GKN Aerospace

As a leading manufacturer of highly complex aerostructures and engine products for the global aviation industry, the roles of lone workers within GKN Aerospace are varied to say the least..

Whilst the company does its upmost to avoid lone working where possible, certain production activities, maintenance work and support activities do mean workers are sometimes on their own – including weekend refuse collections.

GKN realised it had an issue of how workers would be able to raise the alarm to a responsible manager should they be in distress – and chose LONEALERT as the solution mainly due to its unique and flexible nature which supports the diverse range of roles and activities on its Filton site.

Company spokesman Craig Burgess said: “There was no specific incident that prompted the implementation of a lone worker protection system but we understand that lone working is an issue in many industries, including here at Filton.

A robust lone working policy needed to be in place to control this risk and here at Filton, LONEALERT has been implemented to support this policy.

With such varied roles on site the LONEALERT system plays a big part in helping to ensure the safety of workers in a number of daily activities. From maintenance engineers, to paint sprayers, personnel on the treatments line and stores people, the range of roles that involve lone working is wide-ranging.

Mr Burgess added: “A good example is refuse collections on weekends. The site runs seven days a week and waste needs to be collected by the onsite refuse collection service and taken to the waste compound to be sorted into the various waste streams for recycling.

On weekends there is generally only one member of staff undertaking this activity so lone working is a potential issue. The LONEALERT system ensures should there be a situation where the alarm does need to be raised then member of staff has the LONEALERT alarm on his person ready for activation.

GKN reviewed several systems as part of its investigations into lone worker protection systems but has not looked back since choosing LONEALERT because of its flexible nature that suits the working environment on site.

Mr Burgess added:

The LONEALERT staff are readily on hand to answer any enquiries promptly and in a friendly manner and we would definitely recommend the system.