Improving safety inside the factory with a mobile app
To improve safety for the workers in a food production facility we were asked to create a mobile app that would allow workers to report incidents and unsafe conditions easily.
Project Details
The challenge
When we were asked to create a mobile app to facilitate the reporting of unsafe conditions and incidents there were a couple of important requirements we had to take into account. The factory provides all it's workers with a Windows mobile device. We had to create a mobile app specifically for these devices. We also had to maintain a balance between usability for both the workers on one side and the supervisors on the other. For the workers, the app needed to be quick and easy to use in order to keep the time needed to make a report to a minimum. For the supervisors, reported incidents and unsafe conditions needed to reflect all necessary information to make informed decisions.
Our solution
To account for the devices provided by the factory, we created a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) app that we could install on all devices.
The app displays a blueprint of the factory site. Workers can then click on the area for which they want to report a safety concern or incident. Next, they can optionally take a photo using their device to illustrate the unsafe condition and take a few notes after which they confirm their report. In just a few clicks a worker can report a safety concern, making the barrier to do so very low.
For the supervisors who need to follow up on all reported incidents and unsafe conditions we created a web dashboard. All reports are listed here, including the location displayed on the same blueprint and the photo taken by the worker. This makes it very easy for them to verify reports and make an informed decision on what to do next.