Technology is at the forefront of advancements in multiple industries. The construction industry is one of the sectors that enjoy technological advancements to aid in effectiveness and productivity.
Construction sites in America employ nearly 6.6 million workers, and their safety is paramount and a key concern for their employers.
As construction companies explore new ways to increase worker safety in sites, maturing tech such as wearable devices and orange traffic cones offer the desired security features like never before. Below are five significant ways technology is improving construction site safety.
1. Monitoring Dangerous Tasks with Wearable Devices
Wearables can prove valuable for construction employees carrying out a dangerous job as their environment can be carefully monitored and tracked.
Wearables can detect red flags, for example, lack of movement, heat, gas, among others. Close-by colleagues, management, and emergency services can be alerted automatically if a problem is detected.
If an accident occurs onsite, workers will be confident that their co-workers and relevant authority will be promptly alerted and aid sent immediately. This increases the chances of survival and worker confidence in a functioning system.
2. Digitization of Safety Processes Using Mobile Devices
Cloud and mobile applications, combined with affordable mobile devices, make it possible to digitize every safety processes fully. Carry safety permits to work; for example, you can complete checklists on mobile devices and complete approvals in real-time.
For instance, an employee is due to carry out hazardous work at a large height. The employee must progress via a series of safety checks on the software platforms to receive a work permit.
Only once this employee has successfully passed via the different safety checks will they be issued with a work permit.
The processed data is shared digitally with colleagues, management, and supervisors. The result is smarter output, improved worker productivity, and detecting conflicting activities as they happen.
3. Enhanced Safety with Predictive and Corrective Analytics
Digitization of IoT connection for equipment, reporting and keeping track of incidences, processes, and tracking hazardous activities allow a construction company to collect substantial data on safety. The data can be analyzed and assessed subsequently, and you can derive correlation.
For example, trends that may result in the malfunctioning of tools or employee accidents can be identified earlier. They can then be alerted of, and you can suggest corrective action to prevent tool malfunctioning or worker accidents.
With predictive and corrective analytics, you can detect a malfunction or an inappropriate setting on an equipment piece and alert the appropriate personnel.
4. Improved Crisis Management Using Localization Tech
Smart wearables and mobile devices fused with emerging localization tech can play an essential role. The ability to promptly locate all workers potentially affected by a significant incident and identify safety resources is critical.
These devices could alert supervisors, co-workers, and management immediately after an incident has occurred. The incident victims will be located and be in a comfortable position to follow emergency procedures.
This tech advancement is exciting, and while it can improve worker safety on a construction site, construction companies should ensure that all tracking measures implemented apply only during work periods.
5. Sharing and Training of Best Practices with Digital Content
In most cases, it is the recruits or untrained staff who fall victim to incidents in the construction site. The importance of continuous training can not be sufficiently emphasized and underestimated.
In most construction sites, training is conducted onsite and in the morning before work hours. Sharing best practices is an exciting way to improve awareness and impart knowledge.
For example, every time a worker observes good practice, it is reported on their mobile devices. It can also be shared with colleagues on the next training session. Best practices are encouraged and shared with the workers to incentivize safe-conduct further instead of only being ordered what not to do.
Bottom Line
Safety technology can help construction companies make considerable strides in improving safety standards and preventing accidents. There may still be a long way before complete eradication of site accidents is achieved, but there is hope.
Construction sites are adopting robotics and drones that help workers reach unscalable heights. Other minor safety features such as orange traffic cones also play a massive role in keeping workers in their lanes and avoiding accidents.
As time progresses, more inventions will be introduced to make the construction site even safer than before.
