Tech advances in safety timely as industries expect surge in US manufacturing

CHICAGO — Given statistics in manufacturing that show more than half of business leaders are concerned with rising workers compensation insurance costs and worker shortages for industrial settings, the focus on where technology can bridge gaps in safety is an area where the improvements are fast-changing and problem-solving.

Peter Mielert, West Hartford, Connecticut-based head of Y-Risk Labs at The Hartford Insurance Group Inc., spoke Monday at the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.’s Riskworld annual conference on the challenges in manufacturing, where the anticipated cost of hiring or replacing one worker is $5,000 and where business experts are expecting to see job growth, given the presidential administration’s push to bring more production to the United States. He called it a “huge disruption” when just one person in manufacturing is injured, resulting in a cascade of costly problems for businesses: rehiring, retraining and the loss of experienced talent.

Safety technologies are keeping up with the pace of what is needed in keeping workers from getting injured, he said.

Among the top innovations are computer vision sensors that gave give safety professionals a bird’s-eye view of areas of concern, wearables that can gauge such factors as worker wellness, work pace, and location, environmental sensors that can detect machines nearby, sensors that can detect whether a worker is wearing their protective equipment, and telematics that can alert employers of unsafe practices, especially for drivers.

“Forklifts are undefeated,” he said, citing a typical example of an unsafe condition that has led to injuries. “You should not be around a forklift without awareness that it’s there, and it should know you’re there. We have proximity sensors in the industry that can give workers an awareness, an alarm, an alert, and can give the forklift (operator) the same.”