Business challenge
Inspections of large, public buildings like schools, hospitals and airports have traditionally been a heavy lift in terms of time and resources. Our client, an engineering and maintenance firm, was experiencing this. Its teams of inspectors regularly conduct on-site checks of critical infrastructure, such as lifts, escalators and air conditioning systems, to ensure they comply with regulatory standards.
Additionally, the teams compile highly detailed reports – including field notes and photos – and input the information into reporting tools and platforms. For larger buildings, each report could take around 40 hours to put together.
With thousands of inspections conducted annually, reporting was costing the firm hundreds of thousands of euros, with highly skilled personnel tied up with administrative tasks. Our client recognised the need to modernise and streamline this process and partnered with Valcon to design and deliver a solution.
Solution
Valcon’s approach began with a deep dive into the inspection and reporting workflow at different client sites. Through interviews, process mapping and system assessments, the team identified key areas where automation and AI could be applied to reduce the manual workload.
Valcon designed and implemented a bespoke AI-powered reporting solution supported by Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools. The new solution leverages intelligent document processing and natural language understanding to transform raw inspection data – such as notes, audio recordings, structured forms and images – into pre-formatted, actionable reports that meet ISO reporting requirements.
At the heart of the solution was a machine learning model trained on historic inspection reports to understand common formats, language structures and technical terminology. The AI could identify inspection findings (e.g., ‘elevator door misalignment’), classify the issue, suggest corrective actions based on past resolutions and generate clear summaries for engineers and compliance officers.
The solution incorporated robotic process automation to upload the generated reports and data into enterprise maintenance systems. This ensured that once an inspector completed their site assessment, the AI took over, collating input, generating the report and uploading the data within hours instead of days.
Benefits
The AI reporting solution has delivered tangible benefits, including:
- 60% cost savings: by reducing the average reporting time from 40 hours to a few hours, our client has slashed inspection reporting costs by more than 60% per year. This directly contributes to improved operational margins and available resources.
- Inspectors can focus on higher-level work: automating manual, repeatable processes means staff can focus on higher-value work such as strategic asset planning, engineering reviews and preventative maintenance planning.
- Better accuracy and consistency: manual reporting can be prone to human error and variation in interpretation, which can be extremely risky when it comes to inspection reporting. The AI system standardises the process, making sure that reports are consistently structured and accurately reflect inspection data.
- Improved regulatory compliance: safety and building standards are strict and require detailed documentation. The AI tool ensures that inspections and resulting actions are traceable and align with relevant compliance requirements.
- Predictive maintenance opportunities: by digitising inspection data over time, our client will be able to identify patterns in maintenance needs (such as recurring elevator faults) and move towards a proactive, data-driven maintenance model.
- Predictive maintenance opportunities: by digitising inspection data over time, our client will be able to identify patterns in maintenance needs (such as recurring elevator faults) and move towards a proactive, data-driven maintenance model.
