FEATURE HEALTH & SAFETY: WAREHOUSING
SECURE WORKING ENVIRONMENT through mobile communications
Specialist in-building mobile communications helps provide a safer working environment, writes Simon Watson of Spectralink
W
arehouses can be dangerous and unpredictable places, particularly
for lone workers. With campuses sprawling over thousands if not millions of square meters and multiple buildings, workers may find themselves out of sight and reach of colleagues for extended periods of time. But this needn’t entail a slip in standards when it comes to safety and security. By employing a specialist in-building mobile communications system you can easily detect and mitigate situations where workers are in need of assistance or suspicious activity has been reported. Equipping employees with an in-
building mobile device means that they are instantly contactable no matter where they are physically located and even if they are operating machinery. As a result any problems can be given
immediate attention by the most relevant member of staff. However it’s not as simple as: ‘any
mobile technology is better than no mobile technology’. The warehouse is a unique working
environment and there are a number of considerations that must be taken into account when designing and implementing a mobile safety strategy:
FUNCTIONALITY It is important to consider how you set up your mobile communication system to deliver the specific functionality that will help keep employees safe. This might be push-to-talk capabilities to support group calling, alternative text-based messaging options or specialist apps and alarms that detect when the user is running, has fallen or is in a dangerous situation. For example, Marel, a provider of advanced equipment, systems and services for the food processing industry required a mobile communication solution for one of its on-site teams with special responsibilities in the case of fire or accident. Ultimately it chose handsets that supported sending text messages in addition to receiving voice calls as this enhanced the team’s ability to respond quickly in emergency situations.
18 JULY/AUGUST 2014 | FACTORY EQUIPMENT
REACH A key consideration is how far your mobile solution needs to extend; do you need to connect employees within one warehouse or across an entire facility? It’s important to consider the greatest distance that employees will roam on a day-to-day basis to make sure you don’t put the most isolated workers at risk through lack of connectivity. Organic cosmetics manufacturer and
retailer L’Occitane Group needed to re- evaluate its mobile communication strategy following the merger of two of its production companies. This involved enlarging its existing site and adding a building, bringing on board more than 200 additional employees and around 16,000 square meters that needed to be connected. Ultimately, the Group chose an IP-DECT solution to cater to its mobility needs. This prioritised voice calls in order to ensure the best network coverage and voice quality for the entire facility – keeping employees connected even in remote areas.
VOICE QUALITY A warehouse is an unusually noisy environment to work in with loud heavy machinery and vast buildings. It has a
high number of isolated or hard-to- reach spots including loading bays, elevators and basements. These present a challenge when it comes to ensuring high voice call quality but needn’t mean that you have to accept crackly lines and patchy signal. It’s crucial that you don’t as delayed calls or miscommunicated messages could be costly and potentially dangerous for employees. In these circumstances a DECT or Voice over Wi-Fi network offers a mobility solution that a traditional consumer mobile network simply cannot. In the majority of cases these networks are privately owned and managed, giving you complete control over placement of base stations or access points and therefore consistency of coverage throughout your facility. An added bonus is that these signals won’t interfere with sensitive machinery thus ensuring that heightened safety precautions don’t come at the expense of productivity.
DEPENDABILITY Devices used by employees play a part in ensuring that voice quality remains high. Durability, water resistance and shock absorbency are crucial in a warehouse environment; with a broken device call quality will be non-existent, not to mention the high cost of frequent replacement. For this reason we must be wary of BYOD policies in the warehouse. While this approach makes sense in
many industries, consumer devices are simply too fragile to cope with the stresses and strains of a manufacturing environment and may jeopardise a mobile safety strategy as a result.
BEST SAFETY SOLUTION Risk is part of everyday life in a warehouse where workers may frequently be isolated, using heavy machinery or working at night; but risky should not mean unsafe. A well-considered mobile communication system makes it easy to detect and mitigate situations where workers are in need of assistance. With constant communication
decision-making is expedited and safety becomes second nature.
Spectralink T: 0203 284 1536
www.spectralink.com Enter 311
/ FACTORYEQUIPMENT
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