LONE WORKER PROTECTION
The numbers were dialled manually and each person had to be informed about the issue and status. Alerted employees then also called in during the drive to work to get updates. This process was very time consuming and took time away from the people onsite trying to deal with the issue.
The employees and O-I’s management understood these issues and tried to find appropriate solutions. Various technologies had been previously suggested but no one within the company had the expertise to decide upon a comprehensive, suitable solution. This is not uncommon as only a very few highly specialised consultants or integrators have this specialist knowledge.
THE SOLUTION One of the key actions was to identify
the right technology platform and infrastructure for O-I and a balance between the technological and financial aspects needed to be found. The company had good site wide mobile GSM coverage with many employees relying on their mobiles for day to day communication, so it made sense for ANT to enhance the existing solution. ANT provided each lone worker with a smartphone that was fitted with a panic button and an application that could trigger automatic alarms (e.g. when detecting that the worker has fallen down).
Triggering the alarm was, however, only part of the challenge as it was important for each alarm to be sent to a team of people that could investigate it and, in the case of a
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lone worker, find the person quickly. During the consultation it was also discovered that some employees worked underground where there was no mobile reception. To protect employees working in this environment, ANT needed to ensure that even when workers were in areas without GSM coverage an alarm could still be triggered. To achieve this, ANT designed and implemented a check-in, check-out systems.
With this solution, employees check- in to an area by “touching in” using their smartphone. This process updates their location information, but it also triggers a monitoring timer when they are about to enter an area with no GSM reception. By checking out of the area again the monitoring is deactivated. If for example, they fail to check out or respond to a check call after a specified monitoring time period, an alarm is triggered. This alarm is automatically sent to a pre-defined recipient or group and includes details of the person and their location.
ANT also automated the way in which out of hours emergency calls are handled. All alerted employees are placed in a conference so that the duty operator can inform and update them all on the situation at once. This has enabled better management of the 24/7 alarm response.
THE RESULTS O-I takes health and safety very
seriously and the Plant Manager Mr Reiner Zinnecker, who headed up the project in its evaluation phase,
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commented: “Together with the health and safety team we identified the issues we had and we wanted to provide better protection for all of our employees. Prior to the consultancy provided by ANT, we felt unable to identify and agree on a suitable solution. ANT came onto our Holzminden plant and carried out a thorough investigation and took time to speak with our employees and management to get a full understanding of our lone worker challenges. By doing this, they were also able to detect other areas of improvement. Our employees, especially lone workers, are now far better protected, but also the resolution of any machine issues has been greatly improved, leading to higher productivity.”
O-I and ANT worked together in the implementation and also consulted employees throughout the process, who themselves suggested the most suitable mobile device, which ANT consequently tested and installed.
“Employees have adapted well to the new lone worker solution, which works reliably 24/7. Our partnership with ANT was a fully collaborative process which engaged everyone within the organisation. We believe that this has been key to the project’s success,” Reiner concluded.
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