ISA uses worker tracking to ensure safety
ITALY: In reopening its factory in Bastia Umbra following the coronavirus lockdown, ISA has adopted a worker tracking system to guarantee the highest safety standards for all employees.
A major manufacturer of refrigerated equipment for the food and beverage and retail industry, ISA’s 170,000m2 factory was recently reopened after shutting on March 16 to comply with Italian government lockdown requirements.
Shut since March 16, ISA’s factory has recently reopened with a number of measures to ensure the safety of its staff including a high-tech SWAT (System Workers Advance Tracing) system in order to train workers to respect each other’s safety distance.
The ISA Safety System was developed by ISA’s IT department in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise. It involves equipping each operator with a tracker – a device the size of a small key ring that clips on their clothing.
SWAT works by monitoring workers’ positions, and if they get too close to each other the device vibrates and sends an alert to a central computer.
It also allows the company to review all interactions between workers during their working activity, so as to promptly trace, if required, all the contacts made by the worker concerned.
ISA Safety System adds to the other actions already put in place by ISA, including equipping each worker with a transparent visor, surgical or FFP2 masks and latex gloves to be used underneath working gloves.
New security procedures have also been introduced for both workers and suppliers when accessing the factory. Body temperature measurement is now mandatory to enable access to the factory, and routes have been created to manage employee access and incoming and outgoing logistics in maximum safety.
Additional perspex barrier protections have been installed between workstations in the factory, as well as the supply of products for sanitizing hands and workstations. Meeting points – changing rooms, dining and break areas – have also been closed. Toilet sanitation frequency has been intensified and a limited quota access through a traffic light system has been introduced.
“The management team at ISA has a history of left-field designs and strategies, so I guess it’s no surprise that they are ahead of the curve here, too,” commented David Rees, marketing manager at ISA’s UK distributor Taylor UK. “What’s brilliant about the SWAT system is that the workers in the manufacturing facility say they feel safe – and I imagine they are delighted to be back at work.”
