Connected Worker Safety solutions designed to dramatically improve workers safety

Connected Worker Safety are keystone benefits for Industry 4.0, Smart City and Smart Port

While some companies (some of them are very famous but unfortunately old-school) would like to reduce Connected Worker solutions to mobile apps available on smartphone or tablet, Connected Worker devices and solutions are much more than that. Connected Worker means literally "a worker connected to someone or something".  In that way, a connected worker is more than a knowledge worker. It relates more to industry 4.0, smart city or smart port paradigms.

There are a lot of definitions about what is a Smart City and we must admit a bit of hype. Nevertheless, there are deep trends that justify and explain in which ways cities are changing (or must change) to be more: Sustainable, Protective, Attractive, Efficient, Fun to live and work.  Protection is at the heart of the smart city foundations and for that reason protection workers and other stakeholders with connected worker solutions makes a lot of sense.

Industry 4.0 (a.k.a the fourth industrial revolution) is something much deeper than the hyped "Internet of Things" for customers who are supposed to buy at any cost useless smart & connected objects. The 4th revolution is related to the hyper-connected industrial area where traditional machines and workers are transformed into smart & connected workers and machines. By doing so, new usages and new services are possible such as:

  1. Monitor a turbine using strain gauges coupled to local decision-making edge board in order to get the maximum operational efficiency without compromising on security and maintenance.
  2. Send a real-time alert to a worker when a machine close to him is about to fail (for example, by using connected safety shoes)
  3. Produce highly personalized product on-demand on local distributed small production units.
  4. Enhance product quality testing by providing immediate local feedback to quality managers.

Protecting and Saving workers lives is an industry 4.0 enabler

There is a lot of media coverage on "connected machines" but we believe that industry 4.0 will only deliver sustainable and valuable results if and only if workers are part of the game. For instance, worker through smart PPE (personal protective equipment) sends and receives data/event from/to other workers/machines/organisations in case of emergency.