How to enforce social distancing in manufacturing shops

Maintaining social distance at work is one of the most effective ways of preventing the spread of the coronavirus. Wireless technology has emerged to help manufacturing companies enforce their own social distancing policies. Getty Images

Wear a mask, and practice social distancing of at least 6 ft. These basic recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have been the foundation for the U.S. response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Now, admittedly, the U.S. could do a lot better in trying to stop the spread of the virus. Some companies, particularly those involved in meat processing, struggled early on. Manufacturers have taken note and demonstrated a real commitment to applying CDC recommendations, so that they can continue to serve their customers. These manufacturing companies are taking temperatures at the door, limiting visitors to the plant, avoiding meetings where people are in close contact, providing hand sanitization stations, and providing personal protection equipment that inhibits the transfer of aerosols that potentially contain the coronavirus.

Of course, for these safety protocols to work, employees have to follow through on them. Having employees gabbing near the water cooler only inches apart from each other is not something that the human resources director or the safety manager wants to see.

To help facilitate social distancing compliance, whether it be 6 ft. or even more if the company so chooses, Airbeam Wireless Technologies, Richmond, B.C., has developed a “tracing” tool to remind individual employees that they should maintain a respectful distance from co-workers. It also acts as a tool for company management to remind employees that they need to be more mindful of the distancing requirements.

“The employee wears a pendant that is Bluetooth-enabled,” said Darren Leu, sales manager for AllSafe, the proximity-tracing product. “If the employee is violating the company’s social distancing policy, it alerts the user via a noise or a vibration.”

The pendants can be programmed to detect distances of any length or to limit the amount of time that two pendants can be in proximity to each other. They communicate with each other to collect interaction data and trigger real-time alerts. They are slightly larger than an average USB stick and weigh about 0.25 oz. The battery that powers the pendants lasts several months, according to Leu.

“Gateway” units, located near entrances or bottlenecks where people are constantly moving through, are used to collect information from the pendants. Leu said that a typical manufacturing company needs only two to four gateways, depending on how large the facility is, strategically positioned to ensure that all pendants come within range of the gateways. The information that is collected from the pendants is then fed into AllSafe proprietary software that compiles time- and location-based interaction history, notifying administrators of people that are routinely violating distancing practices.

For those concerned about one’s privacy, Leu stressed that this is not a tracking product. Each pendant, and subsequently the person wearing it, is assigned a code. The human resources executive or person charged with going over proximity reports then has the opportunity to see what pendants have been in violation of the company’s distancing policy. If the violations are repeatable or overly grievous, management can connect the pendant number with the assigned individual and have a discussion with the violators.

Leu added that the product does not require a smartphone to work. As a result, pendant wearers’ mobile phones are not used for data collection or information transmission.

A wristband product, which operates similarly to the pendant, is available for companies that would like to issue them to visitors. The battery, however, is only good for about 20 to 30 days.

The origins of this technology actually date back to infant tracking, according to Arnold Yu, Airbeam’s vice president. Because hospitals are worried about people entering neonatal units and perhaps walking off with someone else’s child, they place Bluetooth-enabled wristbands on the babies and establish a geo-fence around the restricted area.

“If the tags get close or appear to pass beyond the geo-fence, the system alerts security and lets them know that a baby is being taken,” Yu said.

He added that this same technology approach is being used at construction sites where contractors want to protect expensive equipment, such as a welding power source. With a Bluetooth-enabled band on the equipment, the construction company is notified when the equipment is being moved beyond the area marked by the geo-fence.

“This proximity tracing is just a different application of the same technology,” Yu said.

Instead of protecting infants, the wireless technology is now being used to minimize the risk of transferring the coronavirus by enforcing distancing expectations. Leu said he hopes companies view the AllSafe product as just another form of personal protective equipment, one more layer that keeps the highly contagious virus from sweeping through a manufacturing facility.

“I think a company’s biggest fear is that a small amount of employees might come down with COVID-19 and it has to shut down the whole plant,” Leu said. “These pendants won’t prevent someone from catching COVID-19, but it hopefully would help prevent the spread of it by keeping the social distancing policy in the forefront of everyone’s minds while in the workplace.”