This workshop took place on November 20th 2019 at the HSE Science and Research Centre in Buxton. The day included discussions, with a dozen representatives from industry, practical challenges associated with their use of Industry 4.0 technologies and how they impact on health and safety within their organisation. The industry sectors represented at the workshop included logistics, energy, construction, infrastructure, insurance and IT.
Prior to the workshop an online-survey was launched that was designed to canvas views from a large pool of organisations currently using or planning to use Industry 4.0 technologies to support their health and safety strategy. Reponses to this survey were discussed in the workshop.
The workshop offered a place for participants to express their view on current use (in the morning) and challenges (in the afternoon) using Industry 4.0 technologies in reference to their sectors and experience. The main challenges were around ethics, big data and actioning. Possible solutions to these challenges were discussed in a final session, where it was identified that a data audit in any organisation may be a good first step towards better use of industry 4.0 technologies.
A key learning point from the workshop was the importance of considering current organisational data governance approaches where different digital technologies were being used in health and safety contexts. The project team aim to follow up with select participants in the workshop to explore this issue in more detail.
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If you would like to know more about this project please see the Industry 4.0 implications for health and safety project page. If you would like to know how you can get involved too please email discoveringsafety@hse.gov.uk.
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