Case Study: A global manufacturer with logistics and warehousing operations across North America, Asia, and Latin America
A leading global manufacturer recently piloted SEEN sensors in four facilities across three countries. One site had between 1,000 and 1,500 people on-site at any one time — a mix of employees, contractors, and suppliers working in shared operational zones.
SEEN Insight data showed a strong reduction in pedestrian detections during the pilot. But the data — especially video and image evidence — revealed a consistent pattern: the remaining detections mostly involved contractors and suppliers, not direct employees. These groups were also more likely to be wearing non-compliant PPE, such as high-vis gear without retroreflective tape.
The Hazard Hierarchy Trap
This presented an administrative control challenge: How do you train third-party suppliers on safe behaviour around forklifts — including what the sensors are telling them — and more difficult still, how do you ensure their PPE meets site standards?
At first, the challenge was considered too hard to solve. “We need to understand the cultural context.” “People come and go. We can’t train every new person who arrives each day.”
A Better Way
But through a cycle of Plan–Do–Check–Act, the support and encouragement of a Change Team that met once a week, and the freedom to consider alternatives, the local team reframed the problem. They realised many “visitors” had no operational reason to be in forklift zones at all.
The site created a designated waiting area — a café-like space — for visiting suppliers. This simple change removed the exposure, avoiding the need for new briefings, policies, or checks. It addressed the risk without adding more administrative burden.
The team was able to act because they had clear, specific data — not just counts, but video and images that revealed a subcategory of pedestrians: visitors. The data made the invisible visible. And once the team saw that, and with a process and encouragement, they no longer felt trapped by enforcement-based responses. Instead, they created a safer, more welcoming site experience — likely appreciated by the visitors themselves.
By reframing the problem, the team didn’t just reduce risk — they effectively moved up the hierarchy of controls, eliminating a whole sub-group of people from the hazard area.
People do not want to get hurt, and they do not intentionally break rules. But they have other things on their mind. Fatigue, distraction and complacency all accumulate and work against safety. And even 50% safe, as the picture illustrates, can still make someone 100% unsafe.
