The dangers of people working in close proximity to heavy plant machinery are ones Safety Shield Global’s founder and CEO, Jonathan Guest, is only too painfully aware of, after a friend was devastatingly crushed to death on a construction site.
Determined to prevent such incidents, Jonathan has dedicated his career to developing innovative safety solutions that change behaviour on sites and significantly reduce the risk of death or serious injury.
“It’s my personal mission to stop plant from hitting people,” said Guest. “Any death or life-changing workplace accident is one too many. I believe these deaths are all avoidable – and our system can provide that solution.”
A pioneering force in the development of artificial intelligence-powered safety solutions, Winsford-based Safety Shield Global has honed and developed its Human Form Recognition (HFR) software to such an extent it is now utilised in industries such as construction, rail, agriculture, waste management and warehousing.
Its position as a market leader saw the Safety Shield team awarded a King’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation in 2024, but it accepts the job is not finished, as dedicated research and development experts look to harness evolving AI technology to enhance their safety solutions. “Our AI accuracy measure of 99.6 per cent has been confirmed by independent testing bodies and we have been awarded seven ISO certifications including ISO27001 for information security,” says Guest. “Despite this, our commitment to innovation is unwavering. We’ve built a culture of continuous improvement and are dedicated to transform behaviours until we achieve zero harm.”
Safety Shield’s AI system acts as a third eye for the machine operator, detecting when a human form is within the outer or more dangerous inner zones, and sounding an alarm to warn individuals and bring the vehicle to a halt. Real-time incursion data and video recordings are instantly available and its cloud-based platform, Safety Shield Vue, gives insights into behavioural patterns or problem areas.
Safety Shield is now being adopted worldwide by some of the largest blue-chip companies. “On average we are seeing an initial reduction of danger-zone incursions by people around plant by 80 per cent,” says Guest, “with the AI model ‘trained’ to create a bespoke safety system to meet the needs of a specific company, project or site.”
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