Overview of Work Health and Safety in Automotive Industry
Modern motor vehicle manufacturing plants produce big batches of mass-produced products while meeting tight deadlines to keep up with the demand. During production and related activities, employees are required to complete high-risk tasks every day. In fact, automotive manufacturing nonfatal injury and illness rates are twice as high as the rest of the private industry. Therefore, manufacturing facilities should work on protecting their employees while maintaining efficiency to ensure the highest level of occupational safety within their facilities for healthy operations and resilience.
There are many ways connectivity can solve major safety and security issues that affect worker health as well as operational efficiency. Operating heavy machinery, working in high-risk areas, handling hazardous materials and in the context of a global pandemic, having employees work together in enclosed settings can create safety issues that can be effectively addressed with IoT technologies.
Pandemic Safety
In automotive production facilities, employees work together in enclosed settings where airborne transmissions easily occur. It is difficult to monitor social distance compliance without having personnel present and monitoring each worker at all times. It is also challenging to keep track of all contacts for filiation when there is a positive case identified within the workforce.
Safe Steps Pandemic Safety module digitalizes social distancing and contact tracing processes with BLE-powered wearable devices ergonomically designed to be used in every stage of the production process. By measuring proximity between devices and warning users when safe distance is breached, Safe Steps aims to empower workers to keep themselves and others safe from the risk of transmission. Devices also record all risky interactions, which can be viewed from the management panel by relevant personnel.
Lone Worker Safety
Many automotive manufacturing operations include tasks done by lone workers. Daily tasks such as fixing and maintenance of equipment and different stages in the production require workers to move across the facilities, many times without their colleagues. Depending on the operations, there are also many incidents that may require lone workers to ask for assistance such as falling heights, loss of control of equipment and exposure to dangerous chemicals. Lone workers may also need assistance in enclosed areas that are difficult to observe remotely.
Safe Steps Lone Worker Safety module allows management to monitor the safety of lone workers wherever they are. The devices include an easy to reach panic button to be used to ask for assistance and to activate RTLS to locate the employee in need immediately. The device is also capable of automatically alerting the management panel in no movement situations or falls to make sure relevant personnel is alerted when the worker is unable to do so.
Preparation for Facility-Wide Emergency Scenarios
Emergency preparedness is particularly important for automotive manufacturing facilities that contain a large workforce. The large size of the area creates difficulties in locating and evacuating all workers in time. Depending on the product being produced, there may also be hazardous materials being used during the production process, which can cause incidents such as fires, explosions and chemical leaks that require a full evacuation. In the case of a natural disasters like earthquakes, it is crucial to make sure all employees are evacuated out of the building and are gathered in the meeting area outside.
Safe Steps Lone Worker module helps with evacuation situations by allowing WHS personnel and other relevant departments to monitor the process remotely through the management panel or the mobile application for more flexibility. All preestablished zones and the employees in them can be observed from a single screen on the panel to ensure all workers are evacuating and reaching the safe zone.
Safe Steps mobile application and platform aims to help businesses digitally transform their operations and rapidly adapt to the current conditions as the world emerges from lockdown and employees go back to work
Collision Avoidance
Production and transportation activities in automotive manufacturing facilities require the usage of large mobile vehicles such as forklifts, AGVs and lifting equipment which may cause collisions or other vehicle-related accidents. These accidents are not only common, but can have a high risk of fatality, making it a very important safety issue to address.
Safe Steps Proximity Warning and Collision Avoidance system uses the same IoT infrastructure to leverage connectivity for vehicle safety. The system prevents vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian collisions by providing location awareness to workers and mobile equipment. With wearable devices for pedestrians and UWB tags installed on vehicles, pedestrians are warned when they are near a vehicle and the vehicle is automatically slowed down or stopped without driver intervention.
safe steps work health and safety platform for Industrial Facilities
Find out how different features of Safe Steps solve industry specific health and safety needs.
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Safe Steps mobile application and platform aims to help businesses digitally transform their operations and rapidly adapt to the current conditions as the world emerges from lockdown and employees go back to work