A dozen Ford Motor Co. workers are experimenting with wearable social-distancing devices that could be deployed more widely once the company reopens idled manufacturing plants.
The small group of volunteers at a Ford factory in Plymouth, Mich., are trying out wristbands that vibrate when employees come within six feet of each another, said Kelli Felker, a company spokeswoman. The aim is to keep workers from breaching the distance that health experts recommend to avoid spreading the coronavirus.
The social-distancing wearable could be part of a broader array of new safety protocols Ford deploys as it resumes production as early as next month after at least a roughly six-week shutdown.
The automaker is also expected to subject all workers entering a facility to a thermal-imaging scan to detect a fever. And it will provide staff with masks and, in some cases, plastic face shields, Felker said. The company is devising the measures along with the UAW.
“Ford and the UAW are working…
