ModulesConfined SpacesWork Control
Every space, its hazards and its rescue.One register entry per space, with the plan that gets people out.
For entry supervisors and site rescue leads: each confined space with its openings, hazards and isolation points, and an approved rescue plan drilled against its own response time. The entry itself is a permit in Permit to Work.
- Volume
- 18 m³
- Openings
- Top manway 600 mm · side manway 450 mm
- Access
- Fixed ladder to the top platform
- Contents
- Resin slurry, washed out before entry
- Hazards
- Toxic residue · Oxygen deficiency · Agitator
- Max entrants
- 2
- Isolation
- 5 points · ISO-2026-0030 · 5 of 5 held
Entry runs as a permit in Permit to Work · PTW-2026-0150 · 1 inside of 2
One space, three views. Switch the view: the register, the plan and the drills come from the same record. An example space; the fields are the product’s, the values illustrative.
Where it connects
On the same loop: Permit to Work, Shift Handover and 39 more modules in one workspace.
Method note
Who goes in after them: your own team, or an outside service?
Both can work. Neither works on paper alone.
Leandro · Founder, UProcess
Some sites keep a trained rescue team on every shift. Others plan for retrieval from outside the space and call an outside service for the rest. Guidance accepts either, on two conditions: the rescue can reach the person in a time that suits the hazards of that space, and it has been practised.
So each space has its own plan, timed by its own drills.
- Retrieval from outsideTripod and winch at the opening, so nobody else has to go in.
- Site rescue teamA named team and its equipment, with the response time the plan commits to.
- Outside serviceRecorded the same way, and drilled against the same clock.
Where Confined Spaces usually breaks
Four places confined space work goes wrong, and what the register does about each.
Nobody knew it was a confined space.
NIOSH calls recognising the space the first step in preventing deaths, and found that more than 60% of confined space fatalities were people trying to rescue someone else.
Source: NIOSH 86-110, Preventing occupational fatalities in confined spaces
In UProcess Every space is a register entry with its tags, openings, access, contents, hazards, maximum entrants and classification history. A space found on a walk-down goes in the same day, and shows ‘No approved plan’ until it has one.
Register · Site A
An entry permit for MH-7 cannot go active until its plan is approved.
The plan relies on help that cannot arrive.
At Cabin Creek, five painters died in a hydroelectric tunnel with a single exit. No qualified rescue crew was standing by, and the nearest technical rescue unit was over an hour away.
Source: U.S. Chemical Safety Board, Xcel Energy Cabin Creek
In UProcess Each space has a rescue plan with its method, response time, team and equipment, approved and signed as a version. An entry permit for the space cannot go active without an approved plan.
RP-CS-01 v3 · approved 2 Sep 2026
- Method
- Tripod and winch from the top manway
- Response time
- 8 min
- Team
- Site rescue team · 4 on each shift
- Approved by
- Sarah Mitchell · signed
On the entry permit, the rescue gate reads: plan v3 approved · last drill 7 min against 8.
The rescue is written, never rehearsed.
OSHA’s confined space rule expects rescuers to practise a rescue before attempting a real one, and at least once every 12 months, in the space or one like it.
Source: OSHA 1926.1211
In UProcess Each drill records the time achieved against the plan’s response time, met or not, and its lessons. Lessons become actions in Action Tracking, and the entry permit shows the plan with its last drill.
Drills · CS-01
- 20 Nov 2025
- 11 min against 8 · not met · tripod kit in the workshop
- 24 Nov 2025
- AT-0311 · store the kit at the R-101 platform · checked by David Chen
- 12 Jun 2026
- 7 min against 8 · met
Lessons go to Action Tracking and close after a check that they worked.
The space is not cut off from the plant.
HSE’s code of practice asks for a space to be securely isolated from anything that could flow in, by disconnection or blanks where possible, and for the isolation to be checked before entry. Ordinary shut-off valves give limited protection.
Source: HSE, L101 Safe work in confined spaces
In UProcess The space lists the isolation points it needs, taken from Energy Isolation. On the entry permit, the space shows how many of those points are held by linked certificates.
CS-01 · isolation points
- Points needed
- 5 · feed, nitrogen, steam jacket, drain, agitator motor
- Certificate
- ISO-2026-0030
5 of 5 points held by linked certificates
Space CS-01 · Reactor R-101 · rescue plan RP-CS-01
| Date | Plan | Scenario | Achieved | Target | Result | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Jun 2026 | v3 | Entrant collapsed at the agitator | 7 min | 8 min | Met | — |
| 20 Nov 2025 | v2 | Entrant unresponsive below the side manway | 11 min | 8 min | Not met | AT-0311 · closed, checked |
| 9 Jun 2025 | v2 | Entrant with a leg injury at the top manway | 6 min | 8 min | Met | — |
The record an auditor asks for.
A rescue plan is proven by its drills, not by its approval date.
- The register entry for each space, with its classification history.
- The approved rescue plan version in force on the day of each entry.
- Every drill: time achieved against the plan, met or not.
- Drill lessons as actions, closed after a check that they worked.
What’s in a space
- Register
- Identification, tags, openings, access, contents, hazards, maximum entrants and classification, with every reclassification kept.
- Isolation
- The isolation points the space needs, from Energy Isolation, and how many are held for an entry.
- Rescue plan
- Method, response time, team and equipment, approved as a signed version. Earlier versions stay readable.
- Drills
- Date, time achieved against the plan, met or not, and lessons sent to Action Tracking.
- Entry
- Not here. Entry is a permit type in Permit to Work, which reads the space, its approved plan and who is inside now.
Questions
Where is the entry permit?
In Permit to Work. Confined Spaces holds the space and its rescue. The entry is a permit type your company sets up with its named roles and gas plan, and the space’s approved rescue plan is one of its gates.
Can a space have no rescue plan?
It can be in the register without one, and shows ‘No approved plan’. An entry permit for it cannot go active until a plan is approved.
How many people can be inside?
Each space sets its maximum. The entry permit shows it beside the count of who is inside now.
Who approves a rescue plan?
The approvers your company appoints per site. Each approval is a signature on that version of the plan.