Why should a person be at the center of the IoT universe?

It is necessary to put people at the center of the IoT universe. Today, human-related use cases are greatly underestimated. However, all aspects of IoT are equally important – business efficiency, productivity, and people safety. Thus, IoT should become more human-centric.

Delivering sustainable prevention with IoT technologies
Many organizations comply with occupational safety measures and policies, but the problems remain only partially resolved. The key to sustainable prevention lies in getting the right set of technologies, coupled with organizational strategies to implement them effectively.

IoT-based solutions for connected workers, with their rapid monitoring and predictive capabilities for safety risks, can protect millions of people from injury and death in the workplace worldwide.

For high-risk industries such as oil and gas, chemical, mining, and metals, these solutions, when deployed in a manufacturing environment, provide complete visibility into the workforce and operations. Moreover, real-time information from continuous monitoring helps companies proactively identify and isolate risks, greatly saving lives and preventing near-accidental incidents.

From health and safety monitoring to asset tracking and utility management, IoT applications are already transforming numerous back-office processes in the factory environment. Outside of industrial plants, actionable data from IoT sensors is enabling applications in a wide range of applications, such as connected cars, remote health monitoring, and smart home appliances.

Along with 5G, IoT will bring a huge number of benefits to society and the environment. What’s more, with a common IoT framework that integrates connectivity, data, and device management, the opportunities for enterprises to improve efficiency and productivity are endless.

Balancing IoT Use Cases for Security
While the technical advantages and usefulness of the IoT make it widely applicable across industries through a variety of scenarios, enterprises often favor use cases that deliver promising return on investment (ROI) directly related to manufacturing processes. Of course, companies today are making great efforts to improve the safety of people, but the use of IoT as a security tool has received little attention.

Research shows that money invested in an effective health and safety program pays back an organization at an average of 500%. In addition, significant cost savings can be achieved by increasing productivity.

However, reports and surveys predicting growth opportunities for IoT use do not emphasize the importance of safety and well-being in the workplace. In more than 90% of scenario reports, IoT safety and health use cases are not ranked in the top three places. This short-sighted view of the growth potential of the IoT overlooks the huge opportunities that arise from solutions that can improve safety, productivity, and well-being in the workplace.

In their surveys, companies and consultants should start asking questions about employee safety in addition to questions about the bottom line. This will unleash the true potential of using IoT for people-centric organizations where the safety and well-being of employees are important along with bottom-line profit.

Successful companies that understand the benefits of investing in a safe and healthy workforce stay afloat, naturally gaining a competitive edge over others. What’s more, these organizations have been able to reopen quickly during the pandemic while adhering to higher standards of health and safety.

On the other hand, businesses across all industries that were unable to embrace change due to technical and organizational barriers experienced reduced productivity and supply chain disruptions, which negatively impacted jobs and workers’ well-being.

The future of occupational health and safety using IoT
In the era of digital transformation

Creating value for the business, the environment, and society requires a systems-oriented approach to anticipate and address future challenges. IDC predicts that 75% of the world’s 55.7 billion devices by 2025 will be connected to IoT platforms, so enterprises need to consider long-term strategies for industry verticals, especially for high-risk, resource- and labor-intensive industries.

A look into the future of the workforce and the dominance of the IoT promises many opportunities in Industry 4.0. Transformative leadership with the right mindset, harnessing the power of digital technologies, will play an essential role in ensuring business continuity with a focus on employee protection and safety.

Fordewind.io is an IoT engineering and development company based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Our main areas of interest and expertise are the automotive industry and Smart Home/City projects. Contact us right now without a doubt and learn more about how we can help you build the future.