Manufacturing Automation: Get smarter about safety in manufacturing plants

Photo: Honeywell Process Solutions

While automation has been transforming manufacturing plants for decades, automation of safety is now coming into its own.

By automating paper-based and manual safety-related processes using a variety of technologies and approaches, workers in plants are much better protected. And, because they save time, these automated approaches also boost plant productivity. Here are the current broad trends in safety automation, along with a glance to new technologies and future outlook, from some leading industry experts.

Integration of safety
Safety in manufacturing used to be focused on manual “point solutions,” where for example, the safety of each machine is handled separately, explains Pierre Van Neste, global director of sales, plant and personnel safety and risk reduction software at Honeywell Process Solutions.

Read more on Manufacturing Automation, one of Canadian Manufacturing’s partner publications.