Environment / Quality / Safety / Technology Enabled Business Solutions
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This is the fifth article in Kestrel’s Drones 101 series.
As we’ve discussed in our Drones 101 series, both large and small companies can establish safe and reliable drone programs; however, lack of planning will (at best) add up to a short-lived drone program or (at worst) cause your company undue risk or injury.
In short, buying and operating UAS equipment without a plan in place can lead to:
- Sunk costs
- Delayed success
- Safety incidents
- Service delays
- Employee injury
- Loss of financial backing legal and regulatory issues
On the flip side, when implemented appropriately, using drones often results in a solution that is:
- Faster – Significantly reduce manhours to complete work (e.g., inspections, audits, monitoring) without requiring plant shutdown.
- Safer — Eliminate the need for humans to complete high-risk activities (e.g., climbing towers, entering confined spaces, inspecting disaster zones).
- More accurate — Gather comprehensive and reliable data with less room for human error and less variability.
Top Tips
Here are Kestrel’s top six tips for managing a successful drone program:
- Establish a plan and budget to accurately track and communicate costs and determine your return on investment.
- Establish standard processes, procedures, and communication protocols to ensure end users, company, and management teams understand expectations and obligations.
- Engage a cross-functional team, which may include program management, field operations, engineering and maintenance, human resources, legal, information technology, etc. to effectively manage all aspects of your UAS program.
- Create a UAS program operations manual that lays out expectations and company-approved applications of UAS technology.
- Set metrics and evaluation methods for the UAS program overall and its impacts on the core business. This will help show the value of your UAS program.
- Follow the classic management system plan-do-check-act cycle to drive continual improvement in not only the drone program, but in the core business, as well.
Learn more about Kestrel’s UAS Program Management services. Be sure to check out the entire Drones 101 series: