IoT wearable boosts workplace safety & efficiency: PwC

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A new IoT product to help anticipate and reduce workplace hazards

MakuSafe bridges safety and efficiency with innovative wearable technology Share Copy Link Link Copied Close One of the biggest challenges for industrial companies is how to effectively balance productivity and safety. How can you operate production lines as efficiently as possible while maintaining safety standards required to protect employees and manage insurance costs? MakuSafe founders had the answer: connected wearables. By providing safety professionals with real-time environmental data and better monitoring potentially hazardous worker movements, facilities could increase production while protecting worker safety. Surfaceink, a part of the PwC network, helped MakuSafe examine industrial workers’ daily routines and workflows to better understand how new technology might be introduced as a helpful tool, rather than an unwelcome surveillance device. After gaining insights about worker needs and preferences, they identified a path to help design, develop and manufacture an IoT-based wearable product and connected platform that could provide advanced environmental monitoring and data analytics capabilities. With this new product, MakuSafe experienced rapid growth, enabling many industrial companies worldwide to access data-derived insights that help boost productivity and better protect the workforce.

CLIENT INDUSTRY Technology, media and telecommunications

FEATURING Business Model Reinvention

25%

shorter product development phase than the industry average of 24 months for similar designs

0

delays in production due to engineering issues

50%

decrease in claims submitted by policyholders, as reported by insurers for MakuSafe’s industrial clients

Nonintrusive product design incorporated safety monitoring seamlessly into daily work routines.

Situation

Factoring data into factory safety In many factories, both workers and management often have difficulty identifying potential or impending risk factors. There’s constant pressure to enhance output while simultaneously understanding workplace conditions to limit employee hazard risk. MakuSafe realized both goals might share a common solution. After an illuminating conversation with his father, a former factory safety manager, MakuSafe’s CEO and co-founder was struck by a compelling idea: What if there was a smart system to help monitor factory conditions even when safety professionals were not on the floor? And what if company leaders had access to near real-time environmental data to help improve efficiency and protect workers? With these questions in mind, MakuSafe embarked on creating a brand-new product.

Finding the right collaborator MakuSafe began by building a wearable prototype device that could monitor for risk factors. The device could detect high-decibel sounds, unsafe temperature and humidity and low lighting conditions, and it was equipped with an accelerometer that could identify when and where a worker had a slip or fall event. MakuSafe’s founders knew they were facing unique challenges beyond the wearable itself, like managing the data outputs, deciding where the devices would live in a factory setting and getting workers to wear such a device.

Once MakuSafe’s founders had a rudimentary functional prototype they realized they needed a skilled strategic advisor and engineering team to help design and manufacture the product. Surfaceink, part of the PwC network, brought a breadth of experience to the table, including product strategy, design, engineering and prototyping capabilities. The team’s extensive background with IoT devices and AI data integration made the choice easy. Together the team started designing a more refined prototype.

With the revelation that environmental data could help drive both safety and productivity, MakuSafe had discovered a virtually untapped market. Prior advancements in smart manufacturing focused on increasing operational efficiency without incorporating potential safety applications.

Solution

Putting workers first in product development MakuSafe understood from the beginning that no matter how technically advanced its product was, it wouldn’t be successful if workers didn’t embrace it. PwC’s engineering and design teams visited several local manufacturing facilities to observe workers in action and gain insight into what might become real-world use cases, as well as pain points. This process not only informed the technical design, such as the types and configuration of the sensors required to monitor certain risk factors, but also practical considerations related to worker routines that might have been overlooked.

Observing the work environment influenced product design. The armband solution allows the device to easily detach if accidentally snagged on a nearby fixture or machine and because of wide-ranging factory temperatures, the armband can be comfortably worn over existing clothing or a bare arm.

Aesthetic preferences were factored into product design as well. During on-site visits, the team observed workers were more likely to wear the device if it could be customized to them, so it’s offered in a range of patterns to reflect personal interests.

The design team quickly started envisioning the hardware. They began by constructing a storyboard based upon their on-site observations combined with technical user requirements and iterating various design concepts. Several rounds of concept sketches eventually led to more sophisticated CAD renders and 3D-printed versions. The team’s streamlined process helped reduce the design schedule by 33%.

Meanwhile, the engineering team began developing the system foundation, a series of sensors that collected user data and connected it to the cloud, enabling communication between the device and its “home base.” The connected data provided a holistic view of safety, operational efficiency and real-time environmental observations from the workers on the floor. This data could then be fed into a dashboard, providing better insights to safety managers and often leading to quicker and better-informed decision-making.

Building a company alongside a platform While development progressed, MakuSafe’s founders were still seeking funding and building the company from the ground up. Throughout investment cycles, they discovered that the more enthusiastic sources of funding were insurance companies, which recognized the product’s potential to help reduce policyholder claims and other incidental insurance costs.

With each successive design, MakuSafe socialized the output with the investors, gathering the necessary capital to continue. After just three rounds of hardware development, or “board-spins” as they’re called in electrical engineering, MakuSafe produced a functional, wearable prototype. With help from the engineering team, it kicked off product manufacturing at scale and began marketing the device to industrial customers.

In the end, the collaboration resulted in a product system consisting of two primary components: a wearable connected device loaded with enhanced sensors attached to a tear-away armband and holster, and a base station kiosk that could provide useful power charging and deployment features for the employee. These two components feed near real-time environmental data into MakuSafe’s safety management system.

RESULTS

Data-driven insights yield safety in numbers The MakuSafe device helps provide companies with actionable, data-driven insights to better protect workers. For example, tracking workers’ posture allows safety professionals to identify specific types of training that can help prevent injuries which may develop in retirement. Meanwhile, clearer visibility into operations and environmental conditions can enable companies to create safer, more efficient work environments, policies and procedures. Additionally, the new insights can allow employers to develop more focused workplace safety training and create more meaningful cost benefit analyses to secure funding for important safety equipment and facility upgrades.

The MakuSafe product system also gives factory managers a better picture of where workers are on the floor relative to heavy machinery and equipment, allowing them to observe and adjust production speeds without risking worker safety. Strategically placed Bluetooth beacons throughout the facility help locate workers while the MyVoice push-to-talk feature enables them to report safety concerns as they spot them. Managers can immediately identify the location of a potential hazard. Plus, with extended battery life, the product can monitor a worker’s environment for multiple shifts, meaning there’s no disruption to factory workflow.

Low risk, high reward Since its founding in 2016, MakuSafe’s impact has grown rapidly. Today, it serves customers across ​four continents and seven countries, spanning a range of industries, including food production, shipping and logistics, light steel manufacturing, agriculture and more. MakuSafe’s leaders have already started thinking about how to further collaborate with PwC, with an eye toward other smart factory solutions.

As it stands, the connected workplace safety solution helps erase a longstanding tension between productivity and safety, allowing factories to enhance efficiency without compromising worker safety. The financial impact this has on MakuSafe customers is significant. It helps reduce insurance costs and workers’ compensation claims while increasing operational efficiency and improving the bottom line, but the most meaningful impact is on the workers themselves. Continuous environmental monitoring helps anticipate and mitigate risk to help prevent accidents before they happen.

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“We had a vision for a connected technological solution that could help factories protect and save lives. PwC gave us the design, engineering and strategic support we needed to bring that vision to life.”

Mark Frederick,CTO and co-founder, MakuSafe FROM IDEA TO IMPLEMENTATION Product development services to design, build & scale connected products.

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Eric Bauswell

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Chad Errett

Managing Director, Connected Physical Products, PwC US

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