How to Ensure Manufacturing Safety and Compliance with Video Security 

Ensuring employees are safe throughout facilities is a top priority for manufacturers everywhere. Forklift accidents, getting caught in running machinery, falls from ladders, and more represent some of the most common injuries affecting workers. Because of this, it’s crucial that manufacturers have systems in place to monitor employee safety throughout your organization. 

Cloud-managed video systems offer a valuable tool set for manufacturing businesses to leverage so they can respond proactively to workplace injuries, while providing additional tools to investigate past incidents, such as quick find and share. Visual reports and proactive alerts via phone or email enhance employee safety and simplify compliance and can be based on safety events or protocols. 

The Safety Challenges Facing Manufacturing 

During 2020, there were over 373,000 recorded cases of nonfatal injury and illness in the manufacturing industry. When measuring manufacturing safety as compared to other industries’ rates of nonfatal injuries and illnesses, manufacturing was the sixth most dangerous. Workplaces involve operating heavy machinery, busy warehouse floors, and falling risks, each of which pose a threat to employee safety and strain resources working toward business compliance. 

To navigate these issues, manufacturers need a video security system in place that can help them proactively respond to critical situations. Additionally, there needs to be a method for quickly finding security video to investigate past incidents. This also needs to keep the door open for involvement from outside parties, such as if law enforcement or insurance agencies need to be involved. Below, we’ll cover three solutions that accommodate those needs: proactive alerts, quick find and share, and reports.

Utilize Proactive Alerts for Faster Response 

Proactive alerts help you receive visual verification of events via phone or email to reduce false alarms. This provides actionable intelligence of manufacturing operations during critical situations and allows your team to act more quickly to resolve issues. 

When paired with video analytics, alerts provide a way for manufacturers to detect dangerous activity and respond accordingly. These alerts are sent to your team so the situation can be immediately corrected, helping you better protect your employees and ensure all OSHA and internal safety standards are met. One example of how these video analytics can improve workplace safety is by utilizing person detected and line crossing analytics. These can be configured to alert on any employees in unsafe or restricted areas, such as no man’s land or near dangerous machinery, reinforcing your security and creating a more proactive response to unsafe situations. 

Disparate business systems such as access control, alarm panels, and intrusion sensors can help monitor restricted areas, alerting on events such as forced door, door propped open, and fire exits used. These different alerts build a stronger network of security around your facilities, helping you keep a close eye on people who may place your employees at risk. License plate recognition search and alerts can additionally ensure that your business is secure by alerting you to any unwanted vehicles that may have entered your property. 

When integrated with environmental sensors and barcode data, alerts can provide video verification of these systems to identify anomalies in workflow which could lead to safety incidents. Environmental sensor integrations can alert you to unsafe work conditions, such as in the case of smoke, noise level, air quality, or abnormal temperatures. Data from barcodes can help your teams better monitor cargo damage and unsafe usage of machinery used in the moving of inventory by providing an additional layer of intelligence around incidents. 

In an industry where injuries may be commonplace and severe, it’s crucial to know about an incident as soon as possible so the right action can be taken. This’ll ensure that both your employees and company are protected, and that future precautions can be taken to limit any dangerous working conditions. 

Leverage Quick Find and Share to Expedite Investigations 

A cloud-managed video platform can help manufacturers quickly find and share surveillance footage to expedite investigations and provide security video to relevant authorities in seconds versus hours. 

Searching for video is improved thanks to a number of tools that can locate video when you need it. 

• Timeline Search: Timeline search enables your team to scan through hours of footage in minutes to find only the most relevant video. 

• Event Types: Searching based on event types, such as person/vehicle detected, license plate data, barcode data, or access control, can assist your team in drilling down faster. 

• Thumbnail Search: Individual thumbnails can be selected to precisely pinpoint when a person, vehicle, or other object first shows up on frame to streamline your investigations. 

Once the video is found, a cloud-managed video solution offers easy export and sharing to users of the platform or third parties. This can be used to improve communication between teams and ensure everyone is following proper safety protocols. It can also be sent to law enforcement or insurance agencies if an incident has occurred and police investigation is needed or evidence is required for a claim. 

In manufacturing, the time spent managing specific incidents can be extensive, so it’s crucial to find efficiencies wherever possible, whether working with internal or external teams. 

Improve Compliance with Reports 

Reports are another way manufacturers can ensure safety protocol and compliance is met across your organization while also providing valuable feedback on business operations. 

Thumbnail reports introduce a way to quickly verify the status of processes throughout your facilities thanks to viewing thumbnail images from specified camera views at specified times. These reports can be used to monitor the status of proper safety implements throughout your facility and ensure that routine maintenance is being done to avoid unsafe or hazardous workspaces. Alongside that, they can be used to provide quick visual verification of assembly lines or machinery to confirm that operations are running smoothly and according to code. Additionally, day and night thumbnail reports can uncover any apparent differences across 12-hour periods, helping to quickly pinpoint where certain operations are being neglected. They provide a quick visual check as well at the start of shifts to ensure everything is in order, and in turn, avoiding something being missed later on. 

System Summary Reports and System Health Alerts ensure your surveillance system and associated devices are in working order, with alerts informing you when any cameras are down or have been tampered with. Additionally, you’ll be able to easily see if there’s an issue with your recorder, making sure you always have video footage when you need it, especially in case of injuries or incidents. 

OpenEye Equips Manufacturers with Powerful Video Solutions 

OpenEye’s cloud-managed video platform equips manufacturers with proactive solutions designed to meet compliance needs and improve workplace safety. 

Alerts in OpenEye Web Services (OWS) enable prompt response to suspicious or critical situations, such as theft, cargo damage, or employee injury through a wide range of event types. Quick find and share helps you find the video you need quickly, with secure export and sharing enabling you to get video to both OWS users and third parties for improved collaborative investigations. Reports can help proactively spot activity that may threaten safety while supporting operations. 

To see how OpenEye can improve safety and compliance throughout your manufacturing business, book an OpenEye demo today.