Evgeny Grebenschikov is a famous inventor, successful business person, and the founder and CEO of Rescuer Trading House LLC. Evgeny has long been designing various types of high-tech equipment that improve the miners' health & safety. Evgeny has many inventions under his belt. These include a unique self-rescuer, an oxygen level monitoring system that knows no equal on the market, and a real breakthrough in the industry, among many others. These inventions were appreciated by professionals not only in Russia but in many other countries as well.
The lamproom control system "Spasatel Digital" can most likely be called Evgeny's most ingenious invention. It comprises various systems that automate the management of health and safety equipment. The system is highly capable to perform a range of tasks effectively:
- to monitor the status and readiness of personal protective equipment (including self-rescuers) while tracking who's currently using which kit.
- to control the employees' access to the equipment.
- to ensure timely maintenance of equipment.
- to track the service life of the equipment.
- to monitor the operation of equipment and collect breakdown statistics.
- to forecast the demand for new equipment for the company.
Obviously, the availability of PPE plays a key role in the health and safety of personnel. All the necessary equipment must be available in the required quantities and maintained in perfect working condition. Consequently, the status and availability of such equipment should be closely monitored.
Today, most companies keep track of such equipment still using 'old' simple Microsoft Excel or even paper logs. However, when working with an Excel spreadsheet and filling it in manually, various errors are likely to occur. Further, finding the information you need in a spreadsheet can take time. Since the records of different equipment are kept in different tables (or logs), it is very difficult to analyze the available data comprehensively. Under such conditions, the risk of any problems increases significantly: you may overlook the need for routine replacement of a certain device or equipment or even its failure. Because of this, a miner may happen to receive inoperable equipment or might not receive it at all. Everybody understands what can happen in the event of an accident. On the other hand, some miners who take their jobs seriously often make extra sure by purchasing too much equipment and servicing it too often. This can significantly increase the company's costs. At the same time, nobody can guarantee that the extra safety gear cannot be left behind through someone's negligence.
Evgeny's Spasatel Digital system automates all these processes. As part of the standard deployment, special vending machines are installed to store and issue personal protective equipment automatically. Every employee gets assigned a personal locker to stow their self-rescuer and other equipment inside. An electronic label is used to access the locker. When PPE is deposited in the locker, its batteries are automatically charged. This means that miners can get their PPE without having to stand in line and be rest assured that all the batteries are charged when they check out their kit.
The Spasatel Digital also keeps track of the service life of every piece of equipment and its maintenance schedule. The system notifies the lamproom staff in advance whenever a specific item of safety equipment needs maintenance or replacement. This ensures that all regulations are properly followed and safety gear is used in the most efficient way.
If the battery of a piece of equipment fails to charge for some reason by the start of the next shift, the locker containing the unit will be automatically blocked, and the miner will be given access to a reserved locker to get the same type of PPE. The health & safety officer in charge will be automatically notified about the problem with the battery. They will be able to access the locker with the faulty unit, check the state of the battery, and, where necessary, replace it.
Spasatel Digital enables real-time tracking of how many people checked out their PPE, whether or not any of them have had to use reserve kits, and whether all the kits got returned to their lockers when the shift was over. The statistics gathered by the system enable the HSE staff to identify, for example, whether equipment from a specific manufacturer is experiencing certain malfunctions so that a decision can be made to switch to a different supplier. Along with that, miners who are careless and negligent with individual protective gear during work may be identified.
And that's not all. Spasatel Digital's functions can be expanded even further. It can be integrated with other IT systems, such as the payroll and personnel system, the medical examination systems, the monitoring and access control system and others. This can further boost the efficiency of the company's operations by reducing the time to complete routine tasks through automation and elimination of human-factor errors.
Spasatel Digital is a great tool that can help mining companies get rid of many problems, ranging from financial waste to fatal accidents while reducing the workload of the company staff. Evgeny Grebenschikov has come up with a truly systems-level solution. The new system is already being used by major corporations such as LUKOIL, Siberian Coal Energy Company, Mechel, and many others. Moreover, the interest in Evgeny's solutions is steadily growing.
