Wearable technology is providing data that helps formulate a personalised injury reduction program.
Warehouse workers can get injured at work from bad lifting practices or not using equipment safely. A warehouse equipment manufacture makes trolleys that are ergonomically designed and safe to use, provided workers are trained in the best ways to push them, and know how to lift items into them without straining muscles.
Companies carry out risk assessments for the various manual handling tasks in the warehouse and then formulate safe practices applicable to all warehouse workers. Soter Analytics is pioneering a different approach. Instead of focusing on safety standards for all, they are using technology to formulate a safety plan individualised for particular workers.
Soter Analytics has developed a wearable device that detects every time the wearer shifts position or bends down. An app analyses the data and advises the worker how they can minimise the risk of musculoskeletal and other strain injuries. This advice is in the form of instructional videos that tech workers better ways to move.
No supervisor is involved in the process, just the technology and the employee. The CEO of Soter Analytics, Matthew Harts says comments:
“It’s not a device that employees wear for the rest of their lives, it’s a short time, a high-quality training program.”
Harts claims that the short term training provided by the technology is more effective than formal classroom safety training where up to 65% of the information taught is forgotten within a week.
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