Technical Authority Services
The role of the Technical Authority is to ensure that your business has the appropriate technical knowledge to safely and responsibly conduct rope access work.
Acting as the Technical Authority, Archibald Management can develop the procedural framework and management system infrastructure by which your rope access program will operate. Then we can train your Rope Access Manager to operate within that framework and remain available for technical consult when new scopes of work emerge. Our responsibilities continue by monitoring the rope access program within your business to confirm compliance and responsible management, which can then be reported to your company’s executive team and/or any applicable trade associations to which you may have membership.
At Archibald Management, we consider the role of the Technical Authority to be the most vital role for the safe management of rope access work, which is why we have constructed our business model to offer these services for dramatically less than the costs associated with hiring a Technical Authority as an FTE earning an income exclusively from your business.
Trade Association Application
Trade Association Membership is often a vital step in building a rope access program within your business, as it is currently the primary method that owner clients and blue-chip energy companies screen contractors for rope access work.
It is worth noting that not all trade associations are created equally. In fact, there are several trade associations in the rope access space that do not even require their member companies to submit proof of insurance or their rope access procedures.
Archibald Management has experience developing rope access programs to the requirements of the most stringent rope access trade association, the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association. Gaining IRATA membership illustrates to potential and existing clients that your business is operating to the highest standards. There is a lot to be said for being held accountable to the deepest pool of rope access knowledge on the planet.
For customers already using Archibald Management as their Technical Authority, this is a near-effortless added service, as your business will already be operating to these requirements.
Owner Client Representation
Energy infrastructure owners and managers are relying more heavily on work being performed on ropes. While it is true that rope access increases safety while saving money when compared to more traditional access methods (i.e. scaffolds), those savings have widely been accepted, and rope access is simply just the way many scopes of work get done. The competitive landscape has shifted away from rope access vs scaffolding and is now rope access contractor vs rope access contractor.
In this new and competitive landscape, discerning qualitative differences between two different companies claiming to provide the same services on ropes can be a challenge. Differences in trade association requirements may not be fully understood, causing owner clients to think that a contracting company has received a seal of approval from an authority on rope access. The reality is that some trade associations don’t even verify that a company has insurance or rope access procedures before membership is granted.
Owner Clients utilizing rope access need to have their own procedures that outline the processes by which a rope access contractor is screened and qualified. As an independent consultation group, Archibald Management is perfectly positioned and free from conflict of interest to help establish and implement these processes within each client’s safety management system.
Leadership and Mentoring
Responsible growth in all crafts requires a mentoring process with strong and knowledgeable leadership. Rope Access is no different. This means that the leadership needs to be in the field… developing quality technicians.
More often than not, this is not happening due to a number of various reasons (lack of availability, rapid growth, business complexity, etc.)
Archibald Management has deliberately stepped aside from business competition so that we can focus solely on distributing technical rope access knowledge. Our purpose is to assist in keeping the rope access industry operating as safely and to the same high standards as we historically have.
Our leaders and mentors each have decades of experience working in all industry sectors and at all levels of an organization. If your employees are having challenges, chances are that we have undergone similar situations, and can resolve them quickly. Professional development and experience wait at the end of such challenges as the reward for your team, provided that they are handled properly.
Contact us now to see how we can help.