„The alarm has gone off. People ran out. I had a paper in my hand with a list that didn't correspond to reality..."
So begins the story of the production manager from a company in the Liberec region, who experienced an unpleasant moment during a mock evacuation and understood that when a crisis situation occurs, danger will not wait for you. And also that with a paper in your hand you are not really able to react in time. And a spreadsheet you have somewhere in Excel certainly doesn't help.
„Someone was missing and someone was extra. And someone else may have even gone back into the building. But who? I have no idea."
Now imagine the crisis situation in live traffic. There's a fire in the plant. People are evacuating and gathering at the marshalling yard, while the evacuation manager checks off your paper list.
Firefighters are waiting to see if everyone is out of the building and can go inside. But he doesn't have an answer. Or 100% isn't sure.
When you get everything right... but it still doesn't work
In most companies, it looks good on paper. They have access cards, attendance and fire guidelines. But when a fire starts, the only important question is:
„Who else is inside the building? And who is already outside?"
And it is at this point that AHA moments most often occur and you find that:
Meanwhile, in companies with Aktion installed, they follow this scenario:
The difference between life and death is often measured in minutes. With Aktion, you save exactly those minutes.
Three situations that really happened - and could have happened to you
1. Alarm and confusion - the paper list does not correspond to reality
Brno production company, Thursday 14:30
The evacuation manager pulls out a paper list, which he quickly got kicked out of the attendance office, but the reality doesn't add up. People are marked in it as present at the workplace, even though they've been out for a long time. So he manually crosses them off the list. Others are missing from the list altogether.
Meanwhile, someone, without the manager noticing, he goes back into the building to get his forgotten car keys.
„My heart was pounding. Everyone outside was looking at me and I didn't know if there was anyone left in the building."
2. Someone stayed inside - but who?
Logistics centre in Ostrava, Monday morning
Fire sirens sounded throughout the company. People have been taught and so they take only the bare essentials and leave the building quickly and orderly.
No one from the company noticed that one employee was left in the locker room with headphones on. It was only after 20 minutes that someone discovered that „Honza from the third shift was missing“. Fortunately, it was just a drill.
„Honza was sitting in the office finishing up reports. He was listening to music and didn't hear the fire alarm. Good thing it was just a practice evacuation!"
3. Unconnected repositories and papers have a life of their own
Office building in Olomouc, Tuesday afternoon
The building has three evacuation assembly points. Each one is led by a different manager. Everyone was given the same copy of the paper list of people present, printed shortly before the evacuation.
But people got separated during the evacuation in a completely different way than they anticipated. Some headed to the wrong assembly area, others ran over to find their colleagues.
And so each leader began to edit his paper in his own way - crossing out somewhere, adding somewhere, adding question marks somewhere. The result? Three different versions of the same list, each with different information. The power went out. The access system went down, and the entire internal network with it. Managers were left to their own papers, which in the meantime contradicted each other.
It took almost an hour, before they put together who's outside and who might be inside the building.
Other situations you might not have thought of
Aktion immediately displays the number of people present during evacuation
The Aktion attendance system can reliably resolve all these situations for you. When you sound the fire alarm in your company, the administrator can check on the mobile phone how many people are currently in the meeting room and who is still in the building.
And the evacuation manager is calm because:
Aktion readers work even without power thanks to the backup power supply. Data is safe - the server can be located outside the building.
Experience in practice:KAMAX
One company that has changed its approach to crisis situations from the ground up is KAMAX - a leading manufacturer of high-strength fasteners for the automotive industry. with a branch in the Czech Republic.
„Before, we didn't know who all was in the building. Visitors, contractors, outside workers - it was chaos,"
Today, KAMAX has a perfect overview. Each visitor registers at the reception desk using a kiosk. The system knows who she's seeing and when she left. In the event of an evacuation the list of all persons present can be called up in seconds.
„Relax. That's the main thing the system gave us. We know we have the situation under control."
