O-I, an international glass manufacturer, was seeking to improve health and safety procedures and lone worker solutions at its Holzminden plant in Germany. The existing system had delays in alarm response and lacked coverage in basement areas. ANT Telecom conducted a review and identified inefficiencies. It implemented a new solution using smartphones with panic buttons and location check-in/out to quickly detect alarms anywhere on site. This has led to faster resolution of machine issues and improved productivity while better protecting employees.

1. International glass manufacturer,
O-I, operates out of 77 plants in
21 countries throughout the
world. It employs over 22,000
people and has an annual
turnover of $7 billion. In its
Holzminden plant in Germany O-I
has two furnaces and five
production lines where it
produces several million glass
items per year that are
distributed to customers across
Europe. The company has more
than 250 workers in its
Holzminden plant in Germany
operating on a rota system, with
the plant itself functioning 24/7.
Health and Safety in general and
employee wellbeing is of
paramount importance to O-I and
it therefore reviewed its lone
worker solution and procedures
at the plant, enlisting the services
of communication specialists
ANT Telecom.
OI’s existing lone worker system
The Holzminden is a mid-sized plant
with their workforce working across
the entire site rather than being
confined to specific areas. In
general, mobile reception on site was
at an acceptable level with many
employees relying on mobile phones
to fulfil their daily tasks, except
however in the basement areas
where they had no mobile reception
in places. A static lone worker
system was available in a specific
area of the Holzminden site,
however, this relied on employees
pressing a button every 15 minutes
to confirm that they were safe. In
the event there was no response, an
alarm would be triggered within the
company’s process management
system and displayed in the control
room.
The process management system
also collected alarm notifications
from O-I’s production line. These
alarms indicated any issues, faults or
other problems with machinery.
These alarms would also be
displayed in the control room. In
case the control room was not
manned, the alarms were also
displayed in various places around
the plant, where a basic alarm panel
with five lights indicating the type of
alarm being activated.
A similar process was followed with
O-I’s fire alarm system whereby this
would also activate one of the lights
around the site.
How O-I used ANT Telecom's consultancy
services to help update its lone worker
solution and improve the health & safety
of its employees
Call 01494 833100. Visit www.anttele.com
Avaya Partner in Customer Excellence
ANT Telecommunications Limited, Swift House, Peregrine Business Park
Gomm Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP13 7DL
Case study

2. Processes and limitations
In the early stages of ANT’s
consultancy with O-I, the alarm
distribution and response process
were reviewed, which highlighted a
number of inefficiencies. At times
when the control room was not
manned, it could take significant
amount of time before an alarm was
detected by other employees. In
addition, with 250 different alarms fed
into the system, a flashing alarm light
only gave a basic indication of what
the alarm was for. This led to a
complex, multi-stage approach
whereby the person reacting to the
alarm had to notify the shift
coordinator, who in turn had to notify
a skilled engineer.
Relevant details about a particular
problem with a machine could only
be gathered either on the machine
itself or by accessing the process
management system from the control
room. This therefore caused:
1) A potential delay in detecting a
problem
2) A delay in notifying the person
responsible to resolve it
3) A delay in analysing the nature of
the problem (e.g. to decide what
steps need to be taken etc.)
4) No pre-qualification of issue and
therefore prioritisation of tasks
Fundamentally, there were severe
delays caused by the existing alarm
distribution and response process in
responding to and resolving a
problem with a machine or attending
to an employee in trouble, resulting in
lost production time, potential
material wastage and additional
health risk for the lone worker.
There were also some employees
who could be working in quite
hazardous areas, which were
infrequently patrolled by other staff.
Employees working in a part of the
plant with no GSM coverage
struggled to raise any alarms too and
would therefore have to rely on
colleagues raising an alert when they
noticed they were missing. It could
be hard to identify where a missing
worker might be found, carrying
health implications in the case of any
accidents.
Another very specific process that
ANT identified for improvement was
the out of hours’ emergency call out.
In case of an alarm occurring out of
hours the shift coordinator had to
notify the control room to activate an
out of hours duty call list. This meant
calling a number of people to alert
them to come to site to deal with the
alarm (e.g. a furnace fire or serious
machine fault).
The numbers were dialled manually
and each person had to be informed
about the issue and status. Alerted
employees then also called in during
the drive to work to get updates. This
process was very time consuming
and took time away from the people
onsite trying to deal with the issue.
The employees and O-I’s
management understood these
issues and tried to find and
implement solutions for it. Various
technologies had been previously
suggested, however no person or
team within the company had the
know-how and experience to decide
upon a comprehensive, suitable
solution. This is by far not uncommon
as only very few highly specialised
consultants or integrators would have
this specialist expertise.
ANT’s solution
One of the key actions was to identify
the right technology platform and
infrastructure for OI and a general
balance between the technological
and financial aspects needed to be
found. The company had good site
wide mobile GSM coverage with
many employees relying on their
mobiles for day to day
communication and so it made sense
for ANT to enhance the existing
solution. ANT provided each lone
worker with a smartphone that was
fitted with a panic button and an
application that could trigger
automatic alarms (e.g. when
detecting that the worker has fallen
down).
Triggering the alarm was however
only part of the challenge as it was
important for each alarm to be
distributed to a team of people that
could investigate it, and in the case of
a lone worker find the person quickly.
Furthermore, during the consultation
it was also discovered that
employees worked underground
where there was no mobile reception.
Call 01494 833100. Visit www.anttele.com
Avaya Partner in Customer Excellence
ANT Telecommunications Limited, Swift House, Peregrine Business Park
Gomm Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP13 7DL
Case study

3. To protect employees working in this
environment, ANT needed to ensure
that even when workers were in
areas without GSM coverage an
alarm could still be triggered. To
achieve this, ANT designed and
implemented a check-in, check-out
solution.
With this solution, employees check-
in to an area by “touching in” using
their smartphone. This process
updates their location information,
but it also triggers a monitoring timer
when they are about to enter an area
with no GSM reception. By checking
out of the area again the monitoring
is deactivated. If for example, they fail
to check out or respond to a check
call after a specified monitoring time
period, an alarm is triggered. This
alarm is automatically sent to a pre-
defined recipient or group and
includes details of the person and
their location.
In the same way ANT’s solution
detects and distributes machine
alarms. Its system integrates directly
into O-I’s process management
solution to detect alarms or machine
status as and when they occur. Each
alarm has an assigned format to
determine how the alarms shall be
distributed and escalated if not
responded to.
ANT also automated the way in
which out of hours’ emergency calls
are handled. All alerted employees
are placed in a conference so that the
duty operator can inform and update
them all at once, which has enabled
better management of the 24/7 alarm
handling.
The results
ANT’s solution has led to significant
efficiency gains as machine issues
can be detected as they happen. The
issue can also be analysed
immediately by the responsible
engineer as alarm details are
automatically sent. Overall this has
meant faster resolution of issues and
improved productivity.
O-I takes health and safety very
seriously and the Plant Manager Mr.
Reiner Zinnecker, who headed up the
project in its evaluation phase
comments, “Together with the health
and safety team we identified the
issues we had and we wanted to
provide better protection for all of our
employees. Prior to the consultancy
provided by ANT, we felt unable to
identify and agree on a suitable
solution. Importantly, ANT came onto
our Holzminden plant and carried out
a thorough investigation and took
time to speak with our employees
and management to get a full
understanding of our lone worker
challenges. By undertaking this
exercise with all relevant
stakeholders, they were not only able
to identify the key issues but were
also able to detect other areas of
improvement. Our employees,
especially lone workers, are now far
better protected, but in addition the
resolution of any machine issues has
been greatly improved, leading to
higher productivity.”
O-I and ANT worked together in the
implementation and also consulted
employees throughout the process,
who themselves suggested the most
suitable mobile device, which ANT
consequently tested and installed.
“Employees have adapted well to the
new lone worker solution, which
works reliably 24/7. Our partnership
with ANT was truly that; it was a fully
collaborative process which engaged
everyone within the organisation. We
believe that this has been key to the
project’s success,” concludes Reiner.
Call 01494 833100. Visit www.anttele.com
Avaya Partner in Customer Excellence
ANT Telecommunications Limited, Swift House, Peregrine Business Park
Gomm Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP13 7DL
Case study