www.bfpa.co.uk 17 company owners to protect the safety of their employees is paramount. By not adopting the right standards you could not only be putting your employees at risk but also the reputation of the business. It’s things like this that we want to highlight as potential hazards and stress the importance of actions that can substantially mitigate risk. Another point to make is it’s not just about the importance of health and safety per se, it’s also about the general wellbeing of people in industry. Over 14 million working days are lost in the UK due to stress, depression and anxiety. So, mental health is also becoming an important part of our everyday lives and something that must be addressed. Carbon reduction There is also the environmental side of our industry to consider. Everyone’s talking about the need to reduce their carbon footprint. So, product lifecycle, energy reduction and carbon footprint reduction all become mission critical. Part of our strategy within our four pillars is to collaborate with members to help them to become more environmentally responsible and accountable. Many larger manufacturers are clearly aware of the importance of product lifecycle, carbon intensity, energy reduction etc., so more efficient systems are going to be key as we go forward. Digital transformation The importance of operating and maintaining machinery efficiently is a subject that moves us on to another highly important and topical theme – that of digital transformation. It doesn’t seem so long ago that if a machine suffered a fault and you couldn't diagnose the problem yourself you had to call in someone or you would try to describe the fault over the phone. With digitalisation including automatic sensing and IT systems on the web, you now have selfdiagnosing capability and smart learning within the fluid power industry. While we may have be ability to make direct changes remotely to, say, a hydraulic pump or hydraulic valve settings, at least you can, as an example, tap in to the ‘brain’ of the vehicle online and diagnose what the fault could be and then determine if it can be addressed. If we look at the motor sport,
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