Smart Builder for Everyday Safety
Digital Evolution of Safety – TMK Automates PPE Distribution at Its Taganrog Plant
Safety in One Click
An innovative automated personal protective equipment distribution point has been launched at the Taganrog Metallurgical Plant, a key subsidiary of the Pipe Metallurgical Company. The system takes over procurement planning, inventory oversight, and personalized PPE distribution for each employee. By reducing human involvement, it raises industrial safety standards and improves operational transparency.
The system operates as a “smart builder.” Previously, a shift supervisor could spend up to 30 minutes per shift filling out issue logs, checking compliance with standards, and searching for the right size of protective clothing. Now an employee taps their badge at a terminal and receives a kit in about 30 seconds, assembled strictly according to their job role and working conditions. A welder, for example, receives a welding mask and gauntlets, while additional items depend on workplace risk assessments – a respirator for exposure to hazardous aerosols, or safety glasses for mechanical metal processing. This approach delivers full compliance with occupational safety requirements without administrative involvement.
Post Locker Instead of Storekeeper
TMK had already rolled out similar upgraded systems for tracking and distributing PPE at other facilities, including the Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant, the Seversky Pipe Plant, and the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant.
Automating occupational safety at TMK facilities aligns with two major trends shaping Russian industry. The first is accelerated digitization of routine operations – a shift from paper logs and spreadsheets to real-time, paperless accounting. The second is adaptation to new regulatory requirements. Starting January 1, 2025, all Russian employers must apply Unified Standard Norms for PPE issuance, turning automated compliance oversight from a convenience into a necessity for large industrial companies.
In recent years, similar systems have been actively deployed across many Russian industrial sites. At EVRAZ facilities, for example, smart lockers and vending machines already serve more than 6,500 employees. In 2023, a pilot project at EVRAZ’s Novotroitsk plant introduced automated respirator dispensers in the blast furnace shop. The initiative cut PPE pickup time from 10 minutes to two and eliminated configuration errors entirely. These cases show that automating routine processes directly shapes safety culture – when protection is accessible and predictable, workers are more likely to use it consistently.
IoT Will Turn PPE into Proactive Protection
For TMK, deploying the system marks only one stage of a broader digital transformation. The company plans to scale the solution across other facilities and integrate it with corporate ERP and HR platforms. That integration would allow procurement volumes to adjust automatically based on write-off data, track workforce changes in real time, and generate regulatory reports without accounting staff involvement. The next step could link the system with industrial Internet of Things platforms, where sensors on equipment flag elevated risks and trigger additional PPE issuance.
The export potential of such solutions remains indirect but meaningful. Russian industrial software developers already use successful metallurgy case studies in marketing materials for CIS countries and Southeast Asia, regions where demand is rising for cost-effective, locally adapted solutions for workforce management and PPE logistics.
Digital Immunity for Industry
Automating PPE distribution goes beyond a technology upgrade. It signals a shift where workplace safety stops being a formality and becomes part of a company’s digital culture. When employees receive reliable protection without barriers or bureaucracy, attitudes toward personal safety change. For high-risk industries such as metallurgy, that shift can play a decisive role in reducing workplace injuries.
The Taganrog TMK plant shows what the future of industrial safety looks like – digital, personalized, and accessible to every employee with a single click. What starts at advanced facilities is likely to become a standard across Russian industry.
