Addressing Automotive Shop Floor Safety In The Smart Factory Age

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Smart factory technology offers transformative potential. Analysts for Deloitte believe this groundbreaking industrial gear will catalyze the development of an exciting new manufacturing frontier wherein data literally and figuratively drives the shop floor.

The automotive manufacturing space is among the sectors most likely to benefit from the emergence of the smart factory. A good number of the organizations in the industry have embraced the technology, according to Capgemini, which found that almost half of automotive manufacturers have made investments of $250 million or more in smart factory infrastructure.

These companies anticipate that smart factories will constitute nearly one-quarter of their respective production site portfolios by 2022. In all, these bleeding-edge facilities could add $160 billion annually to the global automotive space within five years. However, this progress is not without downsides.

The rise and standardization of the smart factory will complicate many production-adjacent operations – most notably, environmental health and safety processes. Consequently, automotive manufacturers in the process of cultivating smart factories must look into modern EHS technologies and techniques that complement the shop floor activities that unfold in these innovative worksites.

Making Safety Smarter

Forward-thinking EHS strategists and solution vendors have developed a range of policies and technological tools meant for deployment in smart factories, EHS Today reported. These items facilitate data-driven EHS operations, allowing EHS teams collect real-time insights into shop floor safety performance and make changes to more effectively protect personnel navigating intelligent shop floor production technology.

This EHS transparency, combined with equally data-heavy overall equipment effectiveness strategies, can drastically improve workplace safety operations. While smart safety technology is only in the beginning stages of development, businesses in the automotive manufacturing industry can move forward with existing EHS solutions that support the kind of data-based safety workflows needed to support the next-generation production processes.

Selecting an EHS Partner

In recent years, organizations in almost every industry have begun adopting comprehensive workplace safety solutions that streamline common EHS activities, including incident reporting, claims management, auditing and hazard analysis. These tools are ideal for automotive manufacturing firms on the verge of rolling out smart factories and in need of EHS technology that not only supports these sites but also lays the groundwork for improved safety practices in more traditional shop floor environments.

Here at ProcessMAP, we help automotive manufacturers all sizes develop and deploy cutting-edge workplace safety methodologies, including those tailor-made for use in smart factories, via an innovative suite of EHS tools. Our solutions support seamless data collection and review efforts while addressing ancillary issues such as regulatory compliance and profitability.

Connect with us today to learn how our solutions can future-proof EHS operations at your automotive organization.