Checkpoints
This feature is currently only available on the Checkit Android App
Checkit can read QR codes and NFC tags. You can associate a QR code with a particular thing - a room, piece of equipment or vehicle for example - and a particular checklist. When you scan the QR code with the Checkit App, it automatically opens that checklist. And / or you can prompt checklists users to scan a QR code and just record the location ('proof of presence') so each location to which the checklist is applied is easily and accurately recorded.
This means that Checkit can load the checklist your staff need to do their work based on the QR code you've placed on rooms, items of equipment, vehicles for example or any physical thing used by your organisation. And Checkit records and reports where and when the work was carried out, providing very detailed assurance the right work has been carried out, in the right place, at the right time.
Hotel chains use this feature so that housekeeping teams are automatically given the Checklist appropriate to each room : staff scan the QR code on the door and the checklist automatically loaded by Checkit is one tailored to the type of room (luxury penthouse, standard twin, etc.) and allocated to the housekeeping team. And once they have completed the work at a checkpoint, it is recorded and reported using the checkpoint name (room 100, for example). This example is explained in more detail in Examples below. However this is just one example: vehicles, wards, beds, fridges, machines ... the possible applications of this feature are numerous.
Checkpoints. We call 'things' associated with QR codes and checklists in this way, 'checkpoints'.
Checkpoint types. You can specify several different type of Checkpoint to help group different checkpoints meaningfully and make it easier to manage them and assign work to them. For example, if all of the rooms in a hotel require the same cleaning routine you might specify room as a type of Checkpoint and assign work to the Checkpoint Type rooms. If you have standard rooms and business rooms for example, you would define two Checkpoint Types - standard rooms and business rooms - and assign slightly different checklists to each type so the appropriate work is carried out (setting the alarm clock to 6 o'clock in the business rooms for example, 10 in the standard rooms!). When one of the housekeeping team scan the QR code assigned to one of the standard rooms (a checkpoint) they are prompted with the checklist you have assigned to the standard room Checkpoint Type, automatically. When the maintenance team scan the same code they are prompted with a different checklist.
You can assign checks/checklists to Checkpoint Types only, NOT specific Checkpoints. If you only have 1 Wedding Suite in your hotel, for example, and it requires a particular checklist not used for any other room, you would create a Checkpoint Type called Wedding Suite and then assign the required Checklist to that Checkpoint Type. A little care needs to be taken to ensure that you do not inadvertently create items of work which include too many Checkpoints. If you have 100 rooms for example and they are all Checkpoints of the type room, when you create an item of work and assign it to that room type, all 100 rooms will be listed. Another way to manage the work is to create additional Locations/sub-Locations in Checkit since when you assign work you have to specify a Location. Following the example of 100 rooms, you could create sub-locations based on floors: Floor 1, Floor 2 etc. When you specify each checkpoint you have to specify its location. When you assign work you also specify location, so although you might have only 1 Checkpoint Type of room, Checkit knows which of the checkpoints (rooms) are in which location and will limit the checkpoints it includes in any work item, to the location you specify.
So, as described in the following sub-sections, you define Checkpoints within Locations in the Checkit Control Centre and place QR codes on the physical room/objects they represent. Then you assign checklist work to Types of Checkpoint ('standard rooms' for example). Your staff use the Checkit App to scan the QR codes and be presented automatically with the checklists they need to complete.
Examples
Scenarios
Checkpoints can help manage many different types of work where it is useful to associate predefined work / process with a very specific place or object. The following are examples of the scenarios Checkit customers use Checkpoints.
Repeated work across a number of locations (“do X in all these locations”)
Room cleaning or checking
Routine security rounds
Routine maintenance checks
Responding to one-off incidents (“I’m here and something has happened we need to deal with”)
Reporting a safety incident
Fixing a broken appliance
Logging site work (“I’ve installed at this site” or “I’ve worked on this piece of equipment”)
Installation visits
Service call outs
Managing a physical process (“this sample box has been sent to another lab”)
Checking a samples tray into different points
Example
The scenario. A hotel has several types of room - Standard Rooms and VIP Rooms. VIP Rooms include the provision of chocolates, champagne etc. - Standard rooms do not. The hotel has multiple floors with 6 VIP Rooms on Floor 1. There is a daily task for the cleaning team to clean all these rooms in 4 hours. Each room must be scanned using the Chekit App before it is started. Also any room can be started in any order, even if another room clean is in progress. Another item of work in created for the Standard Rooms.
How Checkpoints are used. A Checkpoint Type of VIP Rooms is created and 6 Checkpoints are created each of the type VIP Rooms. An item of work is created (using the Work tab on the Work Management Configuration page) called VIP Rooms 1st Floor that assigns a Checklist called VIP Room Cleaning Daily which details the work to be carried out in each room.
The parameters for the item of work are as follows. Location: the hotel. Checkpoint Type: VIP Rooms. Checklist: VIP Room Cleaning Daily. Team: Cleaners. Schedule: daily. Enforce sequence: yes.
Each morning the cleaning team will be presented with the VIP Rooms work item on the Checkit App/Memo. Initially the work is listed as Up next but by 8.00 AM it is Due. When a cleaner taps on the job in the list, Checkit lists each of the VIP rooms to be visited: when a cleaner taps on one of the rooms in the list, Checkit prompts the cleaner to scan the room QR code. If the QR code scanned matches the QR code Checkit has been given for that room, the Checklist called VIP Room Cleaning Daily is loaded for the cleaner to complete. When each room is completed the corresponding items in the list presented by Checkit are presented in light grey giving a visual indication of the rooms complete and the rooms still to do.
The hotel has 70 standard rooms in all. The booking system is set up to allocate particular rooms to be available for early check-in for guests who want to arrive before 10.00 AM. To help with this 10 of the Checkpoints have a Visit Order specified (from 1 to10) and in the work item the 'enforce sequence' option is selected so that when Checkit presents the work to the cleaning team, it presents these 10 rooms first and does not allow the cleaners to select other rooms until they are done.
The Work report in the Checkit Control Centre logs the work carried out and includes the Checkpoint name which, in this case, is the same as the room name - 'Room 3' etc. This is checked by the shift manager at 10.00 to ensure all rooms have been visited and the work completed.
One of the checks in the VIP Room Cleaning Daily Checklist asks the cleaners to report any problems in the room. When a cleaner reports that the lead on the electric kettle in one of the rooms is frayed, this is picked up by the shift manager: the manager checks that the maintenance team have been alerted and places the room on-hold in the booking system awaiting confirmation the issue is resolved. (The check which asks the cleaner if there are any problems in the room has the Raise Alert option selected on the No response and enables the Checklist user to enter details).
How Checkpoints present to Checklist users
There are three ways in which users might initially interact with Checkpoints.
1. Freescan or 'Just Scan'
If the user selects the QR code icon at the bottom right of the Checkit App Home page, Checkit opens the device camera and prompts the user to scan a QR code. If Checkit recognises the QR code it loads any check/checklist that has been assigned to the Checkpoint for the user to complete - assuming the user is part of the team that has been assigned to this work. If the Checkpoint is associated with an item of work that is scheduled but not yet due, Checkit will inform the user and they will not be able to complete the checklist until it is due - at which point it will be listed on the Home page of the App for their attention.
A Checkpoint in a sub-location (a local store for example) can now be scanned using an Appp assigned to the parent location (Head Office, for example). This enables greater flexibility for cross-organisational work and centralised functions.
Flashlight: when Checkit opens a device camera to scan a QR code, it now also provides the option to turn the device spotlight on. This helps ensure work can carry on even if the building lights have failed - for example! Tap the icon to turn the device spotlight on.
2. Scheduled Work
Work that is scheduled is presented on the Home page of the Checkit App. In the example shown on the right an item of work listed as Due includes 2 checkpoints of the type room and the check/checklist to be used is called Clean. You can see that the work item has the stacked QR icon in front of it to indicate that the work is associated with multiple checkpoints/QR codes.
When a user taps on this item in the list, Checkit expands the work to list each Checkpoint separately as shown in the second picture on the right: this is a list of all the checkpoints of the assigned type at the assigned location. In this expanded view we can see the names of the individual checkpoints are included. In this example there are only 2 rooms. The user can select either one to work on - Checkit automatically opens the device camera and prompts the user to scan the QR code for the selected checkpoint. If the QR is recognised, the checklist is opened with the Checkpoint name clearly shown in the header area, for the user to complete. (Refer to Cannot Scan QR code below for what happens when a QR code is not/cannot be scanned successfully)
However, if the option to control the order in which each checkpoint should be worked on has been used (enforce order on the Work tab), all of the checkpoints except the first will be presented in light grey to represent visually which should be worked on next: once the first one has been scanned and the checklist work completed, Checkit automatically loads the second checkpoint and prompts the user to scan the QR for it ... and so on until the checklist has been completed for all of the checkpoints in this item of work. If the user does not compete them all, then the work will remain in the Incomplete section of the Home page where it can be re-opened and completed later.
3. Un-Scheduled Work
You can list work that can be completed at anytime using the list icon in the bottom-left of the Checkit App Home page. Any of the items of work that have been associated with Checkpoints types are indicated with a QR code icon. When the user selects any of these items of work Checkit automatically opens the device camera and prompts the user to scan a QR code. If Checkit recognises the QR code it loads any work assigned to that checkpoint, for the user to complete (assuming the work is also assigned to the Checkit team the user belongs to). It will list all the Checkpoints included in the work (the scanned Checkpoint may be one of a type of Checkpoint of which there are a number - rooms for example) and the user can select each one, in any order, to open the required check/checklist. Note: it is not possible to enforce the order in which checkpoints are worked on when work is not scheduled.
Cannot Scan QR Code
When Checkit prompts a checklist user to scan a QR code it also provides a Cannot Scan QR Code button so if it is not possible to scan the QR code, for whatever reason, the user can select this option and enter a reason, in their own words or by selecting from a predefined list of reasons (refer to Record Reason for Cancellation of Checkpoint Scan, for details) so the situation is recorded and reported. The assigned checklist will load once they have entered the reason. The user could be instructed to record some form of identification of the checkpoint like a room number for example, so the work can still be completed and a record made that it was. The Cannot Scan QR Code button is provided when work item is scheduled - if a user is using the freescan option or using an unscheduled item of work, it is not.
Report Checklist work completed on Checkpoints
Once work has been carried out at a Checkpoint you can report it using the standard process for reporting work in the Control Centre and you can also export the data. As shown below the full Checkpoint name is included in the Work Report. The report would also include the entry made by the checklist users if they were not able to scan the QR code for any reason.
If any of the checks in the checklist you assign to Checkpoints have Raise Alert specified (so that when a checklist user enters a check response that indicates something needing attention) Checkit will include the name of the Checkpoint in the communications and reports about the Alert in order that the exact location is easily understood.
