BSH - Safer Workplaces With Collision Warning System

EUROPE’S LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF HOME APPLIANCES

BSH Home Appliances is number 1 in Europe and the market leader at many regions and countries. This is the result of the vigorous efforts and dedication of BSH’s 58,000 employees around the world. The sole purpose of BSH is to improve the quality of life at home. BSH steps into the customer’s shoes, adopts their uniqueness and personal needs, and provides solutions that make the life at home easier and brighter. BSH has 40 factories worldwide. BSH preferred Wipelot for electronic occupational health and safety solutions.

 

MINIMIZING RISK OF ACCIDENTS AND CUSTOMIZING SOLUTIONS FOR MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

Before starting the project and installing the Safezone System at BSH factories, the “project design report” was prepared, in which “detailed customer needs analysis” was carried out and the necessary actions were specified.

The main purpose of the project was to develop and install a customized collision warning system at 3 of the manufacturing facilities of BSH in Çerkezköy, where the forklifts and pedestrians work closely together.

Necessary actions;

1. Maintaining deceleration of forklifts in 3 stages (in case of danger, warning and malfunction), in addition to audio-visual warning alarms in order to avoid potential forklift-related accidents
2. Optimizing the battery life of mobile tags
3. Enabling “difficult to switch off feature” for personnel tags in order to maintain personnel safety
4. Auto-registration of operators to their forklifts before driving
5. Integration of Safezone System to the existing personnel scoring system
6. Maintaining a system where the distance settings of the Safezone System can only be done by authorized people

PERFECT COMPATIBILITY WITH EXISTING SYSTEMS

BSH Çerkezköy Manufacturing Facility is established on a 550,000 m2 area. Within this area, BSH offers a modern workplace suitable for the capacity and targets of the machine operators, vehicle operators and pedestrian workforce.

Within this facility, the customer’s expectation was to develop a system in which the newly installed system that includes the active mobile tags has a perfect integration and compatibility with the existing personnel scoring system and a “single tag” is used for both systems.

SAFEZONE “PEER TO PEER” FORKLIFT WARNING SYSTEM

Within the scope of Safezone System, the tags were given to personnel and devices were installed at certain areas of the manufacturing facility such as forklifts, certain machines, equipment, door entrances and blind spots according to the customers’ needs and requirements. By installing Safezone System solution, a safer environment was achieved, in which the forklifts and pedestrians are warned audio-visually in case of safe working zone violations that lead to potential accidents. Safezone System not only warns the forklift operators and pedestrians, but also activates a mechanism that decelerates the forklifts gradually.

By installing and setting Safezone devices on the forklifts , 360-degrees virtual “warning” and “danger” zones were defined, in which an alarm is activated in case a forklift or pedestrian violates these zones. The distance settings can be done by the customer easily, where the warning zone, danger zone and activation zone values are determined according to the requirements. The activation zone is the area where the frequency of the signal sent by the device is doubled for safety reasons.

Within the activation zone, the device sends 2 signals per second, whereas outside the activation zone, which is considered as the “safe zone”, the device sends 1 signal per second in order to save battery power. Furthermore, in order to increase personnel safety, a new “difficult to switch off feature” was added in order to prevent undesired tag switch offs.

The personnel tags become inactive outside the workplace and automatically enter “sleep mode” for optimizing battery power.

In addition to pedestrians, the forklift drivers also needed to carry mobile personnel tags. However, it was also important that the driver himself did not cause false alarms and slowing down or stopping of his own vehicle while on forklift. Therefore, for Safezone System, an additional feature was developed allowing the device to detect the nearest operator within 3 meters and to automatically register him as its driver.

The last customized feature in Safezone solution in order to increase the safety was the “staff authorization feature”, which ensured the distance settings for “activation”, “warning” and “danger” zones could only be done by the authorized staff and could not be changed by any other unauthorized staff.

Within the scope of Safezone Collision Warning System , the mobile tags with UltraWideBand technology were integrated with the existing personnel cards with passive RFID technology. Thanks to this integration, the personnel was not required to carry an extra tag and with a single tag , the personnel could be a part of the whole system.

INNOVATIVE APPROACH

By using Safezone System , the personnel, forklifts and equipment in the facility were protected against forklift-related accidents. Safezone System also avoided costly damages due to work accidents, lost time, and most importantly, workforce loss due to injuries. Regarding additional customer requirements, new practical solutions were also developed and integrated into the system.

Safezone is one of the occupational health and safety solutions representing Wipelot’s modern technology, innovation, know-how and experience since 2005.

Another unique advantage of Wipelot is its ability to update and improve the firmware remotely, which does not require any additional demounting and re-installing. This also creates a significant time saving during operations.

In case of a need to transfer the device to other vehicles, thanks to Safezone’s compact design and user friendly settings, it is possible to demount the device easily with the help of instruction guide provided by Wipelot.

Wipelot is fully aware of the importance of after sales service. Based on the maintenance agreement with BSH, Wipelot’s back up team will respond within maximum 8 hours in case of any malfunction or need for technical support.