Case Studies

Personal alarms for factory

by Mark Rowe

A food manufacturer, Mackie’s of Scotland, has issued nightshift staff with palm-sized personal alarms, to help mitigate risk while workers are alone with heavy machinery.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), over 5000 injuries in the food and drink manufacturing industry are reported each year. This represents around a quarter of all manufacturing injuries reported. About 16pc, one in six, of the injuries are ‘major injuries’ resulting in broken bones or hospitalisation, mostly due to slips, falls from height or machinery. The remainder are ‘over-three-day absence injuries’ mostly caused by lifting and handling, slips and trips and being struck by objects such as hand-knives or falling objects.

Mackie’s approached Skyguard after researching ways to call for help quickly and easily in an emergency. After reviewing options, it was actually a recommendation that swayed Mackie’s. At the firm Rhona Wight says: “We have many links with companies in the local area, so we asked one who they used. They gave us great feedback on Skyguard. We looked into them more, saw they met all our needs, trialled their personal safety devices and went from there.”

Mackie’s runs its operations from a 1600 acre dairy farm in Aberdeenshire, producing ice cream sold across the UK. The company has a seven per cent share of the total UK ice cream market, with sales of over ten million litres a year.

Mackie’s employ staff who work throughout the night, in their packaging moulding room and overseeing the automated cow milking system. With over 30pc of all fatal injuries in the industry caused by food machinery and plant use, businesses need to protect their employees from potential harm.

While personal safety devices cannot prevent accidents and injuries, the products do give users the ability to call for help in the event of any emergency. An employee can raise the alarm by pressing a button on the GPS-enabled device. This allows controllers at Skyguard’s 24-hour manned Incident Management Centre to see where the employee is, listen in, assess the situation and respond. Alarms can also be raised when the device’s ‘man-down’ feature detects a slip, trip or heavy impact – vital if the employee is unable to call for help themselves.

Rhona adds: “We’ve been lucky in the fact that we’ve had no incidents since using Skyguard. However, knowing someone will always be there to help when it’s needed gives our staff real peace of mind. As a company, we were referred to Skyguard by a trustworthy source, and now I’m passing on my own personal recommendation; Businesses in the food manufacturing sector who have workers using machinery should equip them with Skyguard alarms.”

Will Murray, Skyguard’s Marketing Director added: “It’s very encouraging to see local companies recommending Skyguard to their peers, but more crucial is that these organisations are taking the duty of care to their staff seriously. Sadly, employees in manufacturing are almost twice as likely to suffer from injury or death at work compared with the national average; many of which could be prevented by implementing effective health and safety systems.”

Related News

Newsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay on top of security news and events.

© 2024 Professional Security Magazine. All rights reserved.

Website by MSEC Marketing