Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System

Şahabettin Akca; Murat Urfalıoğlu; Yakup Budak

doi:10.35377/saucis...1972002

Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System

Abstract

Paper-based personal protective equipment (PPE) custody documentation remains widespread in Turkish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and public institutions despite traceability obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Law No. 6331, generating recordretention vulnerabilities and audit liability risks. Adopting a Design Science Research (DSR) framework, this study presents a web-based PPE digital custody artifact evaluated against three legislatively grounded design criteria: audit integrity (C1), regulatory compatibility (C2), and institutional adoptability (C3). The artifact operationalizes Walsh and Ungson’s organizational memory framework, transferring custody records from individual-dependent and physically vulnerable repositories to a relational database, markedly reducing staff-departure and archive-destruction failure modes. Indicative process measurements (n=15 digital transactions against an n=3 paper baseline) yield reductions of approximately 87% in record generation time and 94% in archive retrieval time, pending larger-sample replication. Normative legal analysis establishes that Canvas-based handwritten signatures constitute a simple electronic signature recognized under EU eIDAS, US ESIGN/UETA, and Turkish Law No. 5070. Although not a qualified-signature equivalent, the composite audit trail can serve as an evidentiary record where public key infrastructure (PKI) is absent, subject to judicial determination. Twelve role-based access control (RBAC) functional test cases confirm that the hierarchical architecture enforces the separation of duties required by Law No. 6331. The findings provide a replicable artifact specification and a DSR evaluation template for the OHS management information system (OHS-MIS) deployment in resource-constrained settings.

Keywords

Ethical Statement

The data collected within the scope of this study consist solely of system transaction logs and anonymized process durations obtained during the digitalization of existing institutional OHS processes. No personal health data were collected, and no survey instruments were administered. Scientific and ethical principles were followed throughout the preparation of this study; all sources used are stated in the references.

Thanks

The authors thank the staff of the pilot institution who participated in the pilot implementation.

References

Republic of T¨urkiye, Occupational Health and Safety Law, No. 6331, T.C. Resmˆı Gazete, No. 28339, June 2012.
J. P. Walsh and G. R. Ungson, “Organizational memory,” Academy of Management Review, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 57–91, 1991, doi: 10.2307/258607.
¨O. Akaner and V. ¨Ozdemir, “Kamu kurumlarına y¨onelik is¸ sa˘glı˘gı ve g¨uvenli˘gi y¨onetim sistemi model ¨onerisi,” C¸alıs¸ma ˙Ilis¸kileri Dergisi, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 41–59, Jan. 2022.
S. C¸etin and V. Be˘gik, “˙Is¸ sa˘glı˘gı ve g¨uvenli˘gi’nde s¨urd¨ur¨ulebilir kis¸isel koruyucu donanım politikalarının uygulanması,” Uluslararası M¨uhendislik Aras¸tırma ve Gelis¸tirme Dergisi, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 202–211, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.29137/umagd.777201.
H. Arslan, S¸. Akar, and ¨O. S¸ahin, “Yeni nesil e-d¨on¨us¸¨um sistemleri ic¸in ¨olc¸eklenebilir uygulama mimarisi,” M¨uhendislik Bilimleri ve Tasarım Dergisi, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 1246–1252, 2021, doi: 10.21923/jesd.860848. 1434
D. Podg´orski, “Measuring operational performance of OSH management system A demonstration of AHP-based selection of leading key performance indicators,” Safety Science, vol. 73, pp. 146–166, Mar. 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2014.11.018.
S. Yıldırım and Z. ¨Ust¨unda˘g, “˙Is¸ sa˘glı˘gı ve g¨uvenli˘gine y¨onelik gelis¸tirilen akıllı telefon uygulamalarının incelenmesi,” OHS Academy ˙Is¸ Sa˘glı˘gı ve G¨uvenli˘gi Akademi Dergisi, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 140–164, 2022, doi: 10.38213/ohsacademy.1128560.
A. R. Hevner, S. T. March, J. Park, and S. Ram, “Design science in information systems research,” MIS Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 75–105, 2004, doi: 10.2307/25148625.

K. Peffers, T. Tuunanen, M. A. Rothenberger, and S. Chatterjee, “A design science research methodology for information systems research,” Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 45–77, 2007, doi: 10.2753/MIS0742-1222240302.
Republic of T¨urkiye, Law No. 7252, “Law on the Establishment of the Digital Media Commission and Amendments to Certain Laws,” Official Gazette, no. 31199, 28 July 2020, art. 10 (amending Article 38 of Law No. 6331).
Republic of T¨urkiye, Law No. 7491, “Law Amending Tax Laws and Certain Laws,” Official Gazette, no. 32413, 28 December 2023, art. 71 (amending Article 38 of Law No. 6331).
Z. Kahraman and K. Y¨ur¨uten ¨Ozdemir, “Dijitalles¸menin is¸ sa˘glı˘gı ve g¨uvenli˘gine entegrasyonu ve uygulanabilirli˘gi,” OHS Academy ˙Is¸ Sa˘glı˘gı ve G¨uvenli˘gi Akademi Dergisi, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 208–221, 2022, doi: 10.38213/ohsacademy.1128402.
M. Erol and E. Eraslan, “Nesnelerin interneti, uygulama alanları ve is¸ sa˘glı˘gı ve g¨uvenli˘gi ile etkiles¸imi,” Journal of Turkish Operations Management, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 73–89, 2024, doi: 10.56554/jtom.1258262.
Republic of T¨urkiye, Electronic Signature Law, No. 5070, T.C. Resmˆı Gazete, No. 25355, January 2004.
European Parliament and Council, “Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (eIDAS),” Official Journal of the European Union, L 257, pp. 73–114, Aug. 2014.
United States Congress, Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN), Pub. L. No. 106-229, 114 Stat. 464, 2000.
National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA). Chicago, IL, USA, 1999.
P. Gutmann, “PKI: It’s Not Dead, Just Resting,” IEEE Computer, vol. 35, no. 8, pp. 41–49, 2002, doi: 10.1109/MC.2002.1023787.
Prime Ministry of the Republic of T¨urkiye, “Establishment of the Public Certification Centre,” Circular 2004/21, Official Gazette, no. 25575, 6 September 2004.
T ¨UB˙ITAK B˙ILGEM Kamu Sertifikasyon Merkezi, Nitelikli Elektronik Sertifika (NES) Fiyatlandırma, 2024. [Online]. Accessed: 13 June 2026. Available: https://kamusm.bilgem.tubitak.gov.tr/
F. Sahin and E. P. Robinson, “Flow coordination and information sharing in supply chains: Review, implications, and directions for future research,” Decision Sciences, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 505–536, 2002, doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5915.2002.tb01654.x.
D. F. Ferraiolo and D. R. Kuhn, “Role-based access controls,” in Proc. 15th National Computer Security Conference, pp. 554–563, 1992.
R. S. Sandhu, E. J. Coyne, H. L. Feinstein, and C. E. Youman, “Role-based access control models,” IEEE Computer, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 38–47, Feb. 1996, doi: 10.1109/2.485845.
Republic of T¨urkiye, Personal Data Protection Law, No. 6698 (PDPL), T.C. Resmˆı Gazete, No. 29677, April 2016.
H. Ceylan, “T¨urkiye’deki is¸ kazalarının genel g¨or¨un¨um¨u ve gelis¸mis¸ ¨ulkelerle kıyaslanması,” International Journal of Engineering Research and Development, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 18–24, Jun. 2011.
S. Nowak, signature pad (v4.x) [Software]. GitHub, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://github.com/szimek/signature pad
Republic of T¨urkiye, Occupational Health and Safety Services Regulation (˙Is¸ Sa˘glı˘gı ve G¨uvenli˘gi Hizmetleri Y¨onetmeli˘gi), T.C. Resmˆı Gazete, No. 28512, 29 December 2012.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Computing Applications in Social Sciences and Education

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Şahabettin Akca ^*
0000-0003-2264-9137
Türkiye

Murat Urfalıoğlu
0000-0002-2893-8135
Türkiye

Yakup Budak
0000-0001-7108-5548
Türkiye

Early Pub Date

October 27, 2026

Publication Date

October 30, 2026

Submission Date

June 16, 2026

Acceptance Date

July 3, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 9 Number: 5

DOI

https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis...1972002

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA75NN58HD

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Akca, Ş., Urfalıoğlu, M., & Budak, Y. (2026). Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences, 9(5), 1417-1435. https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis...1972002

AMA

1.Akca Ş, Urfalıoğlu M, Budak Y. Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System. SAUCIS. 2026;9(5):1417-1435. doi:10.35377/saucis.1972002

Chicago

Akca, Şahabettin, Murat Urfalıoğlu, and Yakup Budak. 2026. “Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System”. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 9 (5): 1417-35. https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis. 1972002.

EndNote

Akca Ş, Urfalıoğlu M, Budak Y (October 1, 2026) Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 9 5 1417–1435.

IEEE

[1]Ş. Akca, M. Urfalıoğlu, and Y. Budak, “Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System”, SAUCIS, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 1417–1435, Oct. 2026, doi: 10.35377/saucis...1972002.

ISNAD

Akca, Şahabettin - Urfalıoğlu, Murat - Budak, Yakup. “Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System”. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 9/5 (October 1, 2026): 1417-1435. https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis. 1972002.

JAMA

1.Akca Ş, Urfalıoğlu M, Budak Y. Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System. SAUCIS. 2026;9:1417–1435.

MLA

Akca, Şahabettin, et al. “Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System”. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences, vol. 9, no. 5, Oct. 2026, pp. 1417-35, doi:10.35377/saucis. 1972002.

Vancouver

1.Şahabettin Akca, Murat Urfalıoğlu, Yakup Budak. Digital Transformation in Personal Protective Equipment Management: Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Digital Custody and Audit Trail System. SAUCIS. 2026 Oct. 1;9(5):1417-35. doi:10.35377/saucis. 1972002