Severn Trent – Lifting

Severn Trent’s Distribution Service Technicians lift a variety of lids and covers every single day and it’s unlikely they’ll know what they need to lift before they arrive on site. This is where damage is most likely to be done with incorrect training.The best practice techniques for lifting lids are generally well known but there are various environmental factors that make best practice hard to replicate in reality.

Uneven ground, old or damaged lids as well as confined spaces means that technicians frequently lift more than they should or don’t adopt the right posture.

Learning objectives included increasing knowledge and capabilities for best practice lifting techniques, exploring environmental factors and creating awareness of the long-term damage that can be incurred from prolonged, incorrect lifting. The training also had to cover what to do when environmental factors make best practice impossible.

Severn Trent wanted to create an in-depth, technical training experience, using VR to provide real data-driven metrics and feedback for their lifting and manhole maintenance crews.

We developed a VR app that’s split into two parts:

• Learn – allows new starters and existing team members to learn and practise the correct technique through three different lips.
• Apply – taking lifts into simulated external environments to practise under different environmental conditions.

After carrying out the lifts, the app gives the learner feedback on how they applied lifting technique, with heatmaps showing areas that were placed under strain during the lift.