have a unique identifier and specific information about the equipment / location stored and available upon scanning / tapping.

Barcodes are more cost effective but NFC tags provide proof of presence.

Additionally, these methods would be accompanied by a digital inspection tool that streamlines the inspection and reporting process, while providing a slew of other benefits over pen & paper inspections.

Lastly, beacons and sensors could be used to support inspections. These devices collect and exchange data using sensors, essentially making them into “live objects”, allowing for continuous and real-time monitoring of assets.

Beacons and sensors are expensive and are good at reporting physical conditions such as temperature, pressure, humidity, leak detection but they currently fall short on reporting housekeeping issues, obstructions, precise location, and most importantly, who performed the inspection.

While there are several methods available for performing inspections, each comes with its own advantages and limitations. Let’s learn more below.

What you get out of inspections

When everything is running smoothly, it's easy to question whether routine inspections are worth the time and effort. After all, most inspections don't uncover major issues. But that's exactly the point. Regular inspections help keep small problems from becoming major failures, making them one of the most effective tools for maintaining safe, reliable, and efficient operations.

Some of the key benefits of routine inspections include:

• Documented due diligence
• Compliance with legislation, codes
• A safer workplace: less injuries and fatalities
• Less accidents = better insurance premiums
• Reduced loss time or work delays due to injury or equipment failure
• Asset protection, efficiency, and longevity
• Peace of mind that everything is functioning correctly
• Improved employee morale because issues are being identified and addressed
• Tenant satisfaction and reduction of complaints
• Positive brand image

The type of inspection method used also provides a unique set of benefits. For example, newer solutions that leverage technology provide additional benefits such as:

• On-the-spot guidance for inspectors through customized check lists and map locations, enabling thorough inspections
• Reminders for remaining or missed inspections
• Automatic inspection workflow and routing of deficiency notifications
• Accurate and organized inspection records that are code-compliant, in standardized formats, and meet record retention policies
• Property dashboard for performance at a glance, and deeper dives
• Environmentally friendly solutions with less paper consumption and savings on ink, paper, and storage space

Routine inspections are more than just a regulatory requirement. They are a proactive investment in the safety, reliability, and long-term success of your organization. By identifying potential issues before they become serious problems, inspections help reduce risk, minimize costly repairs and downtime, support compliance, and protect valuable assets. Whether the goal is to meet legal obligations or improve operational efficiency, the benefits of routine inspections far outweigh the time required to complete them. Consistently performing inspections helps create a safer workplace, extends the life of equipment, and contributes to a stronger, more resilient organization.

So it’s settled; inspections are important but amidst all this technology, what does the future have in store for inspections?

The future of inspections

Inspections have changed over time, and they continue to change with advances in technology. Here’s a simple introduction to some of the most important emerging technologies in the industry.

• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Analytics and Big Data
• Drones
• Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Machine Learning

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT is a giant network of physical devices (things) that are connected to the internet. These devices collect and exchange data using sensors, essentially making them into “live objects”, allowing for continuous and real-time monitoring of assets. Typically, physical conditions such as location, temperature, pressure, humidity, leaks, etc. are measured.

Analytics and Big Data

Studies show that companies that are data-driven perform better financially and operationally. When you are able to measure, you are empowered to know more about your business and make informed, rational decisions that lead to better performance.

There are two main types of analytics for inspections: portfolio and predictive.

• Portfolio analytics track equipment, location and value of the asset.
• Predictive analytics help forecast the future needs of a building’s equipment.

What’s the difference between analytics and big data? Big data is similar to analytics but there’s much more of it. Big data is voluminous, comes from diverse sources, and requires large amounts of storage, memory, processing, and bandwidth, etc. The challenge with big data is the industry doesn’t know what to do with all that information yet or how to turn it into useful insights.

Drones

Drones may be referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), or advanced air mobility (AAM). They are small aircrafts that operate without a human pilot on board. They are controlled remotely by an operator or autonomously using sensors and pre-programmed flight paths.

There’s been some interesting use cases already with Amazon testing drones for package delivery; Domino’s delivering a pizza via drone, not-for-profit organizations using drones to deliver survival supplies and medicine in hazardous areas, and regional police forces using drones as first responders to gain critical information about a scene before officers arrive.

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

There’s virtual reality and augmented reality – most people think they are the same thing but they're not.

Virtual reality creates a fully immersive, virtual world that users can interact with through the use of equipment such as goggles or helmets / VR headsets. It’s an immersive world that cannot interact with the users’ surroundings. This type of technology has been popular with gaming and training.

Augmented reality, or mixed reality, blends real life and virtual reality in that it overlays digital information onto the real world, usually through phones, tablets, or specialized glasses. Users are able to interact with virtual components and physical real-world components at the same time.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI uses large amounts of data and algorithms for computers to analyze data, identify trends, provide recommendations, and make decisions…tasks that are typically performed by humans or require human intelligence.

Machine Learning

Machine learning is a sub-set of artificial intelligence that improves as it receives more data - especially clean, validated data. Machine learning enables computers to learn patterns from large datasets and make predictions or decisions without being specifically programmed for that particular task.

Conclusion

Inspections are essential to maintaining safety, compliance, and long-term asset performance. By understanding why inspections are necessary, applying consistent and effective inspection methods, and documenting findings accurately, organizations can identify issues early and make informed decisions before deficiencies become costly or hazardous.

Looking ahead, emerging technologies have the potential to further improve inspection accuracy, efficiency, and predictive capabilities. The future of inspections will likely combine experienced human judgment with increasingly capable digital tools, creating a more proactive approach to asset management, risk reduction, and operational performance. Although adoption is expected to move at a slow and cautious pace.

About Tap Report

Tap Report is a Canadian software company that provides a digital solution for managing workplace inspections, safety compliance, and operational reporting. It replaces manual processes, such as paper checklists and spreadsheets, with a mobile and web-based system that allows teams to complete inspections, capture data, and generate compliant reports.

Through an easy-to-use interface and automated workflows, Tap Report helps ensure that inspections are completed, deficiencies are categorized and tracked, and issues are escalated efficiently to the right people. It also offers analytics, customizable reporting, and integrations that helps organizations improve safety, compliance, and operational performance.

For more information, visit www.tapreport.io or contact us at customerservice@tapreport.io.