Abstract: - A major player in metal mechanic manufacture in Italy that has opted to implement Industry 4.0

standards. One of the key projects undertaken was the creation of a new vision for safety. The aim was met by a

team created expressly for the company. The Team placed a high value on PPE (Personal Protective

Equipment), which is equipment meant to increase the safety of the Operators while doing their responsibilities.

The problem that the Team has clearly warned about, given the frequency of occurrences, is the periodic

maintenance of PPE, which is required by law for each device and must be carried out according to strict

guidelines to maintain their efficiency and safety certification. As a result, the Team investigated a novel

methodology, the topic of this article, based on hardware and software technologies designed to monitor the

legal revisions and crucial dates of each piece of PPE in use.

This paper is the extension of previous research

conducted by the Authors on the worldwide

Operator safety problem, [1]. As evidence of this

issue, data from the International Labor

Organization show that every 15 seconds, an

operator dies and 153 are injured worldwide, with

an annual projection of 1.2 million deaths and 320

million accidents recorded, resulting in a total

economic loss of approximately 225 billion USD.

activity by activity, of exercising adequate

protection of the wearing Operator, from injuries

that can be generated by that specific activity. PPE

has: 1. Specific functions 2. The need for periodic

proposed by the Authors. As a result, this project

became the beginning point for developing and

implementing viable solutions. The purpose of this

article is to discuss the proper maintenance of PPEs

(Personal Protective Equipment), which are critical

if correctly revised and maintained on time

(indicated by the manufacturer and made mandatory

by law). In this context, the Company and UNIGE

(DIME) agreed to take a technology partner with

specialized expertise and to form a multidisciplinary

scale below (1 means high priority):

1. “Life Savers”: PPE with direct impact on life

(reels, belts, electrically ventilated helmets,

harnesses, lanyards);

(masks, helmets, glasses, safety shoes, headsets);

3. “Critical Equipment”: NON-PPE, with impact on

safety (steel ropes, eye bolts, stretchers, shackles,

lifting slings).

"smart PPE." The bulk of the papers were from

Scholar, however, the majority of them were out of

scope. In reality, the authors quickly discovered that

"smart PPE" was a deceptive phrase, alluding to

unique uses that were unrelated to the current study.

As a result, a first choice was made by confining to

"PPE maintenance," lowering the number of papers

evaluated to 17.391. The term "PPE maintenance"

was subsequently discovered to be utilized for a

wide range of applications; therefore, the topic was

wearable devices, electronic devices," shortening

the list to 86 papers that were thoroughly analyzed,

further narrowing the selection to 25 papers that

benchmark among the available technologies to

identify the most appropriate one.

conducted it is important to note that the

Researchers, so far, although identified PPEs as a

critical factor for Safety, they concentrated on

different aspects from those proposed by the

Authors. In fact, as a comparison between the state

of the art and the current paper, the Authors would

like to highlight the innovative aspects brought by

can enter and exit the workplace from various

directions (different warehouse doors) and can insist

on multiple work islands both in the factory and on

construction sites. This configuration would indicate

a redundant expense for antennas (ranging in price

technology explored was NFC, which has several

advantageous characteristics such as the ease of

installation, since this sort of tag may be integrated

into the head of an electrical cable tie (Figure 1).

examine what had emerged from the previous phase

in collaboration with ICT (Information &

Communication Technology). It is the internal

function managing both the contracts with technical

suppliers and the systems installed in the factory).

Two more reviews were performed, one with the

DATT (internal function controlling and allocating

PPEs to operators) and one with the external partner

supplying PPEs (Futuro S.r.l.), to present the PPE

selection for the pilot project. The Team, as

authorized PPE from an operational standpoint. The

authors then proceeded to determine the appropriate

use for each PPE, which meant that it should not

interfere with the operators' task and comfort, cause

aggravation, or be subjected to shocks or slides. The

next stages were: a) designing the operating method;

and b) designing the smartphone application.

2.6 Framework of the Project Steps

sponsorship, providing the necessary resources

(people and budget) to the project; b) creation of an

internal function dedicated to the management of

PPEs; c) census of PPEs available in the facility

(type, supplier, brand, batch number, serial number,

expiry date, ...); d) selection of the PPEs to be

monitored; e) creation of a register for delivery and

return of PPEs assigned to operators; f) system

adoption (server, software, tags, NFC smartphone);

g) tag integration on PPEs; h) training for concerned

fundamental to proper PPE management, was the

development of a reporting process to follow the

equipment during the assignment. This method is

separated into four parts, which are appropriately

documented in specialized books: a) a written

request for PPE by the operator; b) approval by the

relevant office; c) delivery to the operator; and d)

return of the PPE to the office. The same method is

used while replacing PPE.

2.8 IIOT (Industrial IoT)

which is the ID number of each PPE). The analytics

software converts such data into meaningful

information in the form of tables and graphs to

integrate the data and make it understandable to the

screen shows aggregated data that may be

progressively exploded by the User in different

directions: 1. per Function (which Operators are

assigned with what PPEs), per Operator (which

PPEs are assigned to the Operator pointed), 3. Per

(displaying information relating to the manufacturer,

the supplier, the date of purchase, the price, the lead

time, the status, the duration of the batteries, the life

cycle, the revisions required by law, the dates for

replacement of consumables, and the deadlines). A

second table records Operator assignments

(registering name, surname, cost center, and serial

number, as well as specific usage information such

as collection date, possible replacement, delivery,

status at the time of collection VS. status upon

compromised integrity and would necessitate

repair/replacement). During each scan, the program

collects and centralizes peripheral data from the

PPE scanned and compares it to information from

the database. As a next step, it sends a simple and

direct message to the Operator (traffic light logic),

with green indicating total usability, yellow

Manager can also contribute information to the

database or use it just for reading purposes. The

database is updated automatically upon each event.

of headphone pavilions), preventing operators who

are irritated by malfunctioning from reducing their

usage (proper consumable management also allows

for greater hygiene for workers, as in the case of

mask filters); f) the reporting procedures introduced

allow for greater transparency in maintenance

procedures; g) the provided register records the

assignments, reducing the number of losses; h) the

list of PPEs available is constantly updated,

providing the manager with a real-time image of the

Fig. 6: PPE was previously defined as “health

protectors PPEs”.

Fig. 7: PPE was previously defined as “Critical

equipment for safety (non-PPE)”.

Fig. 8: WeTag wearable device by Smart Track.

5.2 PPE_WMD

It consists of the integration, inside the WeTag_MD

device (Figure 9, left), of the two technologies

PPE_WEAR and Man Down previously introduced

by the Authors, [16], [17], which involves the use of

inclination sensors, accelerometers, temperature and

barometric pressure meters and of GPS for the

identification and immediate assistance of the man

critical, of anchors (Figure 9, right) designed for the

transmission of the reference signals to the WeTags.

Fig. 9: WeTag_MD wearable device + anchor, [16],

[17].

to make the Hardware and Software system,

previously conceived and implemented by the same,

DIME Department from the University of Genoa,

and co-financed by the Italian Ministry for

Economic Development as an objective, called

Smart Safety 4.0, of the Lighthouse Plant project.

The system proposed allows Operators to trust the

PPEs that they wear, instead of feeling protected

while they are not, due to the inefficiency of these

Equipment due to wrong management, lack of

maintenance, or expiry date.