Harnessing the Collective Mind to Achieve Safety Outcomes

In industries like mines, metalworks, heavy engineering, construction, etc., safety outcomes are part of core management agenda. Many successful approaches to ensuring safety outcomes are practiced by the leading industries. In this case study, we present a new approach which leverages the collective power of the community backed by predictive knowledge modelling. This was prototyped and tested in a large mining and metals company.

Zero Harm and Near Misses

A large metals and mining organisation has a stated mission of Zero Harm in their work premises and had put in place many SOPs, infrastructure changes, equipment standards, etc. towards this mission. This resulted in a significant improvement in safety outcomes.

However, there was one class of safety issues which they were still battling – Near Misses.? There is a wide spectrum of safety incidents which are classified as Near Misses. They can be because of people (e.g. not wearing protective gear, not following workplace rules, etc.), equipment (e.g. faulty equipment), natural conditions (e.g. rain, floods, etc.) and so on.

The company’s challenge was that these Near Misses go unnoticed because there is no physical damage or impact of these incidents. Thus, they are not tracked or documented. This made any attempts to reduce Near Misses difficult as there was not enough knowledge to understand how and why they occur and what can be done to prevent it.

The company invited Illumine to study the problem of Near Misses and find the real causes and therefore propose an effective solution.

Harnessing the power of the collective to improve safety outcomes

The mining and metals company has over 35,000 people working inside their works area. Apart from employees, there are contract workers, equipment operators, truck drivers, workers affiliated to customers and other vendor companies, etc. All these people form a strong community and are stakeholders to keeping their works area safe. In our solution, we invoked the power of this community to own up to their own safety.

The initial hypothesis of the company was that the main cause of Near Misses was behavioural i.e. triggered by the actions of the thousands of people who are working in the plant premises.

A New Kind of Collective Safety App

Community engagement makes everyone a safety owner

The big community of people who are engaged in the plant works area are all potential “pre-cog” agents i.e. they can alert everyone when they see any potential safety hazard or near miss. A particular worker or equipment operator may not notice as they are in the job. But anyone standing nearby or passing by may notice something potentially dangerous and they can use the app to immediately report to the relevant responder.

To empower the community, a backend which can guide and enable them to recognise safety hazards and immediately take action ensures precision, effectiveness and scale.

Predict Knowledge Modelling as the backend for scalability and effectiveness

The predictive knowledge model helps each observer to be precise and effective with their reports or warnings so that the right response can be taken. It reduces the junk or noise and makes each alert message relevant and purposive.

This predictive knowledge model was built using the Safety Coordinate System that Illumine constructed through research and study of the operations in the plant area. Using this model, an observer on the ground is guided on recognising the early signs of a potential safety incident and can immediately report so that action can be taken.

Building community knowledge for safety outcomes

As the community posts alerts on near misses and safety incidents, there is a growing knowledge base of safety along with responses. This becomes the base for future design of safety practices thus further enhancing safety outcomes.

Future Possibilities

Safety management is a journey – from prediction to prevention to mitigation. In each aspect of safety management, the power of the collective mind can be unleased to ensure “Zero Harm” level of safety outcomes.

This Collective Mind approach can be used in many industrial workplaces which has a large community of people engaged inside – like mines, construction sites, large manufacturing plants, airports, railway stations, refineries, chemical plants, and many other places. With the right modelling, it can also be used to empower entire cities to manage safety outcomes on roads, public spaces and key locations.

Write to us to explore more about the Collective Mind approach to achieve safety outcomes.