Manufacturing Safety in the Post-Pandemic World

Graphic of a frontline worker at a manufacturing plant

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted the manufacturing industry worldwide. With lockdowns changing the way we work and disrupting purchasing habits, many manufacturers shifted their attention to making personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline workers. This pivot was a critical step in ensuring the resilience of the manufacturing industry. Despite the potential for the pandemic to devastate manufacturing, the U.S. economic recovery was much quicker than expected. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, while the pandemic might have provoked the deepest economic recession since World War II, it was also the shortest, with contracted economic activity restricted only to March and April 2020. Since then, the recovery has been much stronger than many analysts anticipated.

However, while the economic data is trending in the right direction, injuries and fatalities are not. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 5,486 workplace fatalities in the … Read more...

7 Organizations Focused on Improving Safety Culture 

tools to improve safey culture

Table of Contents

Over the past year, we’ve had the chance to listen to some of our customers, celebrate their successes and learn about their thoughts on the future of health and safety in the workplace. This article is a roundup of what we’ve learned from working on customer case studies throughout 2023. We’ll look at their achievements in reducing workplace accidents and how EHS management system software from Intelex has helped them work towards their safety goals.

Customer Needs and Safety Achievements in 2023

Reducing manual workflows and using data to get deeper insight into the organization top the list of most significant customer needs in 2023. Many organizations used manual processes and spreadsheets for incident reporting and had poor communication between frontline workers and … Read more...

The 10 Signs of Worker Fatigue

A frontline worker is tired at an industrial manufacturing facility.

Worker fatigue increases the risk for injury and deteriorating health (infections, illnesses and mental health disorders).

Long work hours and irregular work shifts are common in our society. Many workers around the world spend over 40 hours a week at work, and hundreds of millions of people work full time on evening, night, rotating or other irregular shifts. Work schedules like these may cause workplace fatigue.

Shift workers may have to work days, evenings, nights and/or on a rotating or on-call basis. They may work extended shifts (more than 8 hours long), rotating or irregular shifts or consecutive shifts resulting in far more hours than the typical 40-hour work week. Long work hours and the associated fatigue can increase the risk of injuries and accidents and can contribute to poor overall health. Studies show that long work hours can result in increased levels of stress, poor eating habits, lack of … Read more...