Harnessing Industrial IoT to Reduce Workplace Risk

Avoiding unplanned downtime and equipment failure are two pretty obvious benefits that companies realise from deploying Industrial IoT solutions like MOVUS FitMachine. A lesser known, but equally important benefit is the impact IIoT can have on workplace safety.

A recent article published by Blackline Safety highlighted a number of risks faced by workers in manufacturing. Manufacturing plants are complex, can be fast moving, and are inherently dangerous environments – environments that often require maintenance workers to enter hazardous areas to undertake inspections or repairs.

It’s here that FitMachine has a positive impact on worker safety. By adopting a predictive maintenance strategy underpinned by digital insights from FitMachine, maintenance workers can focus on doing maintenance work that needs doing vs planned inspections that often deliver little real value. Predictive maintenance also reduces unplanned downtime – machine failures often create stress and urgency – an environment that can lead to short cuts on safety or poor maintenance.

So whilst improved reliability, avoiding unplanned downtime, and better machine utilisation are positive outcomes for our FitMachine customers, improved workplace safety is equally important and is a topic we’ll continue to talk with our customers about.

This article was first published on LinkedIn on 9 July 2018.