The role of Industry 4.0 technologies in improving safety performance and safety management systems in manufacturing environment

Industry 4.0 revolution is broadly reshaping the manufacturing environment, increasing technological level and digitalization of systems with the purpose of enhancing productivity and reaching the highest level of efficiency in production of goods. Since safety and health at work (OHS) is one of the critical components of success of industrial systems, as it allows to achieve the maximum efficiency of the manpower, it is crucial to exploit new technologies to improve this aspect of the organization, both in terms of boosting the safety performance (prevention and mitigation of injuries and physical/mental diseases) and strengthening the safety management system (risk analysis and identification/comprehension of disease causes). The aim of the paper is to synthesize and present the main applications of Industry 4.0 technologies to safety through the analysis of the most important and recent scientific papers concerning the topic, pointing out advantages and benefits which can be achieved through the utilization of advanced tools as collaborative robots, exoskeletons and wearable technologies, sensors, Internet of Things, Cloud, Augmented Reality and Big Data.