Social distancing sensors for the factory floor

“Our key customers are sharing with us the challenges they’re facing as they rethink and retool to restart operations,” said Andreas Koenig, CEO of ProGlove.

“We faced similar challenges as we reviewed our own processes for safety and efficiency. It is our natural tendency, as humans, to want to go back to doing things the way we did them before, however, it’s not possible. Proper social distancing is now key to a successful return to work.”

To help workers - on the assembly line or in the distribution centre - maintain proper distance from each other, the new ProGlove Connect Proximity app provides an additional layer of feedback on an Android device alone or when paired with a ProGlove MARK barcode scanner which rests on the employee’s hand.

When personally equipped with the MARK wearable scanner and paired Android device, workers coming within close proximity of each other are alerted. The alerts come to the workers via a full array of options on the wearable scanner including audio sound, optic LED light, and haptic vibration signals. This is important in a busy or noisy shop floor environment where an Android alert in a pocket could be easily overlooked.

“We tested the MARK upgrade in-house and it works beautifully. We’re now rolling it out on our own assembly line,” noted Konstantin Brunnbauer, VP of Production for ProGlove. “For my team it is easy to want to fall back into old patterns of working together but with this extra reminder we can maintain safe distance.”

ProGlove Connect Proximity is in beta and is phase one of the company’s software initiative to help its customers manage safe social distancing in the workplace.

In phase two, device-level proximity data will be made available in ProGlove’s software application. Managers can then easily identify bottlenecks in the warehouse with this information and plan for modifications to layouts, schedules or workflows. 

The app upgrade is available for free to current ProGlove customers. For new customers, starting in June, the app is a valuable feature on top of the advantages of a rugged lightweight wearable barcode scanner for safety and efficiency.