Manufacturing facilities face unique safety risks and are required to conduct and document mandatory emergency response training, drills, and exercises to satisfy EPA and OSHA requirements. Chemical plants may have to meet additional specialized requirements depending on their current operations, unique hazards, location, and other factors.
Emergency preparedness is especially important in the industrial space. For example, chemical plants must identify, analyze, and evaluate all the potential hazards within their facility, and implement a compliant, site-specific safety program that includes drills and exercises to ensure a safe work environment. When lives are on the line, such facilities should not need to depend on error-prone, manual evacuation processes where someone checks names off a clipboard.
DeCurtis, a leader in creating innovative technology solutions that mitigate risk, has developed the Mobile Assembly Suite (MAS) to revolutionize emergency evacuations and help save lives. Originally designed to automate and improve the muster (lifeboat) drill process on cruise ships, MAS is the industry standard at sea and is now impacting a range of other industries and facilities on land.
What is MAS?
MAS is a live, tablet-based system that can operate both on and offline during an emergency. Safety Team members or other designated personnel at manufacturing plants can take their tablets to their stations when an evacuation is ordered. There, employees can check-in and are recorded as safe using NFC technology or barcode scan – essentially, they just tap their employee ID card on the tablet – or Bluetooth proximity beacons will detect them if they have a wearable device. The administrator can also search the system by name to check someone in if they have forgotten their ID during the crisis.
A manifest of all people in the facility is loaded into the device, and because it works with real-time data, the system can identify which employees are in the building at the time of the evacuation, as well as those who are off-premises. This information can keep emergency responders from wasting time searching for people not in the facility during an emergency.
Benefits of MAS for Chemical Plants
Beyond the benefits mentioned above, all designated mobile devices sync with a centralized command center which can provide detailed views of all evacuation stations, control evacuations in stages, trigger mandated activities, and show counts of accounted for and missing persons in real-time.
When paired with DeCurtis’ Location services, the system can identify those missing persons and locate them with pinpoint accuracy so emergency responders can find them quickly instead of searching the entire facility. Additionally, the plant’s physical structure is mapped in detail – based on CAD drawings – so that responders can methodically and rapidly search and clear a facility for suspicious items, problems with equipment, chemical leaks, and other issues.
Chemical plants can be hazardous places to work, and the safety of your employees is paramount. If you want to mitigate risks and improve compliance with the safety regulations in your industry, consider implementing MAS in your facilities. Evacuation procedures save lives and ensure help gets to those in need – Technology can make those processes even better. To learn more, visit our website or contact us today.