Software has been launched that allows construction firms to plan the number of workers on site in the wake of covid-19.
VisiLean is a cloud-based construction management service that supports lean production planning and controlled workflow and direct integration with BIM.
With covid-19 disrupting life globally, the construction industry has been left with new challenges to continue work on site safely and within the required guidelines. Many construction projects have been impacted and are on hold or working with uncertainty due to the safe working guidelines imposed by many authorities globally.
While new safety protocols can cover standard requirements, a dedicated production plan is required for ensuring the right distribution of the workforce across a project site. Workforces, as originally required, compared to workforce feasibility within new guidelines, need to be thoroughly reviewed before teams can be released safely for any on-site work.
With worker proximity restricted to two metres as defined in most guidelines, the number of workers that can be accommodated in a location is considerably reduced.
Dr Bhargav Dave, founder and CEO at VisiLean, said: “This feature has been designed to ensure that the construction industry can become operational as soon as possible to minimise the impact on the livelihood of thousands of workers around the world.”
Though there are many other sensor-based solutions available, VisiLean is claimed to be the only one that allows a plan to be built that will prevent teams from exceeding the safe density limit for a given location.
The maximum number of workers can be defined per location, along with a safety limit. Planners can review the workforce at both locations, as well as at task level, against the total permissible strength defined.
Teams on site will be able to review the planned workforce and provide real-time updates of the actual strength directly using the VisiLean mobile app. Coloured boxes on the project dashboard will immediately alert the team of any potential risks with respect to worker density at any location on site, both in terms of planning as well as actual numbers.
Kevin McHugh, associate director at Mace Technologies Ireland, said: “As a responsible contractor, safety is of utmost importance to us. Given the current situation with covid-19 we needed a way to ensure that we can manage the site safely for not just our own workers but also the subcontractors. This new feature will let us plan and track workers by each location to maintain safe distancing.”
