Vulken FM

Vulken FM fire damper inspection and compliance platform

Vulken FM is a London-based facilities management company delivering fire damper inspections, compliance reporting, and asset lifecycle services across commercial and residential properties. Their team needed a purpose-built digital platform to replace paper-based inspection workflows with a structured mobile system, a web dashboard for contractors and clients, and a dynamic form architecture that could evolve without repeated app releases. We designed and developed a mobile inspection app, a web dashboard, and the underlying system architecture for QR-based inspections, offline data capture, compliance logic, and report generation.

Client feedback

"H-Studio translated our operational complexity into a clean digital system we can scale."

Kenny Jones - Vulken FM

The Challenge

Vulken's engineers inspect fire dampers across multiple sites, buildings, and asset conditions. The inspection workflow had to work in technical plant rooms, risers, basements, and other low-connectivity environments while still producing structured compliance outputs. The product scope required more than a simple checklist app. It needed to support QR-based asset access, conditional inspection logic, required photo capture, GPS tagging, offline queuing, and site-level reporting aligned with BS 9999:2017 inspection workflows.

The key requirements:

Offline-first mobile workflow for field engineers
QR scan to inspection flow with minimal friction on site
Structured compliance rules and validation logic
Required photo capture with GPS metadata
Role-based dashboard visibility for contractor, client, and admin users
Dynamic inspection schema with extensible custom sections
PDF and CSV reporting for operational and client use

The system had to remain operationally simple for engineers while supporting long-term expansion in form logic, reporting, and asset coverage.

Solution Architecture

We designed the platform as a connected delivery system with mobile inspection, web administration, and schema-driven backend logic.

1. Mobile Inspection App (iOS – React Native)

The mobile app was built for field engineers conducting fire damper inspections in live operating environments.

Engineer login with assigned sites and sync-aware home dashboard
QR scan flow for direct asset identification
Dynamic inspection form loaded from backend schema
Support for manual, smoke, and intumescent damper types
Conditional sections for access issues and redundant dampers
Required and optional photo capture with GPS tagging
Offline queueing, autosave, and deferred upload
Completion flow with engineer sign-off and validation checklist

The inspection flow is organized into locked operational sections for asset identification, damper configuration, inspection questions, access issues, photo capture, testing, and completion. Compliance is calculated in real time from predefined rules, while custom Section 8 questions remain informational only. The app fetches the current form schema on sync, so new questions can be introduced without requiring a mobile app update. This keeps the field workflow stable for engineers while allowing the inspection model to evolve over time.

Dynamic inspection sections and form navigation

2. Web Admin Panel

The web dashboard was designed as the operational control layer for contractors, clients, and administrators.

Site, building, and asset management
Inspection history and compliance visibility
Report viewer and PDF download flows
CSV export and portfolio-level operational oversight
User and role management across contractor, client, and admin access
Form Builder for custom Section 8 questions
Form template versioning and publish workflow
Audit-ready operational architecture for future integrations

The dashboard separates field execution from operational oversight. Engineers complete inspections in the app, while web users manage sites, assets, reports, permissions, and evolving inspection schemas.

Compliance logic and inspection validation

Photo capture within the inspection workflow

Reporting & Compliance

The reporting layer was designed around structured compliance outputs rather than free-form engineer notes. The system supports: • site-level PDF report generation • asset-level inspection histories • auto-generated observation and remedial text • photo evidence with metadata • compliance summaries and result badges • CSV exports for operational review

This gives Vulken a consistent reporting model across engineers, sites, and inspection types, while keeping the output aligned with compliance-led inspection processes.

System Architecture

The platform architecture combines: • React Native + TypeScript for the field app • Next.js + React + TypeScript for the web dashboard • NestJS backend services • PostgreSQL for structured inspection, asset, and schema data • S3-compatible storage for photo and media handling • JWT-based authentication and role-aware access control A key architectural decision was keeping the inspection form schema server-driven. Standard sections remain locked, while custom sections can be versioned and published from the web dashboard.

This makes the system easier to extend without repeatedly changing mobile application logic.

Form Logic & Operational Design

The product was built around operational clarity: • engineers should not need to interpret compliance logic manually • the app should remain usable in weak-signal environments • custom inspection questions should be extendable without app releases • contractor and client reporting should be based on the same underlying data model • compliance outcomes should be reproducible from structured answers, not manual narrative text

The result is a system designed for repeatable inspections, stable reporting, and controlled product evolution.

Outcome

The result is a fire damper inspection platform that: • standardizes field inspections from QR scan to submission • supports offline fieldwork and later sync • improves documentation quality through structured capture rules • creates reliable compliance outputs for contractors and clients • gives Vulken an extensible platform for future inspection logic and reporting needs

Instead of a one-off checklist app, Vulken now has a structured inspection system that can evolve with new templates, reporting requirements, and operational scale.

Dashboard Gallery

The web interface extends the mobile inspection workflow with operational visibility, asset management, reporting, and schema-based extensibility.

Dashboard overview with operational KPIs

Compliance and scheduling dashboard view

Remedials board for actions and follow-ups

Asset table with status and compliance data

Report viewer in the contractor dashboard

Form builder for additional inspection sections

This case study describes a custom-built internal platform developed for Vulken FM. All information is presented for illustrative purposes and does not imply official endorsement beyond the described project scope. Logos, client references, or third-party names are not used without explicit permission.