Investing in indoor positioning is investing in safety and productivity. Indoor positioning can not only save lives but also reduce risk situations and optimize material flows in industry.
Indoor positioning increases safety
Ensuring safety through indoor positioning is another important way to improve working conditions. Anticipating and avoiding accidents at work enables work to proceed as desired. In emergencies, faster action and situation management means fewer casualties. Positioning will also help combat a pandemic by providing information on the routes and duration of human movements.
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Safer premises and social distancing with indoor positioning
In industry and mining, positioning brings great benefits
The pioneer of indoor positioning is the Finnish Iiwari Tracking Solutions. Chief Operating Officer Esa Viljamaa sees the improvements in safety brought about by indoor positioning in industry, construction, mining, maintenance services and mass events.
“Accurate indoor positioning has use in mining where conditions are particularly challenging. The aim is to minimize the number of personnel in the mines due to difficult conditions and safety. Iiwari’s software allows you to see the movement routes and speeds of both people and machines in real time. Accidents and collisions can be prevented by slowing down the speed of autonomous machines in advance.”
According to Viljamaa, one important application for indoor positioning can be found in maintenance outages in heavy industry. The maintenance of industrial plants is a large and demanding operation, during which hundreds of subcontractors can enter the plant in the process industry. In this situation, accurate indoor positioning helps to manage and direct the situation so that the right people are in the right place at the right time and avoid risk situations. With the help of positioning, subcontractors can be guided to the safest route and show them where maintenance is needed. The possibilities for use are further expanded when other information obtained by sensors is combined with location data.
Improved safety increases efficiency on both a small and large scale. For example, by tracking the location information of a hotel cleaner, you can see if a particular room has been cleaned and whether a new customer can already be placed there. In industry, the prevention of accidents at work and occupational safety in general is the number one guiding factor in operations, which, when implemented, improves the company’s image.
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Location matters in emergencies and in process optimization
Lifesaving can depend on location information
Knowing the exact location of people and objects is often vital and can be achieved with indoor positioning for healthcare environments. The small positioning device developed by Iiwari Track’s Solutions can be placed, for example, in the ventilators of a large hospital, so that a free machine can be found quickly in an emergency. A person who may be in danger at work also feels safer when carrying an alarm button with location information. The positioning device also helps people in home care or nursing home care to get help quickly.
It is notoriously difficult to keep a distance at trade fairs and various mass events. Indoor positioning can be used to track the number of people and routes and direct human flows to avoid congestion. Under normal circumstances, the customer experience is improved when people can be evenly distributed across different services and unnecessary queuing is avoided.
In crisis situations, positioning helps and speeds up the organization of rescue operations. At the time of danger, the area can be emptied more effectively by directing people to the nearest emergency exits. Access to assistance is accelerated when positioning guides Helpers to the right place. Up-to-date information on the location of life-saving equipment, for example in a shopping centre, can save lives in an emergency. In addition, rescue personnel can be safely directed to where the need is. For example, in a fire, smoke divers can use the positioning system to navigate directly to those in need, even in poor visibility.
The question is, should indoor positioning already be an integral part of the rescue plan for every mass event, large business premises and facilities?
The law monitors the tracking of location information
In many areas, the sharing of location information is an essential part of staff safety and thus of job satisfaction. Reducing the risk of injury and avoiding accidents is in the interests of both the employee and the employer.
On a larger scale, such as mass events or shopping malls, people are treated in location as anonymous serial numbers, not as identifiable individuals. Legally, tracking location data is well regulated in western countries, thanks to the EU Data Protection Regulation GDPR. It ensures what information service providers can store about an individual, and the user always has the right to ask the service provider to delete their own information.
New location information applications increase security
Developed by Iiwari, the world’s most accurate indoor positioning system is using its customers’ applications to make operations in many industries even smoother and more secure, one or a thousand location information at a time.
Iiwari Tracking Solutions
Iiwari Tracking Solutions, a pioneer in indoor positioning, has its roots in the Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (VTT) and long-term UWB research. Iiwari innovates in cost-effective network solutions and products based on UWB technology aimed at increasingly accurate and reliable indoor positioning.
We help you understand what location is used for and how it could improve your facility and processes.
We offer access to indoor positioning, from a free demonstration to a thorough expert assessment of the suitability of the positioning for your company.
- Get to know the possibilities of RTLS analytics
- See the positioning accuracy yourself – Book a virtual 20 min demo for free.
- Test the functionality of positioning with Iiwari Development Kit.
- Learn from our experts how you can improve efficiency with location information.
