Digitalizing safety incident reports with AI helps you track incidents in real-time and generate detailed information without the typical human and technological challenges. 

When it comes to workplace safety, how you collect data and report incidents matters. A safety incident report is more than a mandatory form to complete.

It is a vital part of your general compliance and safety. Without the report, it is difficult to know the extent of your organizations’ safety risks.  Or guarantee the well-being of your employees. Thus, safety staff must follow strategic procedures to ensure accurate safety incident reports. 

But, doing that takes time and is expensive for many facilities. So,  manufacturers now adopt a digital safety report system. Because of the increased role of technology in industrial safety. This helps them retain skilled employees, save costs, and strengthen their safety programs.

If you are looking to digitalize your safety report system, you’ve come to the right place. This article covers the benefits of digitalizing your safety incident report with artificial intelligence, and how to get started. 

What is a safety incident report? 

A safety incident report is a document in which a supervisor or other safety expert records an occurrence that may or may not have caused injury to an individual or company property. 

Safety doesn’t happen by accident (Pun not intended!). It is about dedicating every moment to understanding activities that may cause harm. And, after that, developing a means to remove such action or make it safer. That is where a safety incident report comes in. The report covers everything from near-miss to sentinel events in the workplace.  This allows safety experts to identify areas to improve their safety program.

An efficient safety incident report records 

• the incident
• the location
• date and time
• who or what was involved
• what action was being carried out. 

That way, safety experts can wave goodbye to the guessing game.  And double down on accurate incident data. 

Safety Incident in manufacturing facilities

The manufacturing sector is a range of diverse industries. And, when it comes to safety, workers experience safety incidents in different ways. 

Occupational asthma is a particular concern for employees in the food manufacturing sector. On the other hand, noise causes ill-health among workers in the textile industry. Despite the diversity, specific safety incidents are common in all manufacturing organizations. Such as incidents when a worker:

• slips and falls
• is struck by an object
• falls from a height
• is trapped by something collapsing
• comes in contact with machinery.

These incidents were the most dominant safety issues in manufacturing facilities in the last five years. And they cause permanent or temporary damage to workers. In fact, a worker died every 111 minutes from a work-related injury in 2020. 

Employees also suffer work related injuries of the muscle and skeleton due to:

• repetitive stress
• burns
• falling objects
• exposure to harmful chemicals
• forklift collisions,

and so on.  These injuries account for 30% of all safety incidents in manufacturing facilities. And also keep workers away from work for up to 12 days. While safety incidents are tragic for employees, they are also costly for employers. 

Did you know that companies paid more than $1 billion per week for direct workers’ compensation costs? And that’s for disabling, nonfatal workplace injuries only. When an employee dies due to workplace injuries, the cost rises to $151 billion. 

In fact,  manufacturers spend around $5,159 to hire and onboard workers. Coupled with the huge cost of worker’s compensation, it is true that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Protecting employee health in manufacturing facilities begins with identifying hazards. And, after that, collecting relevant safety incident data for a report. But safety professionals are having a tough time achieving that. 

The challenge of safety incident reporting in manufacturing facilities. 

Safety professionals are usually the heroes that save the day. When workers’ health is at risk,  they must be available to initiate corrective actions, collect safety data and train the employee.  One may even say they have an eagle’s eye. But they cannot always be everywhere, can they?

Thus, safety in manufacturing facilities is a collective effort. Workers must collaborate with safety professionals to keep the facility safe. Unfortunately, employee engagement is the most pressing concern for safety professionals. Due to fear of embarrassment or punishment, employees fail to report safety incidents. 

Such action undermines the safety professionals’ work and exposes co-workers to recurring incidents. Providing a safe environment and promising support if something should happen is a great way to entice employees.  But that is rarely possible when employees often ignore safety rules.  

Agreed, organized safety incident records will save time and money for organizations. It will also protect them from litigation by ensuring they follow all legal requirements about safety compliance.

But, when employees and safety staff have to spend too much time 

•  filling out paper documents
• entering and reentering data into spreadsheets
• or grappling with outdated IT systems;

Safety compliance is at risk. What could happen if a paper report gets lost? Or torn. Or the Safety Manager cannot interpret its data? The consequences are severe and not limited to:

• Increased injury rates in the workplace.
• Potential lawsuits from injured workers 
• Damage to reputation among customers. 

For these reasons, manufacturers must take proactive safety measures. Let’s see how digitalizing safety reporting systems with AI-powered technology can help. 

How artificial intelligence digitalizes safety reporting systems in manufacturing facilities. 

When applying AI for workplace safety, three technologies are usually referenced: 

• natural language processing
• machine learning
• visual technology. 

These technologies form a suite of advanced safety systems. And aid the efficient collection of safety incident data and analysis. The technology can scan data streams for early machine or equipment failure. It can also assess hundreds of hazards. Study their pattern of occurrence. And generate techniques to reduce them according to specific criteria. So, you only focus on exceptions when they occur. Benefits of digitalizing safety incident reporting with AI.

With artificial intelligence, your team can avoid common challenges of incident reporting, get safety data quicker and in detail. AI-powered safety technology can be installed in your cameras to:

• detect
• analyze
• and report safety incidents and near-misses in your facility. 

A great way to avoid workplace accidents and keep money in your pocket.

It leverages video analytics for ground surveillance and produces frame-in-frame reports. This way, you can rest assured of getting updated information without human interference. The AI sensor and CCTV captures your facility from different angles. Providing comprehensive data on any incidents. And reducing the risks associated with employees failing to report safety incidents. 

Additionally, the data is sent to an interactive dashboard where you can review and export the incidents’ data. It also requires little to no editing since the technology tags each incident according to

• time of occurrence
• location
• incident details,
• the worker involved.

Lastly, you can set the system to send you notifications via email, push notification, or mobile.  You can also filter the alerts based on the type of event and severity.  So, you don’t miss a bit. 

Conclusion

Digital safety incident helps you generate safety data fast and avoid manual recording. As a result, you can avoid sanctions, save costs and improve employee health.  Check how our AI-powered sensors can digitalize safety incident reports in your facility.