After two months of lockdown orders – more, in some locations – businesses across industries are slowly starting to be allowed to re-open, provided they follow strict safety protocols. That means continuing to enforce distancing measures, ensuring appropriate PPE is being worn, temperature screening, and more. While it may be an inconvenience, following these return-to-work protocols is the only way to continue to curb the spread of COVID-19 and keep employees and customers safe as they start returning to some of their normal routines.
For some businesses, that’s more easily accomplished than others. In high-volume or high-movement environments, managing these requirements can be much harder than in office environments, for instance.
“With various industries priming to re-open after government-mandated shutdowns, many factories and warehouses are looking for ways to ensure not only the health and safety of their employees, but also that future operations aren’t disrupted due to cluster outbreaks of COVID-19 infection.”
Sandeep Pandya, CEO, Everguard.ai.
Everguard.ai, which has built its businesses around creating workplace safety in industrial environments, has lunched new applications specifically focused on pandemic safety protocols, to make it easier for businesses to safely re-open.
The newest features in its Sentro360 platform include PPE detection, safety zone compliance, temperature monitoring, and more. The AI-powered platform is able to scan multiple sensor inputs and alert workers and managers through wearable devices. For instance, if a worker removes a safety mask for longer than a defined period, or gets too close to other workers, they can be sent an immediate alert reminding them of safety protocols. Likewise, managers are able to understand the frequency of events to help them optimize workflows and processes to reduce risk.
While some believe distancing measures aren’t practical in all workplaces, evidence suggests it is necessary – and effective.
“Germany has managed to keep their factories and warehouses in operation throughout the coronavirus pandemic due to stringent health and safety compliance procedures that ensured the strict wearing of PPE equipment, social distancing, in-house testing and contact tracing when employees fell ill. One such company only experienced 15 cases of infection out of their 6,700 employees, and this is due to their adherence to these strict protocols.”
Sandeep Pandya
While the solution was originally built to ensure general workplace safety, it has the potential during the coronavirus pandemic to significantly reduce the spread of the virus within businesses. The COVID-19 virus is not gone, a vaccine is not imminent, and experts generally point to a high probability of a second wave. That means it’s likely that at least a few employees are likely to contract it.
This is where monitoring technology can play an important role, ensuring that, once workplaces have re-opened, they are able to remain open by quickly reducing the risk of rapid spread throughout facilities.
Combining a variety of sensor inputs to measure key variables – including temperature – and an artificial intelligence engine, the platform can provide ongoing health and safety analytics and alerts related to COVID-19 as well as other standard workplace safety requirements, like compliance with OSHA standards. The data from the system can be used not only to monitor compliance, but also to optimize processes through a deeper understanding of workplace behavioral patterns and movement.
We may never return entirely to pre-coronavirus social and workplace behaviors, and monitoring requirements are going to be in effect for a long time. Businesses are going to have to adjust their processes, and technologies that automate their ability to actively monitor their will be key to their future success.
