HD Hyundai Heavy Industries builds smart safety system

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is building a smart safety system to create an accident-free workplace, strengthening the role of managers and supervisors over both routine and non-routine operations.

As part of a mid- to long-term safety roadmap running through 2030, the company is investing 17 billion won ($12.6 million) this year to introduce metal surface wave communications technology and vision sensors and to improve safety training. The technology eliminates communication dead zones inside vessels — including confined spaces — enabling rapid situation alerts and evacuations within the critical response window during emergencies.

Vision sensors will be installed in areas with high inspection needs or accident risk, establishing a proactive safety system capable of detecting hazardous situations in real time.

The company will also reorganize its on-site safety teams to reflect the operational characteristics of each business division and expand its safety management office. A new "safety technology division" will be created to handle production technology improvements and on-site inspection functions, boosting field response capabilities. The company will also strengthen what it calls "pinpoint safety management," which assigns differentiated oversight responsibilities and roles based on the nature and risk level of each task.

Starting Sept. 14, the company launched a "safe work accountability system" that designates safety managers by task type not only for high-risk operations but also for routine and non-routine work. By year-end, a "field operability review committee" will conduct a comprehensive reassessment of prevention measures for serious accidents and high-risk incidents that occurred over the past decade.