Most permit-to-work systems are designed around individual job control. They identify hazards, confirm isolations, and authorise work to begin. What they do not do is show how that job sits alongside everything else happening on the site at the same time.
That gap is where coordination failures occur. Not because procedures are missing, but because nobody has a clear view of what is active, where, and how activities interact.
The SIMOPS Operational Visibility Tracker is a practical coordination tool built to address that gap directly.
One-time purchase – £97. Instant download. Built on Google Sheets for immediate deployment.
What It Does
The tracker gives permit issuers and supervisors a live view of active work across the site, structured to surface coordination risks before they become incidents.
It is designed around the failure patterns that appear most consistently in permit system breakdowns – simultaneous operations running without shared visibility, isolation status assumptions across shifts, and restart decisions made without a clear picture of remaining work.
The tracker addresses these directly through four operational functions:
- Coordination Board – a live record of all active permits by location, type, and status, updated as work progresses rather than at the end of the shift
- Conflict Detection – automated flagging of overlapping activities in the same area or on shared equipment, identifying SIMOPS interactions before permits are issued
- Risk Profiling – integrated priority view that directs management attention toward high-hazard interactions and active isolations
- Site Mapping – customisable area structure that maps to your specific plant layout, making spatial relationships between jobs visible at a glance
Who Is It For
The tracker is designed for permit issuers who need to identify activity conflicts before signing off work, site managers who need a clear view of active risk across the plant, and HSE leads responsible for coordination during shutdowns, turnarounds, and high-workload periods.
It is particularly useful in environments where multiple contractors are active simultaneously, shift handovers involve suspended permits or partial isolations, or restart decisions need to account for remaining work across several areas.
Where Coordination Fails Without It
Permit systems manage individual jobs well. They struggle when multiple jobs interact. The most serious incidents in permit-controlled environments typically involve activities that were each individually authorised but whose interaction was not visible to anyone managing the site.
Common scenarios include contractors active in the same zone without awareness of each other, shift handovers where suspended permit status is not clearly communicated, and restart decisions made without a complete picture of what work remains active nearby.
The tracker makes those interactions visible before they create risk rather than after they contribute to an incident.
The coordination failures this addresses are examined in detail in SIMOPS and Permit-to-Work: Managing Overlapping Risks in High-Hazard Operations and Permit Boards and Work Visibility: Why Coordination Often Breaks Down.
Practical Details
The tracker is built on Google Sheets and is ready to use immediately after download. No complex setup, no software installation, and no ongoing subscription cost. It is designed for operational environments in pharmaceutical manufacturing, power generation, utilities, and heavy industry, and can be adapted to fit your specific site layout and permit categories.
Instant download. One-time purchase.