WorkSafe Victoria is a state government body charged with maintaining and improving safety within all Victorian workplaces.
The Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) Pilot Program, aimed to test the efficacy of AMR’s in reducing the risk of injury as a result of Hazardous Manual Handling (HMH) within small to medium-sized Victorian manufacturing workplaces. Data collected from recent Victorian worker claims submitted to WorkSafe Victoria, indicated HMH accounted for over 30 percent of injury that required monetary support. Three separate trial workplaces were engaged to test this theory and adopt a standard methodology to assess the results and potential for state-wide scalability.
AML was engaged as Project Implementation Manager to plan and coordinate the pilot involving WorkSafe Victoria, three trial workplaces, and numerous robotics vendors.
This meant delivering on the following objectives of the pilot:
- Assess the effectiveness of using AMRs to eliminate or significantly reduce the risk of hazardous manual handling injuries;
- Provide an understanding of new risks to physical and mental health and wellbeing that can emerge from implementation of AMRs, and how these risks can be eliminated or controlled;
- Demonstrate what good adoption of new technology can look like (with a focus on consultation by management with workers including workers from multicultural backgrounds and identification of new risks to physical and mental health and wellbeing);
- Provide an understanding of the benefits for small and medium manufacturers to adopt AMRs beyond eliminating the manual handing task i.e. any productivity, quality or other benefits;
- Provide an understanding of factors that can support or inhibit successful implementation of new technologies in small and medium sized manufacturing workplaces; and
- Inform how WorkSafe can best promote broader adoption of industry 4.0 technologies by employers to make workplaces safer.
Services provided by AML:
- Project Planning and documentation to support all aspects of the trial
- Project Evaluation methodology
- Market research and Procurement
- Project Coordination and Management
- Strategic Logistic Advice
- Governance and Compliance
