Big Data: OSHA Is Poised to Create Massive Data Set

At SAP we have talked a lot about ‘Big Data’ for several years and how the HANA database can enable analysis of massive amounts of data.  Typically, in Mill Products we think about manufacturing use cases such as predictive maintenance, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, energy management but equally as important is health and safety of the workforce.  Here is a story about another use case for big data.

Sandy Smith published this article in EHS Today – ‘Big Data: OSHA Is Poised to Create Massive Data Set of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses’ that outlines a new OSHA rule to modernize injury data collection ‘to improve workplace safety and prevent injuries and illnesses’.

Employers will be required to submit injury and illness data electronically and OSHA will make it publicly available for high hazard industries.  The latest OSHA list of high hazard industries includes textile, sawmills, glass product manufacturing, ferrous metals and other furniture related product manufacturing:  all of these are industries within SAP Mill Products.

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels says “How many of us are willing to eat in a restaurant that an inspector has given an ‘F,’ or even a ‘C?’”  He said OSHA expects that public disclosure of work injury data will encourage employers to increase their efforts to prevent work-related injuries and illnesses.

Mill Products companies can make use of software tools like SAP’s Environment Health and Safety to capture and report the OSHA required data.