Hazardous Material Tracking System
Replacing 4 hours of daily spreadsheet work
- Role
- Product Designer
- Year
- 2019
- Timeline
- 4 months
- Team
- 1 PM, 2 Eng, 1 SME
This is how it started
A spreadsheet, four hours a day, zero room for error
A field operations team was tracking hazardous material movement — receipts, transfers, disposals — across a sprawling spreadsheet shared between three shifts. One supervisor was spending roughly four hours a day reconciling the sheet by hand. Compliance audits depended on it. Small errors had real-world consequences.
They did not want a "system" in the enterprise sense. They wanted something that would not get in the way.
Research
Onsite observation, not interviews
- 01
The work happens at a counter, standing up
Forms designed for desks failed within a day. We watched, then measured tap targets against work gloves.
- 02
Operators talk in batches, not items
"This pallet" is the unit of work — not the 14 line items on it. The data model had to follow the work.
- 03
Audit trail was the unspoken requirement
Every change had to be attributable, reversible, and printable — without anyone having to think about it.
Design
The shape of the system
- 01
Batch-first data entry
Pallets and lots as the primary record, with items rolling up. One scan, one record.
- 02
Always-on audit
Every change writes an immutable event. Supervisors can replay any record's history without leaving the screen.
- 03
A printable end-of-shift report
One tap from the home screen — designed to print on a counter-side thermal printer for compliance binders.
Impact
After three months in production
“Phew! This straightaway reduces my 4 hours of manual effort in a day”
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