CHICAGO — Cameras, AI, and other monitoring technologies are giving industrial laundry operators new ways to identify workplace hazards, improve employee safety, and reduce the financial impact of injuries and vehicle accidents.

From the production floor to delivery routes, these tools can help laundries recognize unsafe behaviors, evaluate operating procedures, and provide targeted employee training. 

However, collecting information is only part of the equation. Turning that information into safer workplaces requires consistent oversight, communication and corrective action.

Donald Bock, principal of Seabright Safety Solutions Inc. in Santa Maria, California, and a longtime loss prevention expert in the textile rental industry, says advances in video analysis and AI are expanding the ways laundries can assess risks throughout their operations.

American Laundry News asked Bock about the latest safety technologies being used in laundry operations, how they can protect employees and what operators should consider when implementing these tools.

Worksite cameras, which have already been in place for some time monitoring behaviors and safety, have begun to be utilized by AI technologies to identify unsafe or at-risk behaviors and tasks. Several vendors of the technology are available and capable of analyzing the data found on the videos. 

The camera footage can be uploaded to a tech site that provides analysis of the video to suggest changes that should be made to reduce the risk. Since the cameras are ubiquitous on-site, essentially every job function being performed can be analyzed, and processes and procedures can be prescribed to properly perform the function. 

Similarly, many laundries are now using in-cab video technology to monitor driving habits and the environment in which the vehicles operate. Reviewing the video feeds for actions that require coaching or training must be a daily habit. 

The video can demonstrate, in the instance of a collision, which vehicle was at fault. Having the video as a resource removes the unknown from an event that happens away from the laundry and does not necessarily rely on the honesty of the parties involved in the collision. 

Technology exists and is being used by many laundries to ensure that safety training is universally understood. AI software that allows an employer to develop safety trainings in multiple languages greatly enhances an employer’s success in delivering safety training that can be understood regardless of language barriers.  

I’m aware of at least one laundry organization that uses an AI product to translate procedures and training into 160 different languages. Using the AI technology to provide training is the initial step.  

Training must be provided so that every individual receiving the training understands the importance of the topic. Simply reading the words does not improve performance or understanding. 

By utilizing the videos to identify at-risk behavior, the company can and should provide corrective measures to perform the tasks properly.  

As in all activities, there is some residual risk, but when using the videos to identify the tasks that present the risk, the organization can edit policies and procedures to reduce that risk to acceptable levels. By reducing the risk, the programs, when being followed, will help employees stay safe. 

Of course, enhancing safety utilizing the technology is also dependent on the staff being consistent in observing and providing feedback to employees when they are witnessed either following the procedure or when deviating from it. 

This is an issue that has been in place for as long as organizations have been using cameras. The management of video has to be non-discriminatory. Management can’t be using the videos to provide punishment but rather to point out tasks performed as expected and to coach employees. 

Ensure the employee is clear that it is not spying but a means to enhance and improve the process to eliminate at-risk behavior.  

Hidden costs in a laundry operation are those associated with managing injury and collision claims. To the extent that the technology can reduce the number of bad outcomes, it will also reduce the cost of managing claims.  

A claim that doesn’t get filed because technology has provided alternative means of performance saves that hidden cost, which then can be used to enhance and improve the operation.