Guardian 900 Saw

This project looked at how Guardian smart bandsaws performed over several years at Wodonga Rendering, with the goal of reducing hand injuries and improving how safety data is used. The team reviewed activation data from the machines, spoke with supervisors, and checked injury records across the Offal, Cutting, and Boning rooms. During the entire review period there were no hand lacerations recorded while operators were using Guardian saws. The saws typically triggered safety stops about twice per runtime hour, mostly because the system judged the vision conditions to be unsafe, followed by contact‑sensing and brake activations.

The project also identified practical steps that reduced unnecessary stops. These included switching to light‑coloured PPE to avoid reflections, managing moisture and lens fogging, ensuring operators used their own logins, and choosing right‑side or overhead lead routing for future machines. Moving maintenance to a self‑service model supported by a set of critical spare parts helped reduce downtime and costs.

Finally, improvements to governance, such as a quarterly KPI report and clear portal ownership, helped ensure fair and consistent operator coaching. Overall, the project shows a clear and achievable way to keep workers safer without slowing down production and provides a solid foundation for how other sites can adopt, train, maintain, and purchase this technology effectively.