Investing in safety: the real game changer for industries

Occupational safety and health are the starting points for economic growth. Investing in technology on behalf of their development is the best way to deliver revenue with this year’s scenario.

How does safety impact business?

If we thought that occupational safety had nothing to do with business and economic return, the Covid- 19 pandemic has proven us wrong. Safety, health and business were never as related as this year in human history. Despite living in a technological world with non stopping developments, it looks like we weren’t able to control the impact of hundreds of days off from work and plant stoppages. Especially at industrial fields.

According to the G20 document about economic impact delivered by the International Labour Organization*, industrial production fell on average around 28% only between February and April 2020. And, despite a rebound in activity, industrial production remained below its pre-crisis level by June. With new strains appearing this last month, and even though the vaccines seem to shed some light on this scenario, we are still facing, at least, a complex and uncertain year.

Aside from 2020’s context, and seeing how some industries could return to their pre Covid activity, late year´s numbers show how leveraging technological advances can anticipate and prevent work accidents and should be one of the top priorities in industrial companies. In 2018, according to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), there were 4,779 worker fatalities in the private industry in the United States.

From a business point of view, it is relevant to observe that industrial workplace accidents come along with dozens of unexpected problems: fines, worker’s compensation, dealing with lawyers, increase in insurance costs, loss of production and/or equipment, crisis and media management, among others. This costs not only money, but valuable time. For instance, in 2018, according to Injury Facts (organization depending on the National Safety Council), the total cost of work-related injuries rose up to $170.8 billion, and the total time-loss of 70,000,000 days.

Investing in safety: What can technology offer us?

The implementation of technology can directly minimize the risk of accidents and work fatalities, with the use of digital PPEs and diverse devices that can protect employees. These developments make industrial and retail workers easily located in case of an accident, even when they are missing outdoors or trapped in confined spaces. Some of these come with immediate notifications in case of falls or strong blows, and can vibrate or sound in front of dangerous areas or events. Moreover, in this special context, they can alert when social distancing is broken and allow contact tracing if a positive case of Covid-19 is detected.

Also , by using IIoT and AI, we can collect and provide a huge amount of data that is used in multiple ways, for safety and non-safety purposes: setting up better protocols and processes according to your own operation; improving logistics and supply chain; detecting different behaviours in the fastest way possible and allowing you to fix it before it produces more damage.

It is then fair to say that decisions made for safety concerns create benefits that go far from their original goals, impacting economic growth as well. Technology not only protects your employees, and in this particular scenario provides industries the right environment in order to continue operating, but it can also help them reduce production times and boost their management and operation.

Safety is the starting point of economic growth

Covid-19 has turned our eyes to occupational health and safety, an issue that hadn’t been properly handled in past decades. Humans tend to act in a reactive way, and 2020 was the moment when we realized health and safety were the starting points for economic growth. Moreover, this pandemic showed us that it couldn’t be controlled or determined, that it wasn’t in our hands to decide how it would continue evolving and interfering with our daily life. But, we can decide how we are going to face it. The only way of turning this macroeconomic scenario around is providing really safe environments for our teams, using the tools and potential in our power, in order to continue operating and delivering revenue in a constant way.

Safety must not become one of many priorities; it should be one of the most important values and assets of every industry. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it will also take your business to the next level, with higher standards that can bring long term economic profit. Taking the decision of investing in industrial technology is the real game changer for these times.

Learn more

If you want your industry to take the next step in safety and revenue growth, click on www.drixit.com