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While traditional approaches to safety, "the hard hat approach," have been to minimize the impact of accidents, times have changed. Technology now enables a proactive methodology, by which the aim is to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. The benefits of this are obvious. When looking into the operations of vehicles on site, for example, without a doubt there is no risk of collision if they never move. Clearly, though, this would not be a good approach, as efficiency and productivity would plummet. The answer lies in combining safety and efficiency.
Claudio Salvador
But how can this be measured? How do site managers know whether they are reaching the best possible levels of both efficiency and safety? How can we get a single operational safety measure that can identify higher-risk areas, compare performance in different parts of a site, and provide a clear, objective key performance indicator (KPI) on how a plant is performing in terms of both factors? When it comes to safety, the automated collection of data is still not commonplace and not yet fully part of most companies' cultures.
However, proactively analyzing and using data relating to safety combined with efficiency can offer tremendous benefits to a business and provide a basis for strategic decisions that will ultimately lead to a safer working environment, improved morale and increased productivity. Using modern computational methods, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics, a series of strategic and critical elements within a plant or on a construction site, for example, can be analyzed to provide a concrete, objective combined measure of site safety and efficiency performance.
Improving the Status Quo
Accidents at work increase every year because we tend to work ex-post. That is, we respond to an incident once it has happened. But this means we don't know what could have been prevented, nor why the problem occurred.
When it comes to recording safety incidents, most companies rely on perceptions and feelings derived from individual experiences, which are variable and highly subjective. This can mean that critical factors affecting site performance are missed or misinterpreted, leading to higher risks and reduced operational efficiency, as vehicles are slowed to the lowest common denominator, which does not reflect the risks associated with individual zones and activities
Ultimately, the organization and distribution of space and goods may be highly efficient, but at a cost to safety. Equally, operations can be slowed down to ensure excellent safety performance, but to the detriment of efficiency. Neither scenario is ideal, but by collecting and analyzing real data, the two can be combined to optimize both areas.
Not many companies have figured out how to collect and use data, however, and a different approach is still rarely discussed, especially in comparison to other realities. It is time for a new methodology for safety that produces and provides the information needed for companies to act and improve both safety and efficiency.
Creating a Safer, Efficient Workplace
Collecting and analyzing data provides a measure of how many near misses have occurred. It provides a basis to reduce this number and, in doing so, decrease the risk of accidents taking place. The goal should be zero accidents, and the route to this is to address why near misses happen. But working on near misses these days is practically impossible because there is nothing concrete, only statements from the people involved, leaving us with just feelings and individual perceptions.
Instead of deciding what the most efficient and safest route is for vehicles and pedestrians, the automatic collection and analysis of data allows managers to decide how many vehicles to circulate in a given space and area, at what speed and in what time slots, as well as when to insert couriers and deliveries. The data can be presented in a clear and simple dashboard to create a factual and visible evaluation of the site's status, and it can provide decision-makers with an objective point of view.
A dashboard of all factors relating to safety and its impact on efficiency allows managers to monitor whether overall performance has improved or worsened during a given week, month or year, as well as compare and evaluate the performance levels of different zones, working groups or multiple plants within the same company. From this, best practices can be identified and applied to different areas, teams or factories. In turn, managers can identify why incidents occur and what solutions can be incorporated to reduce them.
Making Accidents a Thing of the Past
While we cannot yet say that accidents are a thing of the past, we can see that this is a distinct possibility for the future as safety technology continues to develop. The technology required to take a new, proactive approach to safety with the collection and analysis of pertinent data is now available. The cost is not high, and the technology is easy to adopt and install across both indoor and outdoor sites.
The question we now need to be asking is why companies would not take this approach. The gains in efficiency and the reduction of overheads associated with investigating incidents mean a rapid return on investment. Heading toward zero accidents will give greater confidence to personnel and provide them with a better working environment. Yes, this requires a change in culture relating to safety, but maybe it is time for a new law or regulation that obliges businesses to take up an active safety approach.
The future is now, and there are tools and algorithms needed to give site managers the data and information they require to fully evaluate a combination of safety and efficiency performance. Let's make responding to safety incidents a thing of the past and instead stop them from happening in the first place.
Claudio Salvador is the president and CEO of Advanced Microwave Engineering (AME). Along with Filippo Bonifacio, he is one of the cofounders of AME, which was founded in 1999. He holds a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering with a specialization in microwave antennas, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Florence. Claudio has been involved in the design of microwave RFID identification systems since his time at university, and he has multiple international patents to his name. He also taught the Antenna and Microwave Theory course at the University of Florence as an assistant professor from 1998 to 2005. Safety and security at the workplace are of special interest, and at AME, Claudio has been instrumental in developing EGOpro Safety, which uses RFID technology to reduce the risk of accidents in operating environments.
