A way of working sits at the bottom of the order.
A way of working is the name here for how you run a machine once it has been recorded, admitted and built. Hard safety limits outrank every person. Every person outranks the software. A way of working is software, and nothing moves because one was loaded. A person on the crew still walks around the machine, starts it and clears it, on the day, every day.
What happens on the morning of a job, who says go, who is at the machine, and what happens when a person says stop, written for a person reading at the end of a shift.
What a machine does with itWho outranks whom, and the software is last.
Every question about safety on a site running a licensed way of working comes back to this order. It is short, it does not change from job to job, and nothing we make can climb it.
- 01Hard safety limitsThe machine's own limits and the rules of the site. They outrank every person on the ground, and nothing below them is ever asked to argue with them. A proposal that would cross one does not run.
- 02Every personThe person at the machine. The person who walked around it that morning. The one who chose, by name, whose way of working runs. Each of them outranks anything in the software, and each of them can stop it.
- 03The softwareA way of working. It proposes what an experienced person would do next, and it does nothing until a person above it has said go. It cannot promote itself, and no setting moves it up the list.
Nothing of ours sits above a person, and nothing sits below a way of working. A machine that moved on the software's say alone would have moved on nobody's authority.
Three people who are not on the list, and where each of them stands.
Some of the people in this are not on the list at all, and a safety officer should know where each of them stands.
The person whose way of working it is
If it is yours, you own the skill, always and forever, and you are not on the site and direct nothing on it. Your say is over the licence: give notice and nothing new starts under it, and the job already running finishes.
The owner
An owner arranges the licence and is charged for the hours. The choice and the clearance are made at the machine by a person on the crew, in their own name and on nobody else's behalf, and an owner who wants to make them stands at the machine like anybody else.
Even Steven
We build a way of working away from the machine, and a named person signs the release. Our reach ends there. Nothing of ours can start a machine, clear one or stop one.
Ready is the machine's state. Cleared is a person's word.
Fitted and ready are states a machine can be in before anybody has said a word. Cleared to work is a different kind of thing. It is a person's word, given on the day, after the walk-around, and a machine cannot give it to itself. The states below are in the order they happen, and the line between a machine that could run and a person saying go is the whole point of listing them.
- Fitted
- The release is on the machine, and the person who loaded it says so.
- Ready
- A way of working is loaded and could run. Nobody has told it to.
- Cleared
- A person has walked around the machine, started it, chosen by name whose way of working runs, and said go. Given on the day, every day, with their name on it.
- Running
- After the clearance and never before it. The count starts from the same choice, so the hours and the clearance sit on one record and neither can be adjusted without the other.
Yesterday's clearance does not carry over. There is no default and no last-used. A person starts the machine, every day, and before every job the choice of whose way of working runs is made again with their name on it. Choosing is an act, and the act is where the count begins.
A way of working proposes. It never authorizes.
What a way of working carries is a proposal: where an experienced person would slow, how they would load it, what they would do when the ground is not what the drawing said it would be. It stops at the proposal. A technique that has been loaded has no authority of its own, and nothing moves because it was loaded.
It proposes the next move
What an experienced person would do here, offered to the machine as a suggestion and nothing more. The suggestion carries a name, and the name is not an authority.
A person authorizes the work
Somebody on the crew chose whose way of working runs, by name, and cleared the machine on the day. Their word is the authority, and nothing in the software can stand in for it or outlast it.
The limits decide the rest
Whatever is proposed, and whoever authorized it, the machine's hard limits sit above both. A proposal that would cross one does not run.
A whole day of it, from the walk-around to the handover, is set out on its own page.
What a machine does with it
A person starts the machine, every day.
Nobody walks up to a machine that is already running under a way of working. Somebody started it, chose by name, and said go, and their name is on the record before the first hour is counted.
A release is the one thing of ours that reaches a machine, and a named person signs it.
Everything of ours that ever touches a machine arrives the same way. It is a way of working, built away from the machine from admitted sessions only, and it carries the name of the person whose way of working it is and the name of the person who signed it out.
- The name it runs under
- The person whose way of working it is. If a machine is working their way, it says so, and the name stays attached to them.The name it runs under is a person's, and the record says whose
- The signature
- A named person signs the release, and their name stays on it for as long as it runs. The question of who signed is answered by looking, not by remembering.A name, not a policy
- What went into it
- The sessions admitted under it, each signed as it closed, each with its consent live at the time. What went in can be listed session by session, and a refused session never reaches it.Admitted records only
- The family of machine
- A way of working is licensed for the family of machine it was taught on, and nothing is offered for a machine it was not taught on.Found by the family of machine, chosen by name
- What it is not
- Not a clearance. Loaded is not cleared, and a way of working that is loaded is a way of working that is waiting to be chosen. It can wait all day.A person's word, given on the day, is the clearance
- What it changes on the machine
- Nothing about the machine's own safeguards. It runs on the controls the machine already has, and the machine's own limits sit above it.The order does not change for a release
A release carries the name of the person who signed it, so what went in and who checked it can be answered from the record rather than from memory. What we stand behind, and what we do not, is written in the agreement: the money owed, the count and the deletion are ours to answer for, and the machine, the job and the output are not. A release with no name on it is a thing nobody answers for, and we do not send one.
Nothing is learned on the machine.
What crosses is a signed release, and a named person signs it.
We build a way of working from admitted records, and we do it away from the machine. No machine on a site is learning while it works, and no machine is changing its own way of working between one pass and the next. Nobody on the crew is the subject of an experiment. The machine carries a released way of working or the basics it came with, and nothing in between.
What reaches a machine from us is a release. A named person signs it, and the record of what went into it is kept from the first day rather than assembled when somebody asks. If a release is ever wrong, there is a name on it, and the question of what went in and who signed is answered by the record.
Machines that learn
Who chose, who cleared, whose way of working, and for how long.
Who chose, who cleared, whose way of working, and for how many hours, all on one record. When somebody later asks where a way of working came from and who cleared it, that record is the answer.
- Who chose
- A person on the crew, by name, with their own name on the choice. Neither entry can be made by the machine, and neither is made on anybody else's behalf.
- Who cleared
- The same act. The choice is the human authorization the machine may not move without, so the name on the choice is the name that cleared the work.
- Whose way of working
- The name it ran under. If a machine is working somebody's way, it says so, and the record says whose.
- For how long
- The hours, in sessions, written from the moment of the choice on the same record. The person paid for them and the owner charged for them read the same hours.
- Who signed the release
- A named person, and their name stays on it for as long as it runs.
- When
- The moment the choice was made, written with the rest of it, so nobody argues later about what was said.
A site that can answer those questions from the record is a site that does not have to remember. Nothing in the record grades a person. The checks a session goes through are about equipment and paperwork, and nothing anywhere else grades the work either. What the record shows is who did what, on which day, under whose name.
Nobody has to remember who said go.
The names are written where the hours are, on the day, by the people who were there.
The machine stops by its own means, and nothing of ours is in that path.
Stop is a person's word, like go, and the machine answers it the way it always has: through whatever the machine and the site already have for stopping it, at the seat and away from it. Those means are the machine's and the site's. None of them is ours, none of them runs through anything of ours, and we have added nothing to them and taken nothing away.
A way of working proposes what an experienced person would do next, and it proposes nothing about stopping. Whether to stop is not a question it is asked. When the answer is stop it has no vote: every person above it can stop the machine, and nothing in the software can keep it moving or start it again. A person starts the machine, and a person stops it.
When to stop and when to finish the pass is a judgement for the people at the machine, as it was before any of this. Stopping a machine mid-pass is its own hazard, and so is carrying on when the ground has changed, and nothing of ours weighs in on either. A way of working proposes. It never authorizes, and it is not consulted when a person overrules it.
Nothing of ours can start a machine, clear one or stop one. A stop belongs to the person who gave it and the machine that answered it, and it passes through nothing of ours on the way.
The stop path is the machine's and the site's, and nothing of ours is on it. What that means for your safety case is for you and your counsel.
Nothing of ours is connected while a person works.
It has no actuator and no wire to one.
The recorder watches from outside the machine. No harness is cut, no controller is touched, no power is taken off the machine. It cannot move a machine and it cannot stop one, so it is not an interlock and it is not a guard, and no part of any safety case rests on it. The machine's own safeguards are unchanged and still operating, and the controls feel exactly as they did before any kit was fitted.
- Where a separate recorder is used it runs on its own battery and reads the dash the same way you do, by looking at it.
- A photograph of the disconnected state goes into the record, before and after, where it cannot be swapped out quietly.
- It comes off and leaves no mark.
Every part of this is something a person can walk up to and check, and the photograph is there so that somebody can check it years later.
If it is your way of working, you can withdraw it, and the running job finishes.
Your withdrawal stops your way of working starting anywhere new from the day it arrives. A job already underway finishes, because stopping a machine mid-pass is its own hazard, and a safety position that created a new hazard to honour a withdrawal would not be a safety position. Nothing new starts under it after that. The owner is told the day it arrives, and the next job goes back to their own operator's way or the basics the machine came with.
The same order of authority holds through a withdrawal as through any other day. The hard limits still sit at the top, the crew still says when the machine stops, and the way of working that is being withdrawn has no more say in how the job ends than it had in how it started.
Ending a licence never means a machine stops where it stands. It means the next one does not start.
Ending a licence never means a machine stops where it stands.
A job already underway finishes, and nothing new starts under it after that.
What a safety officer will ask, and the answer to each.
Each answer is said at greater length on this page or on the page it points to. Take them as a list, and then take the list to the machine.
| The question | The answer |
|---|---|
| Can it move the machine on its own? | No. A way of working proposes, and nothing moves because one was loaded. A person on the crew clears the machine on the day. |
| Is anything of yours connected to the machine while a person works? | No. The recorder watches from outside it, and a photograph of the disconnected state goes into the record. |
| Is it an interlock, a guard or a stop? | No, none of them, and no part of a safety case rests on it. |
| Does it change the machine's own safeguards? | No. They are unchanged and still operating, and the controls feel as they did before any kit was fitted. |
| Who clears the machine? | A person on the crew, on the day, every day, with their name on it. Yesterday's clearance does not carry over. |
| Can it start on yesterday's choice? | No. There is no default and no last-used. Choosing is an act, not a setting. |
| What happens when somebody says stop? | The machine stops by its own means. Nothing of ours is in that path. |
| Can the person whose way of working it is stop a machine from wherever they are? | No, but they can withdraw it, and then the running job finishes and nothing new starts under it. |
| Can Even Steven reach a machine that is running a way of working? | No. Nothing of ours can start it, clear it or stop it, and the crew says when it stops. |
| Does it learn on the machine? | No. Nothing is learned on the machine, and no machine changes its own way of working between one pass and the next. |
| Who signed what is running? | A named person signed the release, and their name stays on it for as long as it runs. |
| What is recorded? | The record is what their hands did, what the machine did back and what they were looking at, on one clock, in one signed chain. |
| Does the record grade the operator? | No. The checks are about equipment and paperwork, and no check anywhere grades how somebody worked. |
| Can a recording be used for discipline? | Not by us, because a use the person did not say yes to is not one we supply it for, an employer wanting it for discipline or a dismissal included. |
| Will you give an opinion on warranty, conformity or liability? | No, because those are for your counsel, and you should not accept an opinion on them from any vendor, including us. |
| What do we tell our insurer? | That is between you, your broker and your counsel. What we can give you is the facts they will ask for: nothing of ours is joined to the machine while a person works, nothing of ours can move or stop one, and a photograph of that state is in the record. |
| Can we see the recorder before we agree to anything? | Yes. Every part of it is something a person can walk up to and check. Ask. |
It is not a faster machine, a safety device, or a legal opinion.
The claims below get made for things like this, by people who would like to sell you one. We do not make them, and you should not accept them from anyone.
- It does not make a machine faster. A better way of working makes better decisions about when to move. The hydraulics, the process and the material set everything else.
- It is not a safety device. Nothing here is an interlock, a guard or a stop, and no safety case should be written with any part of it resting on us.
- It does not replace the walk-around, the start, or the person who says go. It cannot clear a machine and it cannot keep one cleared.
- It does not run a site without people. It proposes. A person authorizes, on the day, every day.
- We give no legal opinion on warranty, conformity or liability. Whether an arrangement touches any of those is for your counsel, and you should not accept an opinion on it from any vendor, including us.
For the owner, the operator and the people who can say no.
Nothing of ours is wired to your machine while a person works, and nothing of ours can start it, clear it or stop it. Your person walks around it, starts it and clears it, on the day, every day, and your safety case rests on the machine's own safeguards, as it did before.
Your name is on it, and so is the name of the person who chose it and cleared the work. You can withdraw it, the running job finishes, and nothing new starts under it. Nothing in the record grades how you worked, and it is not supplied for discipline.
Hard safety limits outrank every person, and every person outranks the software. A way of working proposes and never authorizes, nothing of ours is connected while a person is recorded, and the machine stops by its own means. Every part of that is something you can walk up to and check.
Registration records provenance. It does not establish that a skill set is safe, accurate or fit for any particular purpose. We give no legal opinion on warranty, conformity or liability. What we can show you is how the thing works, in the same words we use with the person being recorded. The points the agreement is being built around are on the covenant, in plain words, and where this stands is on its own page.
Bring us the safety case.
If you are writing one, write to us and we will give you the facts about what is fitted, what it can do and what it cannot, in the same words we use with the person being recorded.