Piston Automotive Boosted Manufacturing Plant Safety with Voxel

Situation: Timesaving shortcuts were high-risk safety concerns  

Automotive manufacturing is a high-risk industry laden with injury hazards, such as slips and falls, unsafe ergonomic behaviors, and accidents involving heavy machinery. The Piston EHS team noticed that employees were cutting corners to maintain productivity, like walking on rollers (used to transport various parts and assemblies, not people), bulldozing (using forklifts to push multiple pallets, but obscure the driver's view) and running stops at the end of aisles. While these actions seem harmless, they were leading to a high number of injuries and were concerning for EHS leaders. Frank Pochik, Piston Automotive’s head of safety, and a forward-thinking safety leader, recognized the potential of AI to transform Piston Automotive's safety and operations.

Solution:  Video-based coaching facilitated safe behavioral change

After installing Voxel into their existing security cameras, Piston and Voxel collaboratively customized the video-based safety intelligence platform to mark roller areas as 'No Pedestrian Zones', identify 'bulldozing' and ‘no stop’ behaviors in forklifts. Piston not only monitored the quantity and frequency of these risky behaviors in real-time, but also utilized the Voxel reports to craft innovative coaching techniques and safety strategies, resulting in strengthened camaraderie and enhanced accountability within the facility.

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Walking on rollers: leading indicator of slips and falls.

Using Voxel as a coaching tool has really helped. We’re able to share these unsafe behaviors with employees, and it actually helped change our culture around safety. Now, associates are looking out for each other, calling each other out when something’s not right, which helps to drive that safety culture around throughout the plant."

Plant ManagerPiston Automotive

Success: 86% reduction in vehicle safety incidents

Voxel provided Piston with the visibility and insights necessary to make significant improvements, fostering safer conditions and enhancing employee satisfaction. Within 3 months, Piston impressively reduced vehicle safety incidents by 86%. In particular, ‘No Stop at End-of-Aisle' dropped from 5 incidents/day to 0.4 incidents/day. While looking for vehicle safety, Voxel also uncovered a 60% utilization rate for material handlers, who manage in-process inventory and oversee movement of goods. Addressing unseen operational inefficiencies enabled Piston to optimize workload distribution and improve overall plant cleanliness. Now, Piston is fostering a proactive safety culture, setting a new standard for safety innovation in the vehicle manufacturing industry.