Instead of reactively getting workers out of hazardous situations, it is now possible to identify the first signs of risk as soon as they arise.
With the Internet of Things (IoT), the SAP Connected Worker Safety solution offers a platform that allows project managers as well as health and safety personnel across industries to access the data collected by various IoT devices in real time.
While in the past it was merely possibly to react to health-threatening incidents at work after they had occurred and do root cause analysis after the fact, at present it has become possible to proactively identify hazards through regulations and risk assessments. SAP Connected Worker Safety enables customers to do the next step–predictive analytics by monitoring workers and environment in real time to identify potential risks at runtime.
IoT Solution to Identify Potential Safety Risks in Real Time
Launched at Hannover Messe 2018, SAP Connected Worker Safety was developed in a co-innovation project for the transportation industry between SAP and NTT in Japan. Key prerequisites to the new solution are IoT sensors collecting data in working environments on both workers–e. g. their heart rates and body temperature–and the environment, such as air quality, temperature, light, and noise. Based on the sensors, the application also raises alarms on incidents, e.g. falls, injuries, dehydration, or fatigue.
The most prominent pain point when it comes to IoT scenarios within worker safety has always been that users had to rely on different platforms to monitor the data from various devices by different manufacturers. This problem has finally been solved by SAP Connected Worker Safety through the introduction of a generic platform that connects all data, wearables, and other IoT devices to be monitored by safety experts in one dashboard.
Due to this real-time integration, it becomes possible to directly analyze the incoming data in order to prevent workers from getting into hazardous situations in the first place.
Versatile IoT Solution for Predictive Analytics
Its versatility makes the solution special: SAP Connected Worker Safety was developed not for a singular industry but to address the needs of any industry where workers can make contact with hazardous materials or encounter dangerous situations apply.
“A classic example is mining,” solution owner Christian Polivka explains. “A very common danger to workers underground is lack of oxygen or blackdamp in the air. Workers used to take canary birds with them because they react very sensitively to changes in the composition of air long before humans start to take notice. Nowadays, IoT sensors send updates on the mixture of gases in the tunnels so it has become possible to constantly monitor all health-relevant components. SAP Connected Worker Safety does the next step by connecting the data to enable health and safety to do predictive analytics on the situation underground, thus making sure that workers won’t get into danger at all.“
Release to customer is planned for later in the second quarter of 2018, planned product enhancements to SAP Connected Worker Safety in 2018 include the output of location-based real-time information to workers, such as historic incident data as well as hazards, controls and personal protective equipment via SAP EHS. Further planned is the integration of SAP SuccesFactors for training and qualification purposes as well as person-related exposure and biometric histories.
