The electronic doorman

Safety training for visitors and employees of partner contractors

Safety is a versatile word that fits in various contexts. For example, a factory can be safe if it is secure, i.e. no unauthorized people are allowed in. Also, people can be safe if they are protected from accidents and occupational hazards. Finally, a policy can be safe if it provides the certainty that everything has been done correctly.

What do visitors need to know?

• Where are the call points?
• What alarm signals are there?
• What hazardous substances are used?
• What kind of personal protective equipment is required?
• How are safe work permits issued?
• And much more

A weighty responsibility

Owners and operators have a weighty responsibility to keep their campuses safe. Can you delegate this work to a machine? You can – and should. Let’s quickly recap everything involved in this process:

First, you have to check whether visitors are even authorized to enter a hazardous area. And in our industries, every area is hazardous. To get authorized, people have to prove that they know and can follow the current safety rules. That is a broad field where it is easy to get bogged down in the details:

Visitors who just want to attend a meeting in a conference room may not need to know more than the campus traffic rules and the locations of alarm assembly points. People who want to visit construction sites or factories need to know what protective clothing is required and how to put it on. Cleanroom or biosafety laboratories have different requirements altogether. In short, there are many different safety zones that require different levels of training.

At many companies, safety training is done by whoever is responsible for safety in that particular zone. But people make mistakes. Maybe they’re having a bad day and accidentally skipped a key point in the checklist. Or maybe they chose to “overlook” something out of a misplaced sense of politeness. Or perhaps they rush through the training due to time constraints. Language barriers may also keep some visitors from understanding the training properly. Whatever the reason may be, if something happens, it will reverberate throughout the company, all the way up to the boardroom – and may even result in litigation or criminal prosecution.

What does the company have to ensure?

• Did the trainee understand everything correctly?
• Was the information shared with the entire team?
• Have any language barriers been overcome?
• How long is the training valid?
• How can you tell that someone has received training?
• Have the training and access authorization been properly and legally documented?

Check! Check! Check!

Visitors to Industriepark Höchst have long had to pass by our “electronic doorman”, ZEUS. They know that safety clearances have to be regularly renewed by answering a series of questions. In the meantime, however, the terminal will recognize them and let them in. The touchscreen process on our terminals is so easy and convenient that visitors from other companies often ask whether they can introduce this system at their own site. They can. Everything is fully customizable, with terminals for every factory gate, building entrance, construction site, laboratory, floor and work area. People who receive access authorization are given a printed certificate/visitor ID badge or a label that they can stick on their helmets. And if the terminals interface with the access control system, doors will only open for people who have successfully completed their safety training.

To accommodate your needs, our seasoned safety team will sit down with you and thoroughly analyze your current requirements and processes. They are expanded as needed and then converted into a terminal-friendly format. And rendered in all relevant languages – another benefit of digitalization. The training course is supplemented with images, videos or animations as appropriate – something a person generally cannot handle. Finally, the user has to pass a comprehension test in order to gain access to the facility. All the check-in processes at all the terminals are documented properly with an airtight audit trail for each user and stored in accordance with current data protection laws and regulations.

Our broad range of models supports web-based training over the internet, by clicking an intranet link or as a standalone system. Our hardware selection is equally diverse, encompassing wall and floor mounting, handheld devices as well as indoor and outdoor designs.