SMART INSPECTION Goals for the Division of Waste and UST Compliance and Enforcement

The Division of Waste and UST Compliance and Enforcement Transportation Oversight Unit (TOU) is the pilot program for AR inspect. The Solid Waste Program has begun preliminary discussions to be the next program from this Division to utilize AR inspect for a multitude of its inspection types.

 Inspection process defined as:   site selection à pre-inspection review à on-site inspection à reporting à violation notice (as necessary) à follow-up compliance determination (as necessary) à closeout  

 The digital field inspection project has the following goals:

1. Pre-Inspection

a)      Greatly reduces or eliminates pre-inspection preparation due to its ability to retrieve and display real time data from NJDEP’s Environmental Management System (NJEMS).

b)      The artificial intelligence engine will increase NJDEP’s ability to prioritize and concentrate field resources where oversight is more likely needed, resulting in direct environmental benefits to the State of NJ and its citizens.

 Inspection

a)      Increase inspection output by decreasing time needed to perform and document.

b)      Offers immense gains in field efficiency by utilizing geo-fencing.  The system will recommend investigator travel routes, calculate travel times (with live traffic logic) and identify incident investigations and/or follow-up investigations to field staff closest to field locations.

c)      Enhance data management by obtaining faster and more accurate measurements through integrated augmented reality tools, ensuring that measurements and compliance issues are not adversely affected by approximation or lack of information, all of which will result in greater investigation accuracy.

d)      Ensure adherence to standardized operating procedures, which are built in, to reduce the possibility of oversight, under-estimation, or omission, all of which will facilitate greater compliance oversight. Facilitate full electronic capture of inspection operations by collecting compliance data through text, voice to text, picture, video, measurements, etc. It is able to quickly communicate with the cloud and back to allow for timely field data entry.  This data entry follows current NJEMS workflow procedures from checklist creation to creation of field notices of violation. 

1. Post-Inspection

a)      Eliminate double data entry by capturing the data once (in the field) and electronically syncing all inspection data to NJEMS.  This includes the electronic issuance of resulting compliance/non-compliance notification to the inspected entity.

b) It also allows for the submission of follow-up correspondence from the regulated    community to close out violations.

1. Efficiencies

a)      Provide ability to remotely collaborate with staff in real time to immediately resolve field issues.

b)      Analytics, based on NJDEP’s 20[GR[1]  years of data collection, are available 24/7 and updated in real-time.

c)       Advance NJDEP’s ability to better gauge compliance/non-compliance and enable more efficient use of resources, through science-based planning and more efficient/thorough inspection processes.

d)      Increase productivity (reduce activity times) in the inspection process, or subsets thereof.

e)      Provide better functionality/user experience than existing technology (laptop).To increase efficiency by providing inspectors with tools that enable real time inspection data entry in the field and improve compliance metrics by automating and streamlining the documentation and resolution of enforcement actions for both DEP staff and the regulated community

 [GR[1]HW only came on to NJEMS in 2000