In manufacturing, operational excellence is essential for success. It’s an environment in which multiple teams with diverse skills, with members from different cultural backgrounds, work together towards common goals. One of these goals is the ability to respond to emergencies and operational disruptions. In fact, responding to emergencies is a core strength.
Mass notification system – a powerful tool
A mass notification system is an essential tool that enables manufacturing companies to respond to emergencies that might threaten individual life and indeed the valuable assets of a manufacturer. It doesn’t matter what goes wrong – extreme weather conditions, an accident at work, a leak of hazardous materials, a fire, or a pandemic or earthquake. Manufacturing companies must be able to immediately notify their employees about dangers and guide their employees with appropriate instructions.
To be fair, emergencies are rare but disruptive and unexpected events happen every day. IT failures, the breakdown of a system or urgent extra shifts raises difficult challenges. How does a manufacturing operation efficiently notify its employees so that they can act in a timely manner and keep manufacturing operations running?
Addressing a crisis with mass notifications
Mass notification platforms are designed to address these difficult challenges. You can learn more about the powerful, unique features of mass notification platforms and how these platforms are different from run-of-the-mill communication technologies, by reading this article.
Below we list seven real scenarios that illustrate how manufacturing companies can benefit from the use of mass notification platforms.
| Use Case | Example | How Tekmon Mass Notification helps |
|---|---|---|
|
Urgent safety notifications Notify your employees and stakeholders immediately about a threat or an incident at one of your locations. |
Strong winds and extensive rainfall is expected in 30min at area “A”. Secure assets and find shelter immediately. Leak of hazardous materials detected. Stop all work immediately. |
Use the platform by graphically selecting an area on the map (eg radius of 50km) and send immediate notification by SMS and voice calls to everyone working in that area. |
|
Staffing In a time-critical situation, you can bring the right staff to a production plant – at short notice. |
We have 12 open shifts for electricians starting tomorrow Thursday March 29th, from 2pm-11pm. First come first serve. To secure shift, reply 1. Urgently need to drivers for open shifts to start in 1 hour, 3pm-4am. If available reply 1. |
Send two-way messages to different skilled teams asking who can take on urgent work. Using the call-out method you can set a maximum number of positive responses. Once your team’s requirements are fulfilled, the notification process stops. |
|
Readiness updates Notify your employees and your response teams about events that might affect their operations. |
Extreme change of weather conditions, there is high risk of system failures. |
Use the platform to create groups of recipients. You make your selection on-the-fly using multiple criteria (eg geography, role, seniority level). Reach recipients through multiple communication channels (SMS, email, voice calls) all at once. |
|
Operational disruptions When an operational change occurs, immediately inform all those involved with clear instructions to keep business running. |
Floor 3 of the office building “Z” will be vacated tomorrow for disinfection, please work from home. Production line A is out of order. Increase production speed by 5% on line B. |
By using multiple filters, notifications can be targeted even to the floor level. Escalation of communications ensures that the relevant people will be informed as soon as possible. |
|
Building evacuations Instantly inform staff to evacuate a space or building by providing exit instructions, both for staff and for any visitors. |
Fire outbreak at warehouse B. Evacuate the building immediately. Detailed instructions here. To confirm, press 1. | When life is at stake, two-way communication enables real-time updates that track who has been informed and who has not. Communications are escalated from medium to severe to ensure that the notification will reach the recipient as soon as possible. |
|
Immediate damage estimates Right after a dangerous natural phenomenon (eg an earthquake) damage should be reported quickly to enable response teams to act appropriately. |
Please, if you must declare damage to your office or building, press 1, if not press 2, if you are out of office and are unaware press 3. | The two-way communication feature enables you to have a clear picture of the situation in just a few minutes. |
|
Downtime Alerts The cost of downtime of a machine or an IT system is costly. Response teams and affected employees must be notified immediately. |
Server is down. Save your files locally until further instructions. Scheduled system maintenance will take place in 1 hour. Email will not work for 15 minutes. |
Notification templates and communications paths can be set for each IT incident. Response teams and affected employees will be notified with the relevant information each time. |