COVER STORY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
as the machines operating on the shopfl oor.
It’s therefore as important to keep your people
running as they should as it is the machines.
“The entire factory system has diff erent parts and
components,” he says. “Because people are in that
system, they’re an aspect of it – in many ways,
they are the most critical bit. They’re also the
most likely to break.”
Much like the new worker on the wind turbine
from earlier, the greatest dangers on the shopfl oor
such as a machine failure leading to the start-up
of a back-up machine. “Humans are creatures of
habit, and when we’re asked to do something out
of the ordinary, hazards arise,” says Chandler.
“Maintenance, therefore, plays a vital role in health
& safety. When things break, people take risks, so
by moving towards condition-based maintenance
or even reliability-centred maintenance, where
monitoring and analytics are built into the
machine, you avoid jeopardising the safety of
operators because things aren’t breaking down.”
come when something breaks the workers’ routine,
A digital future
Technology such as virtual reality and light
curtains is more commonplace than ever before,
and its benefi t to the manufacturing sector is
quickly becoming apparent. Both O’Connor
and Chandler are adamant that not only is the
technology here to stay, but its benefi ts are only
just being realised. “Manufacturers are constantly
from a training perspective.”
sheer potential digital technologies can have on
our working lives. “We’re on course to increase
Shawn Chandler of the IEEE
says that by monitoring
behaviour, people can be
protected from harm
RackEye: protecting assets using technology
Good health & safety practice also means minimising the risk
of accidental collision. In areas such as warehouses, forklift
trucks are a major hazard, both to pedestrians and the assets in
the building. Collisions between forklifts and racking can cause
injury, damage and costly downtime. Again, technology can help
with this. Huddersfi eld-based manufacturer of industrial safety
barriers, A-SAFE, has developed RackEye, a system that allows
users to remotely monitor impacts to racking and other corners
within an industrial environment. RackEye works by actively
monitoring racking infrastructure via intelligent sensors fi tted
to the legs of warehouse racks. If these detect that an impact
trying to fi nd the thing that is going to drive
better effi ciency, better operations and better
safety, and the margins for doing so are getting
smaller and harder to fi nd as processes improve,”
says O’Connor. “VR is fundamentally changing
the landscape, especially as the technology
becomes cheaper – headsets are available now
for around £400, and high-speed broadband is
commonplace across the country. We’re at the
stage where things like VR are becoming a nobrainer
for the manufacturing sector, especially
Chandler goes even further, outlining the
digitalisation to a point where every aspect of our
lives is being monitored, recorded, trended and
stored,” he says. “If predictions are correct, we will
have around 150 zettabytes (one zettabyte equals a
billion terabytes) of data stored in just fi ve years.
“Being able to use that data to analyse not
just machinery, but human behaviour, to make a
workplace safer is something we must aspire to.”
In a world where companies like Unilever
are using Artifi cial Intelligence to perform job
interviews (https://bit.ly/342Kh8G), it’s clear that
we’ve not even scratched the surface of what is
possible with digital technologies. The future is
set to be connected and, as a result, hopefully one
where everyone is able to get home safely.
has occurred,
the system will
pinpoint the
a ected rack
and send an
immediate SMS
notifi cation to
the management
team. This
allows them to
assess any damage immediately and take remedial
action if necessary. RackEye’s benefi ts aren’t limited to reactive,
post-impact remedial action, either. By detecting rack impacts
and alerting warehouse managers the instant incidents occur,
RackEye encourages forklift drivers to take greater care when
loading and unloading racks. Furthermore, statistical data
of when and where impacts are occurring helps warehouse
managers to identify impact hotspots, as well determine when
additional driver training might be required. According to
A-SAFE’s managing director, Luke Smith, customers have reported
a 75% reduction in impacts to racking where RackEye has been
fi tted. “They are benefi tting from changes in driver behaviour,
detailed KPI reporting and measurement and reductions in
incidents,” he says.
22 www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
/342Kh8G)
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk