Some of our best holiday visits included Rick and his family. Then one day Rick went to work and never came home. An oncoming crane turned too sharply and crushed him against another crane.
When a new worker’s compensation client walks into our law office, I remember Rick. Sigh. Fortunately, this new client, though injured, is still alive.
An emerging company, MakuSafe, has recently gathered serious investor funds and a patent for a unique wristband technology. The wearable tracks working conditions in factories (and later construction sites, large scale agricultural enterprises, etc.) decreasing illnesses, injuries and deaths.
How It Works
Called Makusafe, it looks like a Fitbit and would be employer issued like ear plugs or hardhats. Its sensors record the wearer’s movements and “knows” if the person is about to slip or fall. It measures the room’s environmental data including temperature, noise, chemicals, even the humidity on a manufacturing floor – condensate that could cause a fall. It does not track a person’s biometrics. The system traces a worker’s location in the plant, revealing hazardous areas.
Increased Value for People
Industrial measurements have traditionally been periodic, not continual. Human observations are subjective. (How many people continue working with a broken fingernail that could easily have been a crushed hand?) Sometimes injured employees forget to report. Safety personnel swim in paperwork.
These are no longer issues with a platform that secures continuous data and relays it in real time to a cloud dashboard. Using the software’s analytics, managers identify employee risk, and predict and fix problems before they are even noticed on the plant floor. Wow.
Implemented through insurers, the catnip for employers is that as part of their worker’s compensation coverage, it can cut insurance costs and production inefficiencies, help create a culture of safety and let employees know that they are cared for.
If this device had been around when Rick was alive, maybe he’d still be with us.