As a safety or operations manager, part of the responsibility is to assess the available safety solutions to determine the best fit for the organization.
Reviewing the various features and benefits can be challenging enough, but when it comes to the bottom line, evaluating the return on investment (ROI) of safety solutions can feel a bit uncomfortable. How to put a price on workers’ health and keep them safe?
Absence of safety solution
The human cost of not having the right safety solution at the right time is a cost everyone wants to avoid it’s why Blackline Safety does what it does!
Avoiding the operational and lost productivity costs associated with safety incidents is also important when evaluating safety solutions.
additional factors
“Hard” costs of the devices and consumables, and the “soft” costs of implementation
However, there are additional factors to consider when determining the total cost of ownership (TCO) of potential safety solutions. These can be roughly categorized into the “hard” costs of the devices and consumables, and the “soft” costs of implementation, training, maintenance, and operations.
Here Blackline takes a holistic view of the factors that contribute to TCO and how connected safety solutions can provide savings, that ultimately affect ROI.
How connected gas detection and safety saves on hard costs
When looking at the hard costs of personal safety devices, simply tallying the purchase, lease, or rental price of the detectors along with the maintenance equipment, such as those required for bump testing and calibration, misses some critical factors that play into overall TCO.
Other factors to consider include time savings from increased device functionality, overall lifespan, and reducing sunk costs from lost devices.
- Location, application, or task
Industry workers face a variety of safety hazards every day, whether at facilities or remote
Industry workers face a variety of safety hazards every day, whether at facilities or working remotely and traveling between worksites.
Users could look at every location, application, or task to determine the best solution for each or find a flexible and comprehensive solution that covers the spectrum of requirements to protect their workers from the various hazards they may encounter.
- G7 personal wearables
Blackline’s G7 personal wearables combine gas detection, lone worker safety, communications through the push to talk and text (PTT – like a walkie-talkie), and location tracking. The G7 can also be configured to detect one or multiple gases by simply swapping out the cartridge on the same device.
If a worker needs to detect only H2S one day, Cl2 the next, and then multiple-gases the following day, they can carry one device and various cartridges with different sensor configurations for plug-and-play flexibility that reduces redundancy and training, and increases worker productivity.
- Location monitoring
Blackline’s G7 personal wearables also mean workers will reduce the need for extra inventory
As a bonus, using devices with location monitoring allows workers to find their device if they left it in the lunchroom, or vehicle or if it fell off while working getting them back on the job fast.
By mitigating lost devices combined with a longer lifespan, investing in Blackline’s G7 personal wearables also means workers will reduce the need for extra inventory.
How connected safety saves on soft costs
Much like the hard costs of safety solutions, there are hidden soft costs that if considered in TCO analysis can reveal some serious upside.
Connected safety solutions streamline operational churn by reducing device maintenance and false alarms, saving IT resources’ time, and streamlining evacuations and drills.
Reduce Maintenance Costs
Looking at maintenance, gas detection devices need to be kept in compliance
Looking at maintenance, gas detection devices need to be kept in compliance through regular bump testing and calibration.
This often falls to third-party service providers, not only incurring costs but also taking the devices out of service.
- Fast and simple docking system
Blackline’s G7 single- and multi-gas detectors use a fast and simple docking system that costs less than competitors and empowers individual workers to bump test and calibrate their devices.
There’s no need to bring in a third party to keep devices compliant and no additional IT infrastructure is required. Users can also confirm the status of all devices via the online portal, dashboards, and reports to ensure workers are fulfilling the requirement to keep their devices compliant.
Reduce False Alarms
Using a connected safety solution means all device readings are available in real-time
False alarms can be relatively frequent with conventional safety devices resulting in costly and unnecessary evacuations. This can lead to workers becoming complacent, even ignoring or turning their devices off so they can just get the job done, increasing the risk of safety incidents.
As with compliance and calibration, using a connected safety solution means all device readings are available in real-time so they become more trustworthy rather than an annoyance. Users also don’t need to wait for the devices to be docked to download critical information adding efficiencies that save time, and costs.
Eliminate IT Set-up Requirements
At first glance, users may think that using connected safety would require a draw on IT, but the opposite is true. Setting up and maintaining IT infrastructure, such as mesh networks, takes resources and time, translating into indirect soft costs that affect the TCO of the safety program.
Using cloud-connected devices negates all these costs and enables automatic, over-the-air (OTA) settings and configuration, removing the need to dock the devices for firmware updates.
Improve Evacuation Management Process
Instead of having to send out search parties, worker locations are known, and rescuers can go directly
Because worker location is provided in real-time via an online portal, connected devices eliminate the need for manual headcounts and increase worker safety. Instead of having to send out search parties, worker locations are known, and rescuers can go directly to where help is needed.
This not only saves precious time in an emergency evacuation but greatly reduces drill times, allowing workers to return to the task at hand, and increasing productivity.
Conclusion
Using a flexible, comprehensive connected safety solution mitigates the need for multiple devices and extra inventory, reduces IT resources and operational churn, and cuts down on training and change management, all lowering the TCO of the safety program.
