Critical industries such as maritime, construction and oil and gas face unique safety challenges which now can and should be addressed with new technologies. To face these issues head on, the importance of cross-sector collaboration in implementing effective and proven technology-enabled solutions, should not be underestimated.
A dangerous landscape
Safety-critical industries share many commonalities. The first is that they are inherently dangerous sectors for humans to work in. People can be harmed in a wide variety of ways including falling from height, slips and trips, chemical exposure or by the machinery they work with. This is due to the highly physical nature of these industrial sectors which, even with the best measures in place, are controlled by the laws of probability that dictate accidents will eventually occur. Human errors can always happen in any situation, and while staple measures such as training remain essential, these accidents cannot realistically be eliminated.
Companies, organisations and governments in developed countries have made considerable efforts to reduce the number of accidents in the workplace through regulations. In the UK for example, the national regulator for workplace health and safety, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), was created for the sole purpose of keeping people and workplaces safe. Occupational health and safety in Great Britain is also covered by The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, yet there are further steps that can be taken to improve safety – including the use of technology.
Tech to transform
Before discussing the benefits of technology and the ways in which it is revolutionising safety in physical industries, it is important to highlight that these sectors have been traditionally difficult to digitise. Regulation, preservation of status-quo, natural risk aversion, the often-bespoke nature of assets, and high costs are some of the barriers faced when introducing new tech in these safety-critical sectors.
When discussing the adoption of ‘safetytech,’ it’s important to consider additional barriers. One of the most significant challenges is justifying the investment needed to exceed the basic regulatory compliance requirements.
But that is not the full story. In the majority of cases, technology that helps improve safety within an industry, can directly help improve business performance in other areas too. The reverse is also true: many technologies adopted for efficiency and cost cutting also have tremendous safety improvement dividends. By viewing safety technology in this way, as part of a wider digitisation agenda, the tables turn in terms of possibilities and strength of investment cases.
In a recent report by Safetytech Accelerator, a technology and innovation business established by Lloyd’s Register in 2018 with funding by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, which was subsequently incorporated as an autonomous business in 2021, these opportunities are critically analysed. The report, Advancing Occupational Safety and Health with Emerging Technologies, explains how artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced robotics, and wearable devices present transformative options to enhance occupational safety and health (OSH) beyond the capabilities of traditional methods.
One such example in the report is the use of robotics to alleviate physical strain in manual handling tasks. This was found to reduce musculoskeletal injuries for workers picking orders in a grocery retailer by up to 30%. Other examples include:
- The use of drones and augmented reality (AR) to enhance safety when working at height
- Using AI and sensors to prevent accidents in mechanical lifting operations
- The use of wearable devices to monitor hazardous environments in real-time, ensuring workers are alerted to dangerous conditions
These technologies allow for data-driven strategies that can predict and prevent accidents, improve operational efficiency and reduce harm to people and the environment. Industries adopting these innovations have seen substantial improvements in safety metrics, operational efficiency and regulatory compliance – while also strengthening their corporate responsibility and ESG performance.
However, making the transition to these technologies requires cross-collaboration between industries that, at first glance, may not seem to have much in common. Organisations must navigate the complexities of selecting the right technologies, overcoming resistance to change, and ensuring the skills and infrastructure are in place to support new systems. However, the long-term benefits far outweigh the challenges presented by these hurdles.
Cross-collaboration in action
To maximise the benefits presented by safety technologies, cross-collaboration across industries is essential.
Cross-sector collaboration is often portrayed as a ‘nice to have,’ frequently promoted in government policies or seen as something that requires facilitation by external organisations. However, this perception is far from accurate.
In fact, cross-collaboration occurs naturally, everywhere and all the time. Why? Because it is good business practice. It happens across supply chains, in R&D and especially within the tech industry.
Fatigue measurement is a great example. After wearable technology was first developed for the medical field, it later transferred to other sectors where fatigue had been identified as a significant risk factor in workplace accidents in the UK. Now, companies are figuring out how they can integrate fatigue measurement into other existing processes, learning from previous examples of its use and improving operations going forward.
This is just one instance where cross-industry transfer is already happening naturally between sectors. But there are also countless examples where various forms of ‘market failure’ prevent these innovations from being adopted because there is not enough cross-fertilisation and collaboration.
A helping hand
Often, if collaboration doesn’t make ‘business sense’ it can be difficult to get people to come together. There may be plenty of reasons for this, ranging from the technology not being ready or regulations getting in the way, to markets not being big enough, or presenting limited opportunities to scale.
But whatever the reason, this is where help and facilitation is needed to jump start collaborations. These organisations, such as government bodies, charities and trade associations, often have missions or agendas that go beyond individual business interests. For example, they may focus on the adoption of new fuels in maritime or net-zero construction. Support from organisations, such as Safetytech Accelerator, that prioritise specific goals, and from organisations like trade associations, charities or even those with government funding, is crucial.
In 2023, Safetytech Accelerator developed the world’s first Industrial Safetytech Regulator Sandbox in collaboration with Discovering Safety (a programme of work led by Great Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation) which brought together six technology companies with high-potential safetytech products, potential users in the construction sector and, crucially the UK safety regulator, the HSE. The project initially focused on innovation around significant areas of risk in construction and encouraged UK-based companies with market-ready or pilot-ready technology products that could improve safety and risk management in the industry.
Following on from the success of the initiative, in 2024, Safetytech Accelerator and Discovering Safety launched the Smarter Regulation Sandbox. The Sandbox is a safe space for regulators, construction companies and tech providers to explore how the digitalisation regulations and data can unlock efficiencies in the sector.
While both these initiatives focus on the construction industry, there are plans to extend the principles into other engineering and safety-critical industries.
A safer future
With safetytech, we know that it can be very difficult to make an investment case for something that hasn’t happened yet. We might know that an accident is likely to happen down the line and are aware of the statistics, but we never think it will happen to us. So, the reality is that many companies naturally focus on being compliant but may be missing the plethora of opportunities available to them when incorporating safetytech into their business.
And that is why, in our experience, the best safety technologies have dual purpose and naturally foster cross-sector collaboration. To work effectively, they must have both an economic business dividend and a safety benefit. That is when organic collaboration can truly flourish without being forced through by external stakeholders.
To find out more about Safetytech Accelerator, please visit Safetytech Accelerator – Home
To find out more about Lloyd’s Register Foundation, please visit Engineering a safer world | Lloyd’s Register Foundation
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