Beyond compliance: A story on how AI ensures proper PPE use for employee safety!

Colin and Rachel are safety managers at different manufacturing companies. At a networking event they listen to a speaker describing regulator actions against companies for providing the wrong PPE, or for not making sure that PPE was being worn. 

After the talk, they chatted about the implications over coffee. Colin, from company A admitted to being confused about what to do now. He thought he was compliant. He had identified a long list of hazards which employees might be exposed to. Noise, airborne dusts, vehicles, sharp edges, falling objects, underfoot sharps. Colin provided a kit of PPE to cover these hazards – hearing protection, dust masks, high vis jackets, gloves and safety shoes. He had asked each worker to sign a document to say they will wear it all the time. Wasn’t that enough for compliance? The speaker at the event suggested not.

At company B, Rachel started with a similar risk assessment. But she looked first to see if there were better ways of reducing the hazards. Vehicle and pedestrian routes were planned to keep workers and vehicles apart where possible. Ventilation was improved and some processes were enclosed to reduce airborne dust. Machinery was used to reduce handling of certain objects.

For the residual hazards, company B still needed PPE. But Rachel looked at the activities in each location. Masks were more difficult to wear for long periods, so work rotas were modified. Rachel Identified two different levels of hearing protection that were needed. The noise levels were lower in the one area where she couldn’t exclude vehicles from pedestrian areas, so it was important that hearing wasn’t overprotected, as people might not hear the vehicles.

Initially there had been confusion over what PPE to wear in each area, but careful monitoring had identified the high risk areas, and discussions with the frontline workers resulted in some great suggestions about storage and colour-coding of PPE. Picking up where people weren’t wearing full PPE led to conversations about the difficulty of wearing certain masks with ear muffs for the higher noise area, and of wearing gloves when machines needed to be reset. A group of workers trialed some alternatives, and were now happy with the options available. 

“But” said Colin “how do you have the time to find out all these things about how people are using the PPE, or where they are walking?”

“I have an extra set of eyes working for me,” Rachel explained, “one that never tires, and can be in many places at once, giving me full visibility into my workplace safety risks!”

Colin wanted to know more, so Rachel enthusiastically shared her experience with Protex AI, an innovative AI-powered software that had revolutionised their safety practices. This computer vision software seamlessly connects to their existing CCTV cameras, efficiently processes and stores the data on-site, and autonomously captures any unsafe incidents. Using AI to enhance her safety practices allowed Rachel to implement corrective actions, develop training programmes and carry out beneficial conversations with the workforce about safety.

“Using this AI system helped me to plan improvements to my traffic and pedestrian routes by tracking every time someone walked near a vehicle route, or when a vehicle passed near an area someone might be working. Our high-noise hearing protection is red, and the lower-noise hearing protection is yellow, so the AI system can show whether the wrong sort has been worn. It was the system that showed when gloves weren’t being worn – but it was the workers who had all the best ideas about how to fix the problems. We’re a big team – me, the workers and Protex AI.”