The safety aspect of Industry 4.0

In addition to this, in 2015/16 in Britain, there were over 30 million working days that are lost due to work related illnesses and non-fatal workplace injuries.

Honeywell is a manufacturer of premium protective eye and face products that set the standard for comfortable, high quality protection at work. On-site review of risks to the eye and face, and solutions for reducing risks are also a feature that Honeywell offer.

Frost and Sullivan said: 'Industrial IoT enables factories to unlock operational efficiency, optimise production as well as assets and increase worker safety'. And this is exactly what Honeywell plans to do with Industry 4.0, increase worker safety.

The Connected Worker
By using smart edge devices, for example the integration of Bluetooth, RFID and sensors into PPE workers can be more connected and therefore safer. Additionally cloud-based safety management software is also safer.

As smart devices collect data, real-time awareness of worker’s health and safety status can be very beneficial when reading toxic gas readings, man down alerts and heart and breathing rates.

People working over a period of time can record and monitor how they are affected especially with hazardous substances, over a period of time, to allow faster and better data driven decisions. This will result in safer work places and more efficient options.

With the Connected Worker in mind, Honeywell devised the Connected Worker Platform, which is the industry’s first cloud based safety platform.

The connected worker platform can help improve safety in companies and workers by using a range of steps; starting with the task manager and the Vocollect M&I and Movilizer software, who is involved in directed work solutions to increase productivity and reduce errors, the platform will help with faster data capture and analysis for task management.

The remote worker can use the ConneXt and Safety Communicator from the platform which will manage high risk workers in remote or lone solutions, as well as saving lives, give faster response times and overall prevent incidents.

Within the compliance section there is the safety suite which automates paper-based management tasks, and uses real time information to prevent compliance fails and related incidents.

Finally, reaching the data driven insight, the safety software platform comes in to ensure platform integrating plant, edge devices and personnel with HS&E software and is extensible with ecosystem enablement.

Safety is often an element that is overlooked when it comes down to Industry 4.0, but with the right software and equipment companies and workers have nothing to worry about.