The Connected Safety Inflection Point: Where the Industry Stands Now
Safety products are born out of recent incidents and a need for compliance.
- By Kyle Krueger
- Sep 01, 2021
Many people view the world of “connected safety,” or the concept of connecting safety devices to cloud-based software for real-time data, as a system of tools that enable the noble goal of drastically reducing injuries and death on the job. While that is a significant part of the potential, the standard view has a blind spot.
Safety products are born out of recent incidents and a need for compliance. However, when those safety tools are working as intended and preventing incidents, users tend to forget their importance and the perceived value of the products decreases dramatically. This phenomenon is known as recency bias and it is part of our human nature. Thus begins the cycle of devaluing tools and products until an accident happens.
The safety industry is roughly four years into the emergence of Industry 4.0, where data and automation are the established cornerstones. We would all be naïve to think that these efforts will not suffer the same fates as previous generations of improvements. However, unlike the past generations, this new generation of products has an untapped reservoir of potential. Simply defining this potential as the insight you gain into acute life-threatening situations is a shallow interpretation. Within the depth of this reservoir are workflow optimizations, productivity increases and predictive analytics. If we fall to assess the depth then the cycle will repeat.
These unrealized resources enable the new wave of connected safety products to influence everyday business operations. To extract value, we need to be honest about the change in mindset, current functionality and potential additional resources.
Let's start with the mindset change. To frame our discussion, consider an example outside of the safety world. In 2007, Apple launched the first iPhone. Before the iPhone, many people carried simple mobile phones for basic communication. Until a computer manufacturer from California began offering devices with the potential for something greater, everyone was content with his/her simple devices. At first, many balked at the cost until they realized the potential. That potential is today's bare minimum, resulting in higher market expectations. We can now reflect on the tremendous change we have all experienced in a little more than a decade.
The safety industry is at a similar inflection point, on the cusp of realizing the enormous potential of connected safety offerings. These offerings are not just for an emergency, to check a box on a job safety assessment or "because of that one incident that one time." Would it help to drop “safety” from the name? Then we could see these offerings for what they are—vital data inputs regarding some of the most critical elements to a business. If gathered and processed correctly, this data will determine tomorrow’s leaders and businesses.
This article originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.