Enhancing Worker Safety With Industrial Wearables

Workplaces in the United States have become considerably safer over the years. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 10.9 employee injury and illness incidents were recorded per 100 workers in 1972; by 2020, this number had fallen to 2.7 incidents per 100 workers.

Still, that doesn’t mean businesses can afford to rest on their laurels regarding safety—especially when their employees work in manufacturing and other hazardous industrial settings.

Fortunately, modern technological advancements have introduced new ways for companies to protect their employees. In this article, we’ll explore a few of the many ways that augmented reality (AR) glasses and other industrial wearables have already revolutionized workplace safety.

Hands-Free Instructions

Industrial workers are often responsible for performing complex procedures, so it’s no surprise that they might need instructions to complete these jobs successfully. However, instruction manuals, videos, and the like require these people to stop working and look away from what they’re doing, potentially affecting their overall efficiency. Depending on the nature of their work, this type of distraction could even lead to safety issues.

Fortunately, extended reality (XR) smart glasses provide an elegant solution to this problem. While workers use these glasses, the directions they need will be “projected” on top of the real-world environment around them. Thanks to that, they’ll get valuable guidance without having to move their hands or eyes away from their work.

Real-Time Monitoring and Alerts

Smartwatches and other industrial wearables can help monitor workers’ vital signs, such as their temperature and heart rate. In high-risk workplaces, this is critical for helping management ensure worker safety and  wellbeing. Even if your workplace isn’t especially hazardous, this type of monitoring can help employees avoid overexerting themselves on the job. 

When they have access to this information, employees can respond by taking breaks as needed (and you can start thinking about long-term solutions like adjusting workloads). And since AR devices can easily display health-related alerts, these safety warnings should be all but impossible for your workers to miss.

Training and Simulation

A comprehensive training program is an essential part of keeping your employees safe on the job, but “standard” training is less effective than you might think. The fact is, training methods like lectures and reading have surprisingly low retention rates—because of that, your employees might not actually be prepared to deal with emergencies.

Instead, consider switching to an XR-based training program. This technology will allow you to create realistic simulations of dangerous scenarios, giving your workers the closest thing they can get to real-world experience without threatening their well-being. Thanks to the high level of immersion associated with this training method, your employees will know what they need to do if they have to contend with these situations in real life.

Environmental Awareness

Are your employees at risk of exposure to dangerous levels of heat, noise, toxic gas, or other environmental threats? If so, they need a way to know when this risk becomes a reality. XR technology can help by displaying environmental safety warnings based on information collected by sensors.

Additionally, industrial wearables can help workers avoid collisions by informing them of their proximity to other people, vehicles, and environmental obstacles. Thanks to this technology, your employees might not have to eyeball warnings like “six-foot clearance”—instead, they could get instant notifications of proximity risks on their AR glasses.

Location Tracking and Geofencing

When one of your workers is injured, you need to be able to find them immediately. Thanks to the location tracking capabilities offered by wearable technology, you’ll know exactly where your employees are located on the job site, allowing injured people to get treatment as quickly as possible.

Geofencing is another promising use case for industrial wearables. By establishing geofenced areas, you can ensure workers stay where they’re supposed to—which can be especially helpful for people working in unusually hazardous, large, or complicated environments.

Ergonomic Assistance

If your employees are responsible for heavy lifting and other strenuous tasks, you might wish they had access to sci-fi tech like exoskeletons. Believe it or not, this technology isn’t just fiction—these days, real-life exosuits can give industrial workers additional back strength.

Other advancements in the wearable technology space have provided less obvious (but still significant) ergonomic improvements. For example, today’s AR/XR glasses are far more lightweight and comfortable than earlier versions of this technology. As a result, wearing these glasses throughout the workday shouldn’t be a source of significant strain for your employees.

Data Analysis

While AR glasses and other industrial wearables can provide major safety benefits in the moment, they can also help you do an even better job of protecting employees in the future. These devices collect valuable data on worker habits—after a while, you can analyze this information to spot potential hazards and dangerous patterns in your workplace. 

Based on the data collected by your workplace’s wearable technology, you could warn employees about the consequences of unsafe behaviors. And when you know what injuries your workers most commonly sustain and where these injuries tend to occur, you’ll be able to take proactive steps to prevent further injuries.

Get Started With MACE Virtual Labs

The arrival of industrial wearable technology is revolutionizing how companies approach safety in the workplace—and this shift will only accelerate in the near future. But if you’re new to this field, you might not be sure where to go if you’re interested in putting wearable tech to use.

Whether you’d like to adopt XR for employee training, on-the-job instructions, or any other purpose, MACE Virtual Labs can help. Our team consists of the most trusted VR/AR experts in the industry, and we’re ready to help you build an XR fleet that fits your business’ needs like a glove. And thanks to our fleet management services, you won’t even have to deal with the cleaning and storage of this equipment.

Are you ready to take your first step into the future of employee safety? Get in touch with MACE today—you’ll be glad you did!