Soter Analytics Using Smart Wearables to Reduce Injuries at Giant Eagle Supermarkets

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Giant Eagle, a large U.S. multi-format food, fuel and pharmacy retailer has been working with Soter Analytics, a leading wearable technology company, to enhance their existing musculoskeletal safety training.

At Giant Eagle, the health and well-being of its Team Members and guests is a top priority and the company implements numerous safety measures across its varied work settings. In its retail support centers, Giant Eagle identified an opportunity to use technology to improve consistent manual handling training for musculoskeletal safety to all staff.

Mr. Shawn Rush, Sr. Director, Environmental, Health & Safety Giant Eagle says, "The solution accurately detects and provides warnings for hazardous movements that have high potential to cause injury. As a result, we've seen the number of at-risk postures and movements cut roughly in half for the Team Members involved in the process".

Giant Eagle implemented the Soter Clip&Go solution, a simultaneous charging hub of up to 40 devices, in their retail support centers. A simple process, the worker takes a device at the start of a shift, scans it out and clips it on their shirt. At the end of the shift, the user returns the device, rescanning and placing it back onto the charging hub. Throughout the day the device provides real-time audible and vibration biofeedback alerting workers of any hazardous movements they make. 

Seeing a result of a 31% reduction in injury risk, has produced a very proactive and comprehensive approach to Team Member musculoskeletal safety at Giant Eagle.

Matthew Hart, Founder & CEO, Soter Analytics says "Being able to enhance Giant Eagles' already top-class safety program has been a rewarding result. Focusing on early intervention and prevention by minimising the hazardous movements that lead to injury, instead of injury recovery gets a great safety message out to workers."

The management dashboard gave insight to all areas of the business allowing Giant Eagle to spotlight areas within its retail support centers that were at most risk and provide any necessary controls to limit exposure. Using technology to assist injury prevention with the ability to deploy and scale with minimal invasion provided Giant Eagle with a solution that not only allowed in situ autonomous learning for its Team Members, but objective data insight for management. 

After producing very positive results, the Soter Clip&Go solution is being rolled out across multiple Giant Eagle facilities with the focus on new Team Members using it to learn best-practice manual handling techniques when commencing their employment with Giant Eagle.