The New Safety Standard: 4 Ways Cameras Can Keep Workers Safe
As the landscape of workplace safety continues to evolve, the technologies designed to protect workers have evolved alongside it.
Today, security cameras — especially those equipped with AI capabilities — are becoming a new safety standard in manufacturing, warehousing, and other industrial environments.
In today’s blog post, we’ll highlight 4 new, innovative ways modern security camera technology unlocks new possibilities for safety teams to protect their workforce.
1) Proactively Identify Safety Hazards With Instant AI Alerts
Using cutting-edge AI technology, security cameras can now proactively detect & alert safety leaders of safety hazards in real time, giving teams a chance to respond before they result in injuries or damages.
Here’s a brief, non-exhaustive list:
LIQUID SPILL DETECTION: Proactive detection of spills gives safety teams a powerful tool to fight back against the rising trend of workplace injuries & fatalities related to slips, trips, and falls.
SLIP, TRIP, AND FALL DETECTION: When incidents do occur, safety leaders can be notified instantly so they can rapidly respond to any resulting injuries & quickly identify the cause of the incident.
FIRE / SMOKE DETECTION: While traditional alarms are essential, they don’t enable management to visually assess the incident. Proactive alerts from AI cameras give managers remote visibility into incidents the very instant they occur so they can take immediate action.
WORKERS IN HAZARDOUS AREAS: Many facilities have strict safety protocols around where workers are permitted to stand due to heavy machinery, forklift traffic, or other factors. AI camera alerts notify managers anytime these safety protocols are violated.
PPE DETECTION: The proper use of PPE can prevent 37.6% of occupational injuries and diseases (OSHA). AI cameras can alert safety teams anytime an individual is not taking proper measures to protect themselves in hazardous areas.
WEAPON DETECTION: For employers or locations where weapons are not permitted in the workplace, AI camera alerts offer employers the ability to be notified anytime an individual brandishes a gun, knife, or any other kind of weapon.
Proactive safety alerts like these enable organizations to identify & respond to threats faster than ever before.
But what if your team could go one step further?
2) Automatically Generate Comprehensive Safety Reports
In addition to proactive AI alerts, many modern platforms leverage the same technology to generate automatic reports of safety hazards in the workplace, giving management a deeper understanding of where threats exist, how they are changing over time, and how to respond.
Using these reports, safety leaders can answer critical questions like these:
HAZARD TYPE/FREQUENCY: Which types of safety hazards does our facility experience? How often are we experiencing them?
VULNERABLE LOCATIONS: Where in our facility are employees most vulnerable to specific safety hazards? How can we mitigate these?
FOOTAGE REVIEW: In reviewing footage of incidents, what happened in each one? What steps can we take today to prevent them from happening again tomorrow?
By combining AI alerts with AI reports, safety teams gain a comprehensive understanding of hazards in their workplace, giving them unprecedented ability to create a safer & happier workplace.
3) Ensure Safety Protocol Compliance In Real Time
Ensuring compliance with safety protocols is a critical responsibility shared by safety teams everywhere. And while physically inspecting operations will always be essential, security cameras greatly enhance safety leaders’ ability to ensure safety compliance across entire facilities.
Here are some examples of areas safety teams might consider monitoring in real-time:
DANGEROUS MACHINERY: Keeping an eye on areas with dangerous machinery ensures operators are following safety procedures.
FORKLIFT PATHWAYS: Monitoring forklift traffic & speed (especially near pedestrian foot traffic) helps prevent accidents in high-risk zones.
DRIVEWAYS & LOADING DOCKS: Observing high-traffic areas with vehicles in motion can prevent accidents and ensure proper safety practices are being followed
CHEMICAL STORAGE AREAS: Yearly unintentional worker overdoses increased by 13.1% between 2021 and 2022 (BLS), continuing a trend that began back in 2012.
By providing managers with live feeds of hazardous areas, cameras help maintain a safe working environment and ensure that safety protocols are being followed consistently across the facility.
4) Rapidly Find Footage Of Hazards & Incidents
Even the best safety managers can’t protect workers from hazards they don’t know about.
Luckily, modern camera technology has the ability to quickly isolate historical footage of events that may reveal previously-unknown vulnerabilities or hazards.
For example, let’s say the safety team at XYZ Manufacturing wants to review footage of speeding forklifts in a high foot traffic aisle in their warehouse. Old-school software would have required someone from XYZ’s team to manually fast-forward through endless hours of mostly-uneventful footage.
However, using modern technology, XYZ’s safety team can instantly isolate footage using any of the following criteria:
ZONE-BASED MOTION: Identify footage where motion was detected only within a user-specified area
VEHICLE DETECTION: Identify footage where forklifts were detected, either in the above-specified zone or anywhere in view of the camera
PEOPLE DETECTION: Identify footage where humans were detected, again either within the zone or anywhere in the camera’s view angle
FACE DETECTION: If company policy permits, identify footage of individual forklift operators to understand whether the problem is widespread or specific to a few individuals
By using advanced search criteria in camera footage, XYZ’s safety leaders can identify relevant footage within seconds, helping them understand what is causing forklifts to speed – and what new safety policies they can create as a result.
Implementing New Technology
As advanced as these capabilities are, they’re also very easy to implement. Modern camera platforms can often integrate with a facility’s existing cameras, making deployment seamless and easy.
Additionally, these modern platforms are also typically very user-friendly. Unlike older systems from the late 90s and early 00s, today’s camera technology companies emphasize user-friendly software as a key differentiator.
Many also offer extensive resources for training new users on how to effectively use the system.
Conclusion
When done correctly, cameras can unlock entirely new levels of your safety team’s ability to protect its workforce. With AI-powered alerts & analytics, as well as improved compliance monitoring capabilities, safety teams can protect workers more effectively than ever before. And because modern camera technology can often be integrated with existing systems, it’s never been easier to supercharge your safety efforts & ensure your workers can return home safely each and every day.
Want more info?
Interested in exploring which camera technologies might be a good fit for your team?
Observa Technologies is a team of industry experts whose goal is to provide organizations with the right camera technology tools to keep their teams safe in an increasingly dangerous world.
Because we partner with a wide variety of modern solutions, we’d love to learn about your unique needs & budget so we help you put your organization on the cutting edge of today’s most advanced safety technology.
Call us today at (801) 901-0225, email us at info@observa.co, or book time directly on our calendars at a time most convenient for you!
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