Safety Management Solution

Technology will have a permanent role in managing epidemics

Ensuring interrupted operations has for long been central to risk management in factories, hospitals, production sites and various critical corporate functions such as logistics hubs. Covid-19 underlines that epidemics containment must be a part of the risk management toolkit.

An epidemic can develop and spread quickly, producing wave after wave of outbreaks of various scales. For businesses this implies great uncertainties in predicting and managing the impact on their own personnel and the disruption of their supply chain.

How could companies take control of limiting the spread of the epidemic and securing the continuity of their business? Should one simply wait for a medical solution to achieve significant coverage? How about when some other, yet unknown epidemic starts to spread in the future – should a process be prepared for this very likely scenario?

Preventing epidemics and inhibiting transmission chains can be thought of as risk management processes just like information security, hardening systems for cyber-attacks and securing premises and sensitive documents. In the future, having a mechanism in place to protect employees can become a standard part of a security audit.

Technology offers a variety of options for contract tracing and maintaining a safe social distance. A particularly effortless and maintenance free solution is to use smart personnel badges that utilize indoor positioning. Should employees wearing the badges stay in too close contact for too long, the badges will sound a notification and the event is recorded. In case an employee or visitor is later diagnosed with an infection, exposures can easily be traced from the cloud service and categorized by the likelihood of passing on the infection. This way the company itself can effectively end the transmission chain and secure continuity of their business.

Contact tracing will also serve to reduce fears of infection in cases where the risk can be determined to be minimal. Both the employer and employee will benefit from a safer workplace and the ability to continue normal operations with minimal training and maintenance.

Noccela´s technology keeps social distancing and infections under control

The Safety Management Solution developed by Turku-based IoT technology company Noccela ensures social distancing in workplaces and monitors transmission chains. It has brought clear cost advantages to Cargotec Finland Oy’s Raisio plant.

– We need to keep society and industry running even under exceptional circumstances. It is the responsibility of all of us to prevent the coronavirus spreading. With our solution, people can work safely and there is no need to close businesses or production lines due to the threat of exposures, says Tuukka Tarkiainen, CEO of Noccela Oy.

Tarkiainen talks about the Smart Badge developed by Noccela. It resembles a regular ID-badge that is worn around the neck. The GDPR-approved Safety Management Solution includes the Smart Badge itself along with the cloud interface it remains in sync with. With its positioning technology, the Smart Badge alerts when the social distance between people is less than the distance specified by the customer, usually 1.5 to 2 meters, or in case of prolonged encounters.

– Each device is personalized so if an employee reports a positive test result to the employer, possible exposures can be identified from the data accumulated in the cloud service and all persons who have been or have not been in contact with that person can be identified. The company will thus be able to react quickly, inhibit the transmission chains and ensure business continuity without wider quarantine or, in the worst case, complete closure. Our customers have reported a reduction of up to 70% in the epidemic risk as early as three days after the introduction, Lauri Poikela, Noccela’s customer experience manager, continues.

Founded in Turku in 2015, Noccela develops indoor positioning technology for use cases such as factory operations and access control. From the beginning of its operations, the company has invested in excellence.

– We have been fortunate to have some of the best UWB technology engineers and software experts in the world coming from Nokia backgrounds. On this basis, we have also been able to create world-class solutions, Poikela explains.

Predictability brings cost advantages to the Raisio plant

In a global market, the solution is particularly suitable for companies and organizations that operate indoors and need to keep their business and production ongoing also at critical times.

– Our solution has already been delivered to several countries, including Australia. In Germany, perhaps one of the markets worst hit by Covid, for example Lufthansa Industrial Solutions uses our technology, Tarkiainen says.

Noccela was first contacted by Cargotec Finland Oy in September 2020. Heli Salonen, HSE specialist and occupational health and safety manager, says that the Safety Management Solution

solution is, above all, a proactive tool for them.

– Unfortunately, coronavirus alert still prevails, but we have taken various measures that enable us to sustain our business. The Safety Management Solution has brought us a significant tool in the fight against the coronavirus and in addition it was clearly cheaper than any competition. With the help of Noccela, tracing of corona-exposed people does not rely on conjectures and lead to, for example, mass quarantines, but on actual encounters traced with the help of the devices. Avoiding mass quarantines is a clear cost advantage for our operations. We now have the situation under our own control, and we are able to take the lead in preventing the virus from spreading uncontrollably in our premises, Salonen says.

Cargotec has operations in more than 100 countries. At the moment, they have Noccela’s solution in use at plants in Finland and in Ireland with hundreds of users. Salonen emphasizes that the monitoring information obtained from the solution is very carefully regulated, the access to the system is limited to only a few people and all data transfer takes place with the personal consent of the staff. – In addition, we have made some small adaptations to the functions of the solution. All of this, as well as deployment guidance and support services, has gone very agilely in collaboration with Noccela.

The Raisio plant introduced an obligation to wear masks in December 2020. Salonen believes that acts that prevent the spread of Covid are also socially responsible.

– We now have a tool that allows us to identify people exposed in our workplace in the event of a possible infection on a fast schedule, thus speeding up action to prevent the spread of infections. Within our organization, we are able to implement the core of occupational safety and health – to provide safe working conditions. It has been a pleasure to see how the provision of safety clearances has been enhanced with the alarm feature of the device. In addition, it is in the interest of the entire work community that in the event of an infection, we have the means to respond to the situation as quickly as possible.

Source: tekniikkatalous.fi