How SAP Edge Services can help companies on their way to zero injuries

In this blog you will learn how SAP Edge Services can help reduce the consequences of incidents and make workplaces saver.

As a fellow consultant for Environment Health and Safety (EHS), I met many people passionate about making workplaces safe – most of them having experienced severe incidents in dangerous work environments. There are two major challenges they are facing: to learn about an incident the instance it occurs to minimize consequences and to find out about near misses that might be an indication for elevated risk of a more serious incident.

Imagine a worker carrying out maintenance on an offshore oil platform, a technician repairing overhead wiring on rail tracks at nighttime or a worker cleaning a tank or silo from the inside. How can you find out about an incident if the workplace is remote? How can you ensure to learn about near misses without relying on workers to detect and report them on top of their busy works schedules?

Utilizing the power of new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) can help address these challenges. IoT Edge Computing describes the capability of processing, storing and analyzing sensor data closer to the source of the data and to operate with intermittent connectivity to the cloud.

SAP Edge Services allows companies to extend business processes and IoT to the edge of the organization and sets operational data into business context to execute essential business processes. I am excited to share that release 1909 includes enhancements for incident creation in EHS as part of S4/HANA as one of these essential business processes. Relevant assets and people involved in the incidents are now allocated automatically.

Incident creation from the Edge allows emergency personnel and EHS responsibles to act immediately, substantially reducing potential consequences of an incident and improving workplace safety.

So how does it work?

The company defines Edge streaming rules to detect anomaly in IoT sensor data. Once an alert is raised, Edge can automatically trigger the creation of an EHS incident with relevant IoT context. Synchronization with mater data in S4 HANA ensures that the incident is allocated to the correct vehicle, property or equipment and ensures seamless processing. The customer receives a notification about the incident triggered by Edge.

A worker falling off a platform, when equipped with an IoT sensor in the helmet, watch or around the chest, is detected immediately, and emergency response sets in. Further, an unreported or unrecognized near miss e.g. involving a loose ladder, will no longer potentially become a major threat when the ladder is equipped with a vibration sensor.

Thus, with the help of SAP Edge Services, companies can take yet another step towards zero injuries.

Read more about SAP Edge Services here: https://www.sap.com/products/edge-services.html

There are some of the highlights for developers available on help.sap.com: https://help.sap.com/viewer/3e23645040db4d9f9ebdea733767fb5d/1909/en-US/89b310ceb82d4b93ae206c94fb7f8a1f.html