This organization of the article is as follows: Section 2 discusses the occupational risks in different industries and the associated risk-mitigating interventions.
Our intent is to cover workplace technologies that are already in use or have the potential for use at different worksites. Our objective here is to provide a comprehensive review of commercial wearables and connected worker solutions for occupational safety, health, and productivity ( Figure 1). This may make it challenging for interested readers and potential adopters to assimilate the information in a digestible format and keep abreast with the emerging workplace technologies, their applications in different worksites, and potential benefits to the workforce and employers. Most of the information on latest commercial products and solutions is spread across different websites, news outlets, insight articles, survey reports and social media. Previous review articles have summarized smart and intelligent wearables on selected topics and products related to workplace safety, health, and productivity. By building a smart and connected workplace with human-in-a-loop models, workers today are better equipped with situational awareness, field visibility, and remote supervision. For example, workplace technologies are being used to detect awkward work postures, forceful exertions, vibrations, repetitive tasks, physical fatigue, mental acuity and stress, mood and emotions, safety compliance, and rest breaks. On the other hand, connected worker solutions (i.e., intelligent computing, data analytics, and storage platforms) serve as the central hub for extracting contextual information from distributed networks of workplace wearables for better workflow organization, asset management, and predictive maintenance.Ĭurrently, there are niche applications for workplace wearables and connected worker solutions (herein referred to as workplace technologies) in almost every industry, be it in agriculture, construction, mining, production, healthcare, retail, warehousing, technology, transportation, or automotive industry. On one hand, workplace wearables (i.e., smart, on-body accessories, and personal protective equipment ) track the activities, behavior and body status of individual workers. For this purpose, employers’ resort to key enabling technologies (KETs) to monitor, manage, and optimize their workplace assets (e.g., tools, machines, inventory, safety equipment, supporting technologies, and workers). Timely identification and remediation of the potential risk factors is critical for the safety, health, and productivity of workers. The multitude of workplaces come with their inherent distractions, risks, and dangers. Altogether, these examples highlight the ground-level benefits of real-time visibility about frontline workers, work environment, distributed assets, workforce efficiency, and safety compliance. Predictive analytics provide contextual information about occupational safety risks, resource allocation, equipment failure, and predictive maintenance. Connected worker platforms are discussed with information about the architecture, system modules, intelligent operations, and industry applications. Workplace health wearables designed for work-related musculoskeletal disorders, functional movement disorders, respiratory hazards, cardiovascular health, outdoor sun exposure, and continuous glucose monitoring are shown. Examples of workplace productivity wearables for asset tracking, augmented reality, gesture and motion control, brain wave sensing, and work stress management are given. Workplace safety wearables for safe lifting, ergonomics, hazard identification, sleep monitoring, fatigue management, and heat and cold stress are discussed.
Here, the recent trends in commercial workplace technologies to monitor and manage occupational risks, injuries, accidents, and diseases are reviewed.
Wearable devices enable constant monitoring of individual workers and the environment, whereas connected worker solutions provide contextual information and decision support.
EMBR WAVE REVIEW REDDIT SOFTWARE
To protect and promote total worker health, smart hardware, and software tools have emerged for the identification, elimination, substitution, and control of occupational hazards. The workplace influences the safety, health, and productivity of workers at multiple levels.
0 kommentar(er)
