Managing exposure to Hand-arm Vibration
Persimmon Homes is committed towards the safe and sustainable development of local communities.
As one of the UK’s leading house builders, Persimmon take a progressive approach to building safely, with the digitisation of HSE procedures and reporting.
In one example, Persimmon Direct, implemented Reactec’s wearable technology and cloud-based Analytics to manage exposure to hand-arm vibration during groundworks.
Ethan Candlish-Nott, Production Co-ordinator for Persimmon Direct, shared his experience of the challenges with monitoring exposure to vibration during construction projects, and how Reactec’s progressive technology has helped take control of this common occupational risk.
An arduous process
“Our biggest challenge to managing hand-arm vibration was around documentation and recording information” began Ethan.
“It was a pen and paper approach”.
“If workers were using vibration equipment, they would fill in a form and provide an estimation of how long they were using that particular tool” explained Ethan.
“Compiling paperwork, on a daily basis, was an arduous process. We’d photocopy HAV forms and store them on a centralised server for safe keeping - but the initial data collection process was essentially all hand-written” recalled Ethan.
“Our biggest concern was the accuracy of recording this information, because of the manual effort involved”.
“So, we decided to look for progressive technology which would help us to streamline our processes and automate the collection of HAV data” said Ethan.
“We started with a trial of the R-Link watch for monitoring hand-arm vibration and quickly made the decision to purchase after receiving positive feedback from our teams”.
R-Link Feedback
Persimmon Direct met with Reactec to understand more about their HAV monitoring technology. Reactec has over 20 years’ experience in developing wearable technology, with data analytics, to monitor exposure to hand-arm vibration for workers operating hand-held power tools.
Reactec designed their latest workplace wearable, the R-Link watch, to manage multiple health and safety risks which are prevalent in many industry sectors including Persimmon Direct’s.
R-Link monitors exposure to hand-arm vibration and includes expanded functionality to protect the wearer from dangerous proximity to moving plant and machinery in real-time.
“We started with a trial of the R-Link watch for monitoring hand-arm vibration and quickly made the decision to purchase after receiving positive feedback from our teams” said Ethan.
“The biggest feedback during the trial was ease-of-use. Our workers found that wearing R-Link wasn’t cumbersome or intrusive. The watch didn’t get in the way of using the tool” explained Ethan.
“It also meant that our workers no longer had to complete paperwork before operating vibration equipment. They simply tagged onto the tool and R-Link automatically monitored and recorded their exposure to vibration”.
A proactive approach with Analytics
Persimmon Direct rolled out R-Link to over 120 workers in early 2023.
“During rollout, we wanted to educate our teams that R-Link was there to protect them from developing vibration-related injuries, like HAVS, in later life”.
“We received a lot of support from Reactec during this process. A member of the Reactec team visited all our sites to provide training, support and to raise awareness about vibration-related injury”.
“It’s also been quite handy having access to Reactec’s online training materials and presentations; especially when our site agents run reminder toolbox talks on managing exposure to hand-arm vibration” added Ethan.
“Now, when a worker receives the first amber alert on R-Link, they consider whether they need to share the time on the tool with a colleague. If that’s not possible, they’ll inform their manager who generally assigns them to an alternative task; and this makes sure that we stay productive”.
“Our workers are quite proactive and always seek out the best guidance”.
“For the likes of myself based in the office, we found Reactec Analytics to be a very effective and straight-forward system“.
“Reactec Analytics reports are received by site managers, group health and safety, and myself, at which point, I can decide to escalate if necessary”.
“Our site managers receive weekly usage reports to make sure that our workers are continuing to wear R-Link, whereas I receive operator exposure reports to identify any ELVs and notify site managers to make an intervention”.
Ethan continued: “The site managers explore what tool is being used first and talk with the worker to determine whether the cause of the ELV is due to their time on the tool or a fault with the tool itself. The team use a variety of tools but mainly big disc-cutters or plate compactors, and we can use the exposure data to identify defects in the equipment that we hire in”.
“We found Reactec Analytics to be a very effective and straight-forward system“.
Building future communities safely
“Together with the manufacture’s tool exposure information, and R-Link’s sensed exposure data, we no longer have concerns over the accuracy of our reporting”.
“R-Link helps support our health and safety compliance because we are using real-time data to identify exposure risks and make timely interventions rather than sifting through paperwork of past exposure data at the end of the week”.
“It’s clear that the biggest gain we’ve got from using R-Link is the ability to become more proactive using data, when it comes to managing occupational risks”.
“R-Link has paved the way for managing hand-arm vibration and we’re aware of its expanded proximity detection capability, which is a future discussion we’ll be having with Reactec as we build more communities”.