German chancellor Angela Merkel first met ProGlove in November 2015. Back then, it was during the country’s national IT summit. The paths have indirectly crossed again at the Davos Agenda Week. ProGlove’s CEO Andreas Koenig also participated in the World Economic Forum’s formal gathering, bringing together world and global business leaders.
ProGlove’s participation in The Davos Agenda Week builds on the success it achieved with The World Economic Forum (WEF) in June 2020, when it was selected as a Technology Pioneer. This prestigious recognition acknowledges ProGlove’s vision, which focuses on the human worker. This has also opened the door for wider WEF collaboration. Focusing on people is a truly unique selling point within any industrial environment. The ProGlove vision sums it up perfectly: “The human workforce is at the center of what we do. We build ergonomic hardware and integrated software solutions. Our human-centered approach empowers the workforce with smarter workflows”. Above all, this vision recognizes that, despite artificial intelligence and automation, we will not be able to do without human workers for the foreseeable future.
Investment in Human Workers Pays Off
Moreover, this philosophy shows time and again that investing in human workers creates and secures value. Most recently the pandemic of 2020 proved that point. Because without all the workers in logistics and warehouses, manufacturing and retail, there would have been bottlenecks in no time. Not to mention the many other professions in healthcare, nursing and many more. Within this context, workplace safety has moved to the forefront of many organizations’ minds.
That being said, it is important to note that workplace safety today goes far beyond anti-Covid measures alone. Workplace safety is also a matter of guiding employees with care. This also applies to issues such as ergonomics, fatigue and attentiveness. Technology can help manage these challenges. After all, work in logistics and manufacturing is particularly physically demanding. Deficits in safety of the aforementioned aspects can very quickly lead to accidents. These can have a detrimental impact on human lives and cost companies dearly. For example, slips, trips and falls, injuries from lifting or being struck by a moving object are some of the hazards that could cause harm within many industrial working environments. What is more, in 2018/19, in the UK, 28.2 million working days were lost due to work-related illness and injury and in 2017/18, the estimated economic cost to Great Britain totalled £15 billion.
ProGlove CEO Names Three Core Objectives
ProGlove has been committed to dealing with these concerns from the get-go and is driving forward solutions in this space. With that in mind, ProGlove CEO, Andreas Koenig, outlines three core objectives: “Now more than ever we must focus on the human worker. With or without the pandemic, there are three bits of fundamental truth the global business community needs to adhere to. First, we need to connect the human worker to the Internet of Things. Second, we need to enhance human-machine collaboration. Third, we need to relentlessly drive digitization on shop floors, in warehouses and everywhere frontline workers perform. This will allow businesses to tap into micro-efficiencies and scale them massively while raising product quality immensely. At the same time, this will also promote worker well-being and safety, both of which pay tremendous dividends in the long run.”
If you would like to know more about “How Industrial Safety Measures Promote Efficiency “, download the ProGlove whitepaper on this topic!
