Safety comes first — we all agree on that. But who should bear the cost of the system that ensures it? At InnerWeb, we believe it should not be the industrial plant.
This is not idealism. It is a new billing model based on a simple truth: the plant is already paying — just in a hidden, inefficient way, spread across hundreds of work hours and thousands in invoices from external companies.
At InnerWeb, we do things differently. The Live Permits system is free for industrial plants. Always. No exceptions. No hidden costs.
Paper permits: a hidden cost that never appears in the budget
6:00 AM. A breakdown on the production line at an automotive plant. Maintenance calls the service company — they need to be on-site within two hours, or the downtime costs a fortune. The service technicians are ready: they have the tools, the knowledge, and the experience.
But before they can start work, they need a work permit.
And here begins the organizational marathon. OHS coordinators, the external company, area managers, work coordinators, Maintenance, technical staff required to start the work, persons authorizing entry — everyone must be involved. The complexity depends on the industry and processes, but the paper form must pass through many hands. Each of these people may be in a different part of the plant, in a meeting, in the field, or unavailable.
The service technicians wait. The Maintenance team waits. Production is down due to the breakdown, and the repair cannot begin without a permit. No signature, no work. That is the law. Those are the requirements. Those are the standards.
Violating these standards risks fines, dismissal, or even having the external company banned from the plant. So it must be done. That is simply how it works. But has anyone ever asked: how much does this actually cost?
Hidden costs that never appear in the budget
In an industrial plant's cost structure, there is no line item that financially accounts for complying with legal and OHS requirements in terms of work organization and form completion. The plant realistically bears only time and organizational costs. This is a hidden cost embedded in employee salaries.
The problem is typically understood by middle management — unless someone has risen from middle management and understands how many hours and problems this generates every single day. Permits are daily work — more important than projects. Because without a signature and without the paperwork, Maintenance cannot fix a single breakdown on the production line. You have to run around, collect signatures, and verify safety — drop everything to make it happen, because otherwise work simply cannot proceed.
What does it cost in numbers?
We did the math. An average industrial plant issues approximately 1,500 permits per year. Each permit takes an average of 1–2 hours in total for all plant personnel involved in the issuance and archiving process.
Total: 1,500–3,000 hours per year. Multiply that by the average salary of OHS specialists, coordinators, and management. The result: PLN 200,000–600,000 per year — and that is just the cost of time.
But that is not all.
External companies add 5–10% for work organization
External companies approach this situation in the most natural way: since they have to run around organizing permits and signatures, and their team waits doing nothing because there is no authorization — to balance out the costs of standing idle and not working for organizational reasons, they add 5–10% to their service invoices for work organization on projects and services.
This applies especially to single-day jobs, but also to long-term ones — because in those cases, a massive number of permits need to be organized. These permits are only valid for a few hours, so the next day the entire process must be repeated.
A large industrial plant spends PLN 5–10 million per year on external company services (breakdown repairs, investments, production line relocations, new machine installations). 5–10% of that amounts to PLN 250,000–1,000,000 per year.
Total hidden annual cost of the paper permit system: from PLN 450,000 to as much as PLN 2,000,000 — depending on the plant's size, number of employees, ongoing work, and time spent on organization.
And paper does not save itself to a history log, does not digitize itself, and does not help with reporting. This system has been in place for years — ever since EU membership brought requirements, regulations, and safety standards.
A new model: safety should not cost the plant anything
The plant should not bear the cost of maintaining the system. InnerWeb Live Permits is free for industrial plants. We live in the 21st century, and the solution we have built should be available immediately — without asking for management approval, without IT department consent, without a budget process.
The system operates independently as a separate, standalone overlay on top of what already exists at the plant — and it does not conflict with anything.
Why does the plant pay PLN 0?
Because InnerWeb's billing model is different. The cost of the system is borne by the external company — the one that actually uses the permits and derives direct operational value from them.
This is logical, fair, and transparent:
- The plant: Streamlines OHS and Maintenance processes, digitizes permits, builds an archive and reporting capability — at no cost, no budget approval, no IT approval needed
- The external company: Eliminates idle waiting time, eliminates waiting for signatures, gains professional reporting and team management — covers micropayments
A transparent billing model for external companies
A company already working with InnerWeb gets full reporting on work across all plants and locations, manages qualifications, training, and legal requirements for the entire team — in multiple languages.
This is the world's first product of its kind designed for industrial plants, with the option to extend it with a geolocation and monitoring module that supports external companies' work and allows them to request permits at any time the need arises.
Benefits for external companies
- Elimination of idle time: The team does not wait hours for signatures — a permit can be requested remotely, before arriving on-site
- Professional reporting: Full work documentation for the client, automatic archiving, complete permit history
- Team management: Control of qualifications, training, certificate validity — all in one place
- Compliance: Automatic tracking of legal requirements, multilingual support for international teams
- Geolocation: Real-time location and work monitoring module (optional)
Micropayments are transparent — they cover the value that the external company receives. Detailed pricing and billing information can be found on the Live Permits page.
How it works in practice: an automotive plant
Let us take a real-world implementation example. An automotive plant, 2,000 employees, approximately 1,200 permits per year. Previously, the entire process was paper-based. Thousands of hours of OHS and Maintenance personnel were spent annually on organization, signature circulation, and archiving (which often did not exist at all).
Before InnerWeb implementation:
- Average time per permit: 1.5 hours total (signature circulation, verifications, paper archiving)
- Total: 1,800 hours per year
- Hidden cost (personnel time): ~PLN 360,000 per year
- External companies adding 7% for organization: ~PLN 350,000 per year (on PLN 5M in services)
- Total: ~PLN 710,000 per year
After InnerWeb Live Permits implementation:
- Average time per permit: 15–20 minutes (digital request, automated workflow, biometric signature)
- Total: 300–400 hours per year
- Time reduction in permit organization: ~80%
- Cost for the plant: PLN 0
- Savings: ~PLN 290,000 per year (reallocation of personnel time to value-adding tasks)
- Full digitization, archiving, and reporting
"Previously, we spent half a day organizing signatures for a single breakdown. Now it takes 15 minutes and we have full documentation." — OHS Manager, automotive plant
How to start immediately — no IT approval, no budget
This is the key difference. In the traditional model, the plant would need to:
- Obtain budget expenditure approval
- Create a new cost line item in the budget
- Go through a procurement process
- Obtain IT department approval for implementation
- Accept that "something that never existed before suddenly appears as a monthly cost"
Even if this cost reduces other costs, improves workflows, and raises standards — procedures are procedures. And they often block innovation.
At InnerWeb, we see it differently.
The plant should not bear the cost of maintaining the system. That is why InnerWeb Live Permits can be launched:
- Without budget approval — the system is free for the plant
- Without IT department consent — it works as an independent overlay, does not conflict with infrastructure
- Without a procurement process — you can start at any time
- Immediately — onboarding takes days, not months
For external companies:
The value the company receives (reporting, team management, compliance, elimination of idle time) exceeds the cost. And most importantly: the time saved on permit organization > the cost of micropayments.
Safety should not be a matter of budget
Industrial plants are already paying for their workplace safety system. Just in a hidden, inefficient way, spread across hundreds of hours and thousands in hidden costs embedded in external company invoices.
InnerWeb changes the model: the plant pays PLN 0, the system is available immediately, external companies cover micropayments and gain operational value.
It is a win-win. The plant streamlines OHS and Maintenance processes. External companies eliminate idle time and gain professional tools for team management and reporting.
At InnerWeb, we believe that industrial safety in the 21st century should not require management approval or a budget line item. It should be available immediately — because safety comes first.