Environmental, health and safety regulations are a major concern for each company, and especially those with factories. It is imperative that all processes in factories be in such a way that they do not harm the environment or negatively impact the health and safety of employees.
For one, this helps maintain the sustainability of the company. If employees get injured or if their health is otherwise affected, for example by exposure to hazardous chemicals, then the company’s operations will be negatively affected. Huge losses could be made as a result of the loss of the halting of operations. Additionally, huge costs could be incurred to compensate employees for their damage and pay for their medical fees.
EHS regulations also help protect the environment, including the people living near factories. For example, by ensuring that EHS regulations regarding emissions are followed, the factory can avoid causing medical complications in neighbors.
Traditional Approach to EHS Compliance
In the past, that is before the onset of industry 4.0, EHS compliance was mostly manual. Measurements were taken manually, for example by recording the temperature meter of a critical machine every half an hour.
The regulations were held in hard copy manuals and in the brains of safety personnel. Employees were given rules regarding what to do to ensure EHS compliance. It was a one-way communication channel. As an employee, you listen to the regulations and it’s your job to accommodate yourself to fit them.
And when it came to safety procedures, they were rigid. If a fire broke out, there were designated assembly points and everyone had to assemble there. If the assembly points were inaccessible for some reason, then confusion ensued.
Communication was slow. It was common for a messenger to be sent from one end of a large factory complex to another end.
All these challenges made things difficult. However, there was no other way and so things remained the same.
Now, technology has made it possible to do things more efficiently. With the industry 4.0 revolution came new concepts such as health 4.0, implemented through an ehs 4.0 dashboard – a centralized, AI-powered platform.
It is not only easier to comply with EHS regulations but the workflows of companies regarding EHS are less tedious. And this begs the question, “What is health 4.0 in industry?”
What is Health 4.0 in Industry?
Industry 4.0 is all about connectivity and automation and health 4.0 is about using automated, connected systems to enhance EHS compliance, thereby promoting the safety of employees and increasing the efficiency of systems in industries.
One of the main components of any safety 4.0 system in the manufacturing industry is the ehs 4.0 dashboard. This is like a centralized command center. It integrates data from a wide array of sources, including sensors and databases. It then analyzes this data to generate actionable insights to help improve processes.
A main feature of the dashboard is visualization. Aggregated data from multiple sources is presented to executives in a visual, digestible manner; making it easy to spot trends and draw useful conclusions.
Another key feature of the dashboard is that it is powered by artificial intelligence.
All the data in the world is useless if you can’t make sense of it. Artificial intelligence, including machine and deep learning, help unlock invaluable insights.
Such insights inform the continuous optimization of processes. They can also help uncover gaps in safety and predict the occurrence of safety incidents, based on historical data and on the monitoring and tracking of state of all entities, including machines and employees.