Immersed at IFF

Fabienne Garnier is an Associate Scientist at the R&D department of International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF). The company manufactures lactic ferments for the food industry, including cheese, yogurt, and sausage production. Fabienne, who specifically works on the nutritional needs of lactic bacteria, had the opportunity to use Immersive Factory's solution for several months. She shares her experience with us.

How did you discover Immersive Factory?

“Emmanuel Minier, EHS&S Business and EMEA Director, introduced us to Immersive Factory's solution. The company wanted to implement a safety activity across all sites. So, it was an opportunity for us to test this new technology, which was selected following a vote within the company’s Central CSSCT Group.”

Why did you choose the SafetyBox VR©? How do you use it?

“The Central CSSCT Group, of which I am a member, wanted to share safety scenarios with all employees to raise awareness in their work environment. We wanted this to be applied across all company divisions. The SafetyBox VR© thus met this need.

We have several sites in France. We share the SafetyBox VR© among all the sites. So, we started with a site of 200 employees from mid-October to mid-December, about 2 months. Then the tool moves to another site and so on to test it. At our site, we organized 1-hour slots for 5 people twice a day. We used the slots from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. to disrupt the company's activities as little as possible.”

Emmanuel Minier also specified that it is a tool adapted to IFF's desire to further develop the safety culture on IFF sites.

What needs does using virtual reality in HSE training meet for you?

“We conducted an evaluation survey and the result was an impression of better risk retention. The experience is more playful and sensory. We are truly immersed in a world. It’s very interesting because we are truly actors in a scenario instead of remaining passive in front of a presentation on screen. This tool meets our need to evolve our safety culture.”

At this stage, what are the added values and improvement points you associate with virtual reality in the HSE field?

“The fact that it is more sensory therefore allows information to be better retained, which is a real added value. It’s much better than a PowerPoint. As for areas of improvement, in some scenarios, there were risks missing relative to our activity.”

Have you been able to measure a difference before and after virtual reality?

“It’s too early to measure. We will see at the end of the year, as we record all anomalies on correction sheets. We hope to see the number of these sheets increase. This would reflect a better safety culture and a better ability to identify dangerous situations. We had a 93% participation rate at our site, so it’s on the right track.”

You, too, can strengthen your safety culture with immersive and innovative HSE exercises in virtual reality. Our exercises are regularly updated with your feedback, which we always appreciate to continuously improve our exercises. In fact, a recent update of our exercises has been carried out. Discover our catalog!"