Sensor-Driven Social Distancing

From ports and paper mills to manufacturing and packaging facilities, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is forcing businesses to figure out how to keep moving while taking steps to mitigate the spread of the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to provide recommendations to help businesses provide safe, healthy work environments.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) like face coverings, plastic barriers, hand sanitizing stations and face coverings all play an important role to reduce the spread. But according to the CDC, the best way to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is limiting close face-to-face contact – or as we’ve come to know it, social distancing.

Also called “physical distancing” by the CDC, social distancing means keeping a safe space – currently defined as at least 6 feet – between individuals from different households. The rationale for the practice is rooted in how the virus spreads. When an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks, droplets can get in the air and spread COVID-19 to people nearby.

The challenge to operations is twofold.

1. Facilitate effective social distancing throughout the organization
2. Have a plan of action in the event an employee tests positive

With supply chain operations more critical than ever during the pandemic, businesses need to address these virus-related concerns all while moving greater volumes at faster rates, in an already difficult labor climate.