Automated Headcounts Brings Security for Ferrero

Accounting for more than 1200 personnel, as well as visitors, at any given time is an arduous task, and even harder in the chaotic environment of an emergency. Every second counts when it comes to the safe evacuation of individuals in such events.

Ferrero needed a way to confirm that all its employees could be safely accounted when an emergency evacuation was underway. The manual method had gotten out of date -- tracking each individual through manual counting was time-consuming and introduced potential for errors. Even if all personnel appeared at the dedicated mustering points, the employee roster for any given day could not be accurately obtained, especially when visitors were also in the building.

Ferrero takes safety for these employees seriously and was recently seeing a solution that leveraged the latest that technology has to offer. The company’s internal audit system requires employee headcounts fast. After all, seconds can be critical when an emergency takes place and people need to be accounted for.  

Ferrero ruled out using barcode technology since scanning of individual barcodes would be too slow in an emergency. Passive RFID came with its own shortcomings since it requires a reader infrastructure that would need power and a network connection or Wi-Fi. So instead, the company worked with Litum IoT, which offers a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) solution that eliminates the need for a fixed infrastructure. With the Automated Emergency Roll Call system, the company’s safety officials can capture the critical information about who is safe and who might not be, during an emergency, leveraging a simple electronic badge and mobile app.

The Litum Automated Emergency Roll Call provides BLE badges powered with batteries that transmit at long distances so that no cables, and no hardware installations were needed.

With the solution Ferrero could simply capture employee and visitor location in real time, with a mobile phone or tablet, and the solution software could compare that data against the company’s employee roster that is refreshed periodically from the time and attendance system.

• [Process Optimization - Remote Monitoring]
  

  Since it was implemented, the Automated Emergency Roll Call system has transformed the way Ferrero conducts its evacuation exercises and any real-life events. Gone are the clipboards, paper and pen that would be necessary in a manual evacuation system. With the BLE solution, the company management knows in seconds that its people are safely evacuated, or who still needs to be located.

  The confectionary company plants are also able to ensure they comply with all regulatory health and occupational safety requirements. In addition to its automatic people counting feature, the system tracks the number of practice exercises conducted and the total time of the exercise as well as the results.

  The system was deployed quickly without the need for hardware cabling for gateways or readers. Instead, the cell phones or tables of safety personnel provide the location data that is so critical in an emergency, with no added effort. The software uploads and download critical data from a cloud-based server via a cellular connection.

  Since the solution went live Ferrero has conducted firefighting exercises in compliance with occupational safety regulations, and during the exercises the time of the full evacuation was vastly reduced, while the accuracy of results rose.

  Visit http://mustering.litumiot.com/ for more information.