Definition - What does smart ppe mean?
Smart PPE refers to advanced personal protective equipment (PPE) with sensor database input features that allows connectivity between workers wearing the necessary PPE apparatus and base terminals via a host network (i.e. Cloud) by employers. The advent of smart technology is gaining traction across different business sectors including, construction, mining, oil and gas, and transportation industries.
SureHire explains smart ppe
For many employers, the transition to smart PPE technology serves to streamline productivity through methodical compilation and integration of data-based metrics that help facilitate the interplay between management and their workforce in maintaining health and safety standards. Businesses are leveraging smart PPE technology with built-in application modes via the internet or Bluetooth connections specially fitted into distinctive types of PPE apparel such as digitized eyewear, face protection (i.e. goggles), footwear, and headgear, among other items. Smart PPE is multi-functional and can divide a worksite into zones in which hazardous conditions may vary, thus transmitting objective feedback with notified warnings to the worker before entering the area.
Many large companies are shifting toward smart PPE technologies where real-time integrative units help optimize job performance via interfacing (i.e. text, video/voice messages), alerting them with preliminary safety warnings, and coordinating hazard elimination control measures. The advantages of incorporating smart PPE into a workplace model carry implications of privacy violation concerns where access to an interconnected database log leaves employee identities and information open to breaches of security. A safe workplace matrix often dovetails off existing working conditions where different environmental factors such as ambient noise decibel levels and handling dangerous chemicals, for example, prompt smart PPE applications to help mitigate exposure to legitimate hazards.