Encountering a workplace accident is one of the toughest crises for an employer. It not only impacts the safety of workers but also the credibility and employer brand value of the organization. The factories in Indonesia echo this sentiment very well.

Grappling with a continuous rise in the number of work accidents (around 44 % rise from 2017 to 2021) *, the ministry of manpower in the country has stated that companies must adopt a good Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) guidance. As per the latest International Labor Organization report, around 2.4 million deaths reported across the world were caused by 340 million work accidents in 2021.

In order to ensure health and well-being of the workforce, the employers provide a safe environment for their employees enabled with the right protocols, safety training, equipment, protective gear, and a properly maintained machinery. However, all these measures, might fall short of their intended objectives, if the employees are not in good health.

This story is about OMRON Healthcare Indonesia joining hands with like-minded technology organizations in the country to cocreate and develop effective solutions empowering the employers to take more control of the health of workers leading to significant prevention in workplace accidents. The story underlines how efficient health monitoring protects employees and guides them towards the right treatment ultimately leading to lesser workplace accidents and better business operations.

Team OMRON at work with other like-minded organizations

Realization of this significant social issue led OMRON's healthcare business team towards working with PT. PERTAMINA - Indonesia's no. 1 energy company having a vast presence (300 + offices, 15K + employees and 700 + stations) in the region. Despite of earnestly following "3 pillars for Work Accident Prevention", namely Hazard Control in the Workplace, Training & Supervision, and Data Management System, the company was keenly looking for effective technology-based solutions in its safety infrastructure. This was to bring in better monitoring & control of unsafe actions and conditions.

The problem statement & the sponsoring thought

Just like many other organizations, PERTAMINA was also following a monitoring and health inspection procedure for employees who were reporting sick to work. However, it was recognized that this approach was not wholesome as it helped in reducing work accidents to a limited extent only. What about the employees who themselves do not know that they are unwell and so their health condition might lead to workplace errors that might cause serious and fatal accidents?

With this sponsoring thought, OMRON conceived the program "Fit to Work" which mandated all employees, irrespective of their condition, must go for a health check first before they start work. And if their parameters are not right, they are directed not to work and go for a treatment.

The challenges

The program's vision and purpose did sound profound but at the same time many challenges also surfaced. Striven with the desire to not only contribute towards health & safety but also delivering operational efficiency, Team OMRON suggested the following ideas to counter the challenges:

1. High Cost: to be managed by modifying the roles of the clinics and paramedics that were required to be empaneled for the project

2. More time-consuming procedure: every employee needed minimum of 10 mins for the complete health monitoring - Blood Pressure (BP) check, temperature check, oxygen level check and presence of alcohol in the breath check done by the following devices respectively: BP monitor, Thermometer, Oximeter, Alcoholometer. This was tackled by integrating monitoring of varied health conditions in one platform.

3. Data storage management: how to manage and how to use the health data of the employees turned out to be another glaring issue which was managed by integrating three data - personal, attendance and health into one data base.

How did the team do it?

With different organizations and their technical capabilities coming together, one of the most difficult challenges was to sync up with the device calibration standards put forth by National Calibration Standard. Another one was to have the seamless integration between OMRON devices and the PERTAMINA system.

For implementing these measures, the team collaborated in-house as well as with external service providers. Technology assistance was taken from OMRON Automation business team in Indonesia along with the healthcare team. An external IT service provider (Hardtmann) was also brought on board to assist for integration. All partners continued to support and collaborate with intensive discussions, trial and errors and deliberations to come up with a one single holistic solution syncing up seamlessly with all of its constituent different technologies.

The launch

The result of this successful collaboration got manifested as "ROBOTIC HEALTH"- a one-point kiosk having amalgamation of medical devices, electrical parts and systems and applications. The solution went live in Nov 2020 in PERTAMINA, Jogja branch and has, so far, received lot of positive reviews from the employees and management.

How do employees use it every day?

1. Scan id card

2. The kiosk monitors BP, body temperature, oxygen, and alcohol levels in one go by making employees use all the monitoring devices in one setting (OMRON provided BP monitor and rest were provided by other players).

3. Based on the same it indicates the status in two categories: "Fit" and "Unfit" (if "unfit", the employee is advised to go for treatment and not report to work)

4. All personal & health data then gets collated in a single system database

5. Orientation sessions for the paramedical staff to understand more about hypertension management were also conducted by the OMRON team.

The Robotic Health Kiosk solution turns out to be more efficient, more productive, and simpler as compared to setting up a clinic. The solution scores high on the investment and operational cost front; it's also quicker and swifter in delivering results and has an ingenuity to manage the database too.

Way ahead

The solution has been recognized by MURI (The Indonesian World Records) as the initiator of creating automatic check health (Robotic Health). Two of the PERTAMINA plants have also got a recognition from Ministry of Manpower for Zero accident awards (5.894.400 Hours without accident).

Striving to maximize its value for the Indonesian society and showcase it as one of the best practices for the global society, OMRON aims to cater to other workplaces of PERTAMINA and also work around enhancing number of OMRON solutions in the Robotic Health kiosk.

Tag: Manufucturing