Bringing Digital Science to PPE Management
EHS professionals are inundated with piles of paperwork to document issuance, maintenance and inspections of personal protective equipment (PPE). According to a recent study by 3M, the majority of safety and health professionals still either use pen and paper, word processing or spreadsheets to manually document their safety programs.1 To help reduce paperwork and time spent on documentation and compliance tasks, 3M has developed Active Safety, a PPE management system.
"PPE management is often one of the last places in a manufacturing facility to go digital," said Hugh Murphy, business development manager for Active Safety, 3M. "Active Safety is a simple software tool to help EHS professionals reduce the time they spend on paperwork; access data when and where they need it; identify trends and ultimately help employers keep workers safe and healthy."
Active Safety uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and cloud-based software that runs on both mobile and desktop devices. To deploy Active Safety, EHS professionals add each piece of PPE onto the platform. An RFID tag is attached to each piece, and a user scans that RFID tag with a mobile device to record PPE history, usage, and location. The EHS professional can also schedule upcoming events, such as worker inspections and fit testing, and can access data from their PPE program on a simple dashboard.
By gathering PPE data from across a facility or multiple sites, Active Safety allows EHS professionals to connect with their employees and focus on improving safety, rather than completing paperwork.
Additional features of Active Safety can include worker-specific PPE record management, inspections and maintenance, PPE audits, inventory management and trackers for employee training, medical evaluations and fit-testing. Active Safety is configurable to fit unique safety program needs, and can be used with existing PPE.
3M has been working with lead customers to develop Active Safety and now has worksites on three continents connected to the platform, including mining and manufacturing customers, and several 3M manufacturing plants. 3M is previewing the platform with customers next week at the National Safety Congress in Atlanta, which is the world's largest industry event dedicated to Safety, and 3M announced today that it is now opening its Beta testing program for Active Safety to additional US customers.
3M offers a comprehensive, diverse portfolio of PPE solutions providing respiratory protection, hearing protection, fall protection, reflective materials for high-visibility apparel, protective clothing, protective eyewear, head and face protection, welding helmets, and other adjacent products and solutions, such as detection monitoring equipment and communications solutions equipment.
www.3m.com
