It can take
\nhours, or even days, to find a specific scissor lift on a large construction
\nsite \u2013 multiply that with hundreds of machines on the site and, then, you grasp
\nthe scale of the dilemma. Three companies joined forces to test an IoT solution
\nthat could fix the problem, cost-efficiently.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Ramirent is Tomi Anttila<\/strong>, Development Manager at Ramirent<\/a> Finland Oy, explained that they chose scissor lifts as a test subject for a particular reason: \u201cThey are an essential tool in construction. Whenever you have to work flexibly above the floor level \u2013 doing HVACE installations, for example \u2013 you need a movable lift. On our test site, REDI, there were over 150 lifts at any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Since scissor REDI was an appropriate site to test-drive the technology. It is a large multi-purpose project in Helsinki built by SRV<\/a>, a project management contractor. The seaside residential project consists of six towers, a 2,000-car parking facility, and one of the largest shopping centers in the country.<\/p>\n Ramirent and SRV had discovered that Kaltiot<\/a>, a Finnish IoT developer, had a positioning solution to locate movable equipment, materials, and people; both indoors and outside. As an easy-to-deploy technology, Kaltiot\u2019s Smart Trackers was a perfect fit for experimentation at REDI.<\/p>\n Anttila Instead of connecting The app Ramirent The Anttila Currently, The Connect with Tomi Anttila at
\na construction equipment rental and service firm that operates in nine European
\ncountries. It uses digital tools and services to add value to its customers and
\nimprove the efficiency of construction operations. In November 2018, Ramirent,
\nSRV, and Kaltiot completed a test on promising technology that is used to
\nlocate construction equipment indoors. The experiment took place in Helsinki and
\nwas partly funded by the national KIRA-digi digitalization project.<\/p>\nSetting up the Test<\/h2>\n
![\"Tomi](\"https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Tomi-Anttila-Ramirent.jpg\")
\nlifts are fairly expensive, contractors typically rent them. In addition to renting
\nout the hardware, Ramirent also inspect the lifts weekly. \u201cAt the site, someone
\nhas to find the right scissor lift to work with, another person to maintain it,
\nand a third one to inspect it,\u201d Anttila reminds.<\/p>\nThe Technology Solution<\/h2>\n
\nexplains how they used indoor tracking technology that does not rely on GPS
\nsignals: \u201cWe had stored and positioned floorplans of the building in a mobile
\napp. We attached 160 Bluetooth transmitters, reference beacons, to certain
\nplaces indoors and marked their locations on the floorplans. Then, we placed
\ntrackers on the scissor lifts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthe beacons to a cloud service through fixed wireless gateways, this system
\nuses mobile phones. Whenever a worker with a phone moves around the
\nconstruction site, the app automatically transmits the location of the person
\nand the equipment to a cloud service via 3G\/4G. It uses the Bluetooth signals
\nof the fixed beacons as a reference. The tracking devices run for years with
\none battery, which makes them feasible for this kind of application.<\/p>\n
\nshows where a certain piece of equipment is fairly accurately. The freshness of
\nthe data depends on how often the app users move around the area. The users do
\nnot have to operate the app \u2013 it runs silently in background.<\/p>\n
\nextended the tracking to the gates of the construction site. They placed a
\nstationary phone to each gate, which allowed them to track lifts leaving the
\nsite. They used the same arrangement to track lifts entering their service
\nhall.<\/p>\n![\"app](\"https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/app.jpg\")
<\/a>Connecting the Data<\/h2>\n
\nlocation of every scissor lift and Ramirent\u2019s own personnel on the site was
\nvisible on the app. The availability of this information saved time for the
\nmain and subcontractors and the company itself.<\/p>\n
\nemphasizes that the tracking solution was not a separate app, but it was
\nintegrated with their RamiSmart portal. It is a unique online service that offers
\nconstruction companies an entry point to several digital applications.<\/p>\n
\nthere are modules for access control, fleet management, budgeting, concrete
\nhumidity measurements, camera surveillance and e-scaffolding. The indoor
\npositioning as a service will be added to it once it\u2019s productized. \u201cWe\u2019re
\nplanning to use the indoor positioning solution on a couple of large
\nconstruction sites to monitor site logistics, as well,\u201d says Anttila.<\/p>\n
\nexperimentation showed, once more, that there are several opportunities to
\nimprove construction productivity with digital technologies. Anttila predicts
\nthat even more opportunities will arise from the big data that all the connected
\nsystems aggregate.<\/p>\n![\"-\"](\"https:\/\/aec-business.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Ramirent_Lifts_017.jpg\")