Situation:
The following case study refers to an internationally renowned Italian company, mainly dealing with packaging of fruits and vegetables. Its business idea is to add value to the raw material by investing in research and development both regarding the product safety and the staff. This philosophy propels the company to offer packaged natural products that maintain the same features as if they were just picked from the fields, precisely preserving the taste and the freshness as long as possible.
Social responsibility and sustainability lead the company’s investments towards both customers and its employees. The Italian group, which produces everything in Italy, was engaged in managing critical situations involving the staff during ordinary activities of packaging and processing of the products. The production chain branches into harvesting and storage of raw materials in cold rooms on the one hand, and packaging and distribution of the final product on the other hand.
The company has entrusted Eurocom Telecomunicazioni with the development of employees’ security solutions; especially for those operators who work alone; a major case that identifies a factoring solution reproducible and adaptable in numerous situations.
Solution:
Once the site and the requirements have been carefully analysed, our experts have identified certain solutions that have led to the development of a step project, completed towards the end of the year 2016, allowing private communications between operators and precise and accurate emergency signals.
Given the complex structure of the company, the organization of the work process chain and the presence of cold rooms, a Motorola Solutions Capacity Plus system with two radio repeaters has been created. This solution allows a 4-channel communication throughout the plant.
As personal protection equipment, DP4801e terminals have been assigned to all operators, with Lone Worker and Man Down functions, operating at a temperature range from -30°C to +60°C (ideal for the typical temperature changes in cold rooms).
The security and alarm management are performed through the special TRBOnet dispatch software: this application works as the system manager and has been installed on four client workstations connected to a central server. The latter, connected through IP directly to the repeaters, records all logs, audio tracks and alarms coming from the radio devices.
In this way, client workstations, each equipped with a desk microphone, serve as a console to communicate with employees.
One of the workstations is always monitored by surveillance, which monitors the “health” conditions of the employees, their GPS position and the operating conditions of the system and the alarms.
The radio terminals with Man Down and Lone Worker functions have been programmed so as to send alarm signals with respect to the inclination of the device itself. After the first n seconds, the radio activates a prealarm to warn the operator. Only a conscious combination of keystrokes on the terminal proceeds to turn off the alarm; otherwise a message is sent to the central station and the terminal activates the speaker mode.
Pending the future extension with indoor monitoring signals, the operator will have to send an “in cold room” or “out of cold room” status message when operating inside the refrigerated compartments.
The emergency button is enabled in all terminals, allowing the central station to identify the employee in danger and his/her location.
Benifits:
Thanks to TRBOnet system, the surveillance office has the ability to check the risk status of each employee or operator in charge of maintenance or loading/unloading of cold rooms;
The two-way radio devices used as a personal safety device allow the operators to work safely and enable secure communications in a case of emergency;
The Man Down system is programmable according to the needs of the client, and inclination and times have been identified on the basis of research and hazardous conditions;
All clients are alerted in case of emergency and the console operators can intervene or activate the rescue team;
Status messages allow the “Lone Worker” to have an electronic daily register that can check the activities and the dwell time in the areas of risk, such as cold rooms;
All devices have the GPS position and can be identified in the operating system within the radio system coverage;
The use of beacons allows the indoor localization, displaying the operator’s movement on the monitor.
