At the turn of the millennium, one of the major issues plaguing the construction arena was the inability to find the right construction materials on project sites. “There has been a gradual decline in worker productivity for many years due to increased project complexities and larger projects. When the projects become more complex, data requirements increase and the traditional manual-based entry systems become error-prone and a bottleneck for the project, resulting in an upsurge in construction costs and project durations,” expresses Dale Beard, CEO and Co-founder, Intelliwave Technologies. To help construction organizations be more productive, Intelliwave Technologies—provides automated materials tracking solutions that enhance worker productivity in a cost-effective manner for wider adoption across industrial, civil and buildings projects. The company’s SiteSense tracking products ensures that major construction projects are on track and on budget by centralizing material, equipment and worker data.

“We like to use the “crawl, walk, run” deployment strategy with our clients to give them quick wins,” asserts Beard. Firms can begin with the web-based solution and later add onto that identification and/or sensor-based tags. Many constructors still use spreadsheets or paper-based systems, which often lead to data duplication, entry errors and delayed entry. “Implementing our web-based software system—SiteSense, users can consolidate project data for materials and personnel,” says Beard. The next step is to enable users ‘identify’ the materials and personnel using barcode or RFID technologies, and finally automating their movement via RFID systems. With the knowledge of location information for large tools and equipment, supervisors spend less time on searching and dedicate more time on tools to get the installation work packages complete in a timely manner.

SiteSense tracks everything from plant tagged equipment, to piping to bulks and to civil construction materials, which makes it a flexible solution. At the same time, workforce can use SiteSense’s web software and mobile applications to check themselves onto a project site, manage certifications, and shift information.