May 9, 2018, 4:00 PM EDT

Abstract:
Data science has already begun to revolutionize banking, business, and healthcare, industries and is now supporting the transformation of occupational health and safety organizations. Using real time, big data, industrial organizations can collect leading indicator information to predict risk and take actions to mitigate that risk resulting safer, more productive workplaces. One example is Predictive Safety’s Fatigue Monitoring System (PRISM), which has been in use at major mining operations, (>4000 employees) in South Africa for the past few years. The use of the technology has had a positive influence not only on the safety record at these mines but also on its safety culture by making workers more aware of their own fatigue levels, reducing hours worked during periods of high fatigue risk, reducing the number of accidents and the severity, and improving worker attendance. The outcomes of PRISM system at these mines demonstrate that improved safety performance correlates with fatigue management using customized bio-mathematical models based on circadian sleep science and integrated alertness testing.

Presenter:
Marcus Wichmann, Predictive Safety Business Operations – Previously, Marcus had spent 26 years in the semiconductor industry managing global operations for manufacturing, engineering and support operations before becoming a bio-chronologist. Marcus graduated from Colorado School of Mines with BSc in Engineering Physics and took his first position with Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas. He spent the next 15 years serving in various manufacturing and operational roles managing workforce productivity, safety and quality control in global work environments. Marcus’s tenure at TI included several assignments stating up operations in Asian Pacific Rim Countries. After TI, Marcus served as Manufacturing Director for the largest semiconductor manufacturing facility start-up in North America at that time. In 2000, he joined Lam Research, the 4th largest global semiconductor capital equipment supplier based in San Jose, California. At Lam, Marcus managed service operations for North American and South Korea and became Director of Service Operations.

In 2010, Marcus joined a startup focused on measuring and managing fatigue in the work place. He has been working in South Africa for 7 years developing an innovative fatigue monitoring platform using predictive analytics to minimize the impact of fatigue in the workplace and improve worker safety. The system has been running successfully for several years in two of flagship mining operations and continues to be adopted across the mining industry.