How IoT & AI Are Revolutionizing Workplace Safety | Digital Dialogue
India’s factories are getting faster, smarter and more connected—but that progress only counts if people go home safe. As automation, robotics and data pour into shop floors, safety has to move from “reactive compliance” to “predictive by design.” With that mandate, mojo4industry—under its Safe Bharat 2025 campaign—hosted a digital dialogue on “How IoT & AI Are Revolutionizing Workplace Safety,” presented with Knowledge Partner Schmersal India and moderated by Subhajit Roy, Editor, mojo4industry.
The panel brought together three hands-on voices from industry: Muthu Sekkar, CEO, Polyhose Sato-Shoji Metal Works; Dr. Sanjeev Kumar, Deputy Director – Business Development & Services, Renishaw India; and Sachit Mohan, Team Supervisor – IoT Specialist, Schmersal Global Competence Centre.
From leadership mindsets and connected machines to edge intelligence and privacy, the discussion navigated how modern plants can hard-wire a zero-harm culture into daily operations—not as a one-off initiative, but as a way of running the business.
Leadership-led, data-driven safety
Opening the session, Muthu Sekkar underlined that today’s safety is “real-time safety.” He pointed to wearables that flag worker fatigue and camera systems that help detect unsafe behaviour on the shop floor—“if a cart strays the wrong way, the beeps and warnings kick in automatically.” But technology alone is not the finish line. “We collect so much data—phones, laptops, tablets—and factories do the same. The question is: what are we doing with the data?” he asked.
For Muthu Sekkar, safety cannot be a calendar event. “It should not be a ‘safety month’ celebration. As long as the company exists, safety has to be practiced,” he said, adding that in his new role at Polyhose Sato-Shoji Metal Works—a large fabrication and contract manufacturing setup from a group renowned for hose manufacturing—the approach will remain top-driven and all-inclusive: “Safety is for everyone, across the organisation.”
Quality as protection: from reactive to predictive
Dr. Sanjeev Kumar reframed quality itself: “The new definition of quality is protection.” He urged a decisive shift from reactive checks to predictive assurance “because a single mistake on a machine or assembly line can halt production—or worse, lead to field failures in aerospace, defence or any end product.” His mantra was simple and universal: “Every job, every function—design, manufacturing, assembly, sales—must ask if it meets quality standards.”
Dr. Sanjeev described the anatomy of predictive safety: connected, intelligent, agile machines; structured data; and context-aware decisioning so that systems detect and predict rather than wait for defects or injuries. With real-time sensing, instant correction and continuous learning, AI can drive a zero-defect mindset that directly improves safety and productivity. He also set a macro backdrop: manufacturing contributes roughly 16% to India’s GDP and must climb to 25–30% for the nation’s growth ambitions; that journey, he argued, is impossible without safety embedded by design.
Safety 4.0 at the edge
Taking the conversation to implementation, Sachit Mohan sketched “Safety 4.0”—a proactive framework that blends IoT, AI and edge computing to sense risks and act in near-real time. Data flows from PPE wearables (helmets, vests and other active gear), environmental sensors on the shop floor, and machine/equipment sensors such as vibration probes and safety interlocks.
Why the edge matters was his central point. “In safety, seconds matter. If logic lives close to the machine, we act with low latency.” Edge intelligence also addresses low-bandwidth sites, privacy and regulatory demands (GDPR and other data security norms), and even offline continuity for reports and immediate actions. Looking ahead, he said the edge can host generative AI and LLMs from leaders like OpenAI, Google and Microsoft to create new, more proactive safety capabilities right where work happens.
Where the risks really hit—and what it costs
The panel paused on human realities. Muthu Sekkar cited data from manufacturing floors: legs account for roughly 26% of injuries, with hands around 20%. “If protection for legs and hands is tightened with better PPE and smart monitoring, we can cut nearly half the accidents,” he argued. He also quantified the business impact: a serious accident can cost Rs 60–70 lakh per employee, regardless of role—an amount that compounds into lost time, morale, and reputation.
On the perennial question of “dark factories”, Sachit explained that legacy, reactive practices—checklists, signage and manual audits—are outpaced by high-speed automation, AGVs and connected robots. That complexity demands IoT-plus-AI systems that safeguard dense human–machine interactions in real time.
Dr. Sanjeev added that as India moves up the automation ladder, safety will be designed-in because modern lines generate state- and stage-wise data that make predictive controls practical. Ultimately, adoption will follow value: when predictive safety improves margins and competitiveness, it stops being optional and becomes standard.
The business case: productivity first, cost in control
Sachit emphasised that insights from shop-floor data—amplified by today’s readily available AI models—can raise productivity, shrink safety risks and cut downtime. He highlighted AR/VR applications now maturing in industry: virtual fencing and virtual commissioning to validate systems and strengthen training before people face real-world hazards.
Muthu Sekkar, answering the classic “cost” objection, put numbers on it: “When you look at warranty or service, there is always a cost. But safety, in my view, is about 1–1.5% of the product cost—a very small price for such a critical layer.”
A direction
Across the hour, a single theme kept surfacing: mindset. Technology enables, but leadership decides, data discipline sustains, and culture delivers. As Dr. Sanjeev put it, predictive has to replace reactive; as Sachit showed, edge intelligence puts that prediction where time is shortest; and as Muthu Sekkar insisted, top-driven, organisation-wide ownership makes safety everyday work—not an annual slogan.
In closing, the take-home was unambiguous: safety is no longer optional, episodic or separate from productivity. It’s built into design, powered by data, accelerated at the edge, and led from the top—one decision, one process and one worker at a time.
YouTube Link: https://bit.ly/Safe-Bharat-M4I
