Preventing accidents at work is a top priority for companies. However, occupational health and safety also includes following up on near-accidents and taking all measures to ensure that the daily routine at the workplace does not make people ill. This can only be achieved if correct behavior is firmly anchored in the entire workforce.
This is why employee training is so important. This is even required by law: According to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, employers must regularly and adequately instruct their employees on health and safety. This includes the correct switching off and locking of machines before cleaning as well as the reliable use of personal protective equipment and regular hygiene measures.

Customized instructions

Digital checklists on smartphones, tablets or smart glasses make it easier to provide guidance and control than folders full of paper. However, there is nothing to be gained here with a "standardized approach". According to the law, the instruction must be specifically tailored to the workplace or the employee's area of responsibility and adapted to the risk development. In addition, the instruction must take place before the employee starts work, and each time there are

• Changes in the area of responsibility,
• the introduction of new work equipment or
• new technology

Doing this reliably and at the right time without risking waiting and idle times is a major challenge. Digital instructions are also only part of the solution. They also need to be smart. This means that mobile apps for connected workers use AI to respond individually to the employee. They take their skills and experience with the current task into account. In addition, they even take user behavior into account depending on the day. Two examples: A machine operator hesitates at a work step during logout/tagout. Or a worker repeatedly jumps back and forth in the app to put on protective clothing. The AI then offers a more in-depth video or asks to check with experienced colleagues before taking the next step.
Each company determines which learning steps, images, texts or videos the system displays to a person. As soon as everything is running smoothly, the AI hides detailed instructions again. Those who have mastered their job then only need to confirm the completion of key steps. Onboarding and training new employees also requires significantly less face-to-face training away from the factory floor. Instead, "on-the-job training" with digital support is a good option - right where the task at hand is. In this way, induction is closely interlinked with practical work.

Concrete advice from afar

With its Smart Connected Worker Suite, Augmentir offers an AI-supported tool for connected working. Companies can use it to provide employees with more targeted training, increase their productivity in the workplace and improve occupational health and safety.

© Augmentir

In industry, more and more employees are working at a great distance from technical experts or supervisors. According to figures from Cisco, this applies to almost two thirds of those working on factory floors or in technical field service. But what happens if an ambiguity or even a problem suddenly arises? Then an expert looking over your shoulder would be extremely valuable.
Solutions for networked working bridge the distance with live video streaming and augmented reality. This allows workers and supervisors to view the situation on site together, discuss the necessary measures in the specific case and check the success. This makes it easier to avert an error or accident. AI bots also shorten the time it takes to solve problems and relieve the burden on specialists who are in high demand. This is because the bots can be trained to answer frequently asked questions directly.

Immediate notification to the EHS team

Carsten Hunfeld is Director EMEA at Augmentir.

© Augmentir

Minor security incidents are often poorly documented and those responsible only find out about them very late. This makes reconstruction more difficult: descriptions usually become less accurate the longer ago an incident occurred. Connections - for example between the error code of a system and a later event - often remain undiscovered. Mobile apps can be used to record mishaps and near misses via images and text and forward them to occupational health and safety (EHS, Environment, Health and Safety) in real time. They can then act immediately and identify where they need to make improvements.

Good safety management through prevention

Job safety analyses (JSAs) are mandatory for every workplace in the company. Safety risks are identified and evaluated. These range from fall hazards and the storage of hazardous substances to routes on the company premises. Software helps to establish uniform company-wide standards for the assessment process. With the help of interactive forms, managers gain a better overview and can take countermeasures against potential hazards more easily.