What if I told you that you could accomplish all of those things without a physicalfence?

Welcome to geofencing.

Below, I’ll detail what geofencing is, how to use it, and some tools that can help you adopt it to your construction site.

What is geofencing?

Gartner defines geofencing as “creating a virtual boundary in which a device, individual or asset can be tracked and monitored or detected if the boundary is violated.” In other words, geofencing is a tool that creates and tracks virtual boundaries. It uses GPS technology along with dedicated software to track equipment and people. The software can also send users alerts and notifications about the premises that they’re tracking.

Many industries use geofencing technology. For example, retailers use it to identify customers near their locations, helping them send targeted marketing messages. Transportation companies use geofencing to track their fleets. Healthcare facilities use it to improve patient care. Animal farms use it to track their herds.

In fact, geofencing is growing so rapidly that Global Market Insights predicts the global geofencing market will exceed $500 million by 2023.

Construction, along with the other abovementioned industries, should expect an explosion in the use of geofencing in the next few years.

You’re not alone. In fact, a study from the Chartered Institute of Building found that 92% of respondents in the construction industry suffer from regular site theft. One in five of these respondents added that theft takes place on a weekly basis from their sites.

The NICB (PDF) adds that the average value of a stolen piece of construction equipment is $46,273. They add, “Annual estimates of the cost of equipment theft vary from about $300 million to $1 billion, with most estimates in the range of $400 million.” What’s worse? “The estimates don’t include losses from business interruption. Those losses include the cost of rentals, project-delay penalties, and wasted workforce and management time.”

In other words, construction site theft is a prevalent and expensive problem in the industry.

How can you prevent it?

Construction risk insurance.

With technology progressing and new ideologies emerging, experts have conceptualized approaches and ideas to help businesses increase their productivity while also ensuring their employees work safely.

Now, employees can work smarter not harder (and faster), utilizing these four ways to improve safety while maintaining productivity.

Curious? Let’s go through the four-step construction safety program.

1. Offer Safety Training and Awareness Curriculum

Safety training will help employees become more situationally aware and, as a result, decrease the likelihood of accidents.

The point is simple: Fewer accidents create more time to focus on required and established goals and initiatives which, in turn, improves productivity.

As new methods emerge, outdated safety practices are often proven to be ineffective compared to emerging theories and methodologies. As these concepts and theoretical practices are revealed, it is vital to integrate them into daily operations to increase safety and maintain production levels by further eliminating discrepancies and incidents.

In addition, it is always wise to have your employees up-to-speed on the latest changes in governing regulatory policies or general operational guidelines as it can reduce liabilities and risks overall.

In other words, don’t just offer safety training—make sure it’s up-to-date.

2. Champion Continuous Improvement

When workers know how to work safely, they establish continuity. Continuity can lead to revamped approaches and enhanced methods to complete the same tasks, faster and better.

As a result, the workplace becomes a paragon of continuous improvement.

Dedication to continuous improvement can result in increases in efficiency and productivity while ensuring a safer work environment.

These methods can be documented and further fortified into standard operating procedures. A continuous improvement champion will help sell the strategy and keep it a priority to revamp, revitalize, and re-tuned business processes.

3. Promote Respect in the Workplace

Respect drives safety.

According to EHS Today, respect in the workplace leaves a lasting imprint. Employees are more likely to succeed and foster positive results if their good practices are reinforced with progressive feedback.

This same idea can be applied towards safety. Incentives and rewards for adhering to safety practices or further developing working knowledge of various directives and guidelines can lead to a workplace environment that promotes safety.

In turn, these same approaches can be used to drive productivity. Respect is known to enhance communication and it has been proven historically that many accidents which hamper both safety and productivity are a direct result of a lack of communication. Respect is key and there is always a reason why so many say giving respect earns it, this is prudential in especially hazardous environments.

4. Introduce Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma Methodologies are an emerging trend in material handling, production, procurement, and manufacturing industries.

A product of a technologically-driven era, Lean Manufacturing fuses the best business practices of yesteryear with the implementation of performance metrics and analytics that drive commerce in the modern era. Lean Manufacturing drives optimization of inventory, devises methodologies to increase productivity and efficiency and also identifies ways jobs can be less labor-intensive while also reducing risk.

The best precept about Lean Manufacturing is that any business can offer workshops on it and any employee can gain a wide range of practical knowledge on the subject, acquiring various colored “belts” that serve as a benchmark of expertise. Employees with these varying belts can take on differing responsibilities in unique situations, further allowing for more accountability and less direct responsibility for management inundated with tasks.

For construction managers, choosing the right ERP is a stressful endeavor. ERP software is expensive, and it’s tough to narrow down the options to what’s best for your construction business.

That’s why we’ve distilled the lengthy list of ERPs down to five different options that would be beneficial to construction firms. These systems largely integrate construction accounting software, tool management software, construction CRM software, along with other construction management tools to form a whole system. Read through and take your pick of the best construction ERP software!

Epicor

Offering supply chain management, manufacturing, and sales and marketing features, Epicor is a market leader in construction ERP solutions. It can be installed locally, self-hosted, or be used on the cloud. Epicor is highly customizable; users should take advantage of their add-on modules for CRM, QPM, and PLM, especially. Epicor is made by Epicor.com, which prides itself on tailoring software solutions to each company’s needs. Pricing starts at $4,000 and scales with each added module.

One need only Google the construction labor shortage to confirm this. For example, a recent report in Reuters featuring data from the National Association of Homebuilders showed that nearly eight years after the housing bust—which drove an estimated 30% of construction workers into new fields—homebuilders across the country are struggling to find workers at all levels of experience.

The association estimates that there are approximately 200,000 unfilled construction jobs in the United States, marking an 81% increase in the last two years!

Kukun found the same to be true in our own analysis of major construction markets across the U.S.

For example, the number of construction jobs in New York State increased from 2011 to 2015, with the number of work permits rising from 98,781 to 129,267 at a value of $137,507,266 to $231,297,337 (up over $93M), respectively.

This is just one of the large markets across the U.S. for construction and the pattern here is indicative of our larger research, showing that as the demand for construction work increases, there is a lack of labor to meet this need.

The big picture is that without enough workers, the supply of residential construction workers trails demand for homes and the shortfall will dampen the overall U.S. economy.

It is imperative that the construction industry works to bring the traditionally offline industry of construction online. If we want to attract Millennials to careers in construction, we have to speak their language!

For example, the Golden Gate Bridge, built between 1933 and 1937, spans 1.7 miles and qualifies as one of the seven Wonders of the Modern World. The Empire State Building joins the suspension bridge on this list as the tallest in the world from 1931 to 1970.

The U.S. is also home to the Grand Canyon Skywalk, which is strong enough to support 71 million pounds, the Astrodome (the first domed sports stadium), and the Bank of America Tower in Manhattan, the first skyscraper in the world to achieve Platinum Leed Certification.

These AEC achievements represents not only incredible advances in architecture, but also construction project management. All of these builds cross multiple years, and their very completion (let alone timely completion) is an underappreciated feat of American industry.

But these “modern wonders” aren’t alone in project complexity. Malls, apartment complexes, dams, stadiums, hospitals, schools, and other large, sophisticated builds take years to complete. Even a “simple,” standardized McDonald’s takes, at minimum, four months to complete.

Before and during the time it takes to complete one of these huge projects, construction managers have to manage the following

Walk into a Starbucks and you know you’ll be surrounded by hipsters and overpriced but delicious coffee. Go to Disney and expect to experience “magic.” Shop at Whole Foods and you can anticipate locally-grown or organic produce—and prices to match.

But branding doesn’t stop at nationally-recognized chains. Creating a construction brand prepares your potential clients for an experience they’re willing to pay for.

A great brand is a reflection of what your company is, what your company aspires to be, and how people perceive your company—and your brand should also be based on what your target market wants and needs you to be.

Establishing a quality brand takes perseverance and patience—but it’s worth the effort. Here are five steps to help you brand your construction company.

1. Set a budget.

2. Decide what you want to be known for.

3. Choose a logo that represents you.

4. Storm the Internet.

5. Choose your superstar.

More?

Beyond staying on time and on budget (likely through the use of construction management software), what have you done to brand your construction firm? What worked? What didn’t? Leave your answers in the comments below!

An effective SMS goes beyond a prescriptive, “do this, don’t do that” approach to construction safety. Let’s explore why.

From a General Rule Book to Many Individual Systems

A long time ago, when construction managers still used paper notepads and slide rules, and before construction management software made its debut in the industry, early safety management systems were already in use. Based on safety regulations of the time, they were “one size fits all.” Government inspectors checked that construction companies were operating according to the legislation.

The assumption was that if your company was legal, it was safe.

Fast forward to a time when managers started using calculators. In the next generation of safety management systems, there was a fundamental change. Instead of doing safety by the government’s prescriptions, companies had to assess their own health and safety requirements. They had to establish some kind of SMS that showed they were taking all reasonable measures to keep their employees and others concerned (subcontractors, suppliers, customers, members of the public) safe throughout the workday.

By the time those calculators started morphing into PCs, many construction companies had figured out that there were at least three reasons to have an effective safety management system:

• Moral obligation. No company should place its employees, or people associated with the work of the company, at risk.
• Regulations. Most states and nations make it a legal responsibility for companies to promote and maintain secure working conditions.
• Cost-effectiveness. Time, effort, and money spent on preventing accidents is less than the expense of dealing with accidents afterwards.

The next step was to find out how to implement the right SMS. Surprisingly perhaps, while other sectors like aeronautics and air travel had been relatively well served with SMS solutions, finding a suitable basis for staying safe as a construction company sometimes meant a little digging.

In an op-ed for Crain’s, the New York attorney argues that criminalizing construction accidents threatens construction companies of all sizes. He points out that “a prosecutor can bring criminal charges against any contractor or subcontractor… whenever there is a fatality, the general contractor will be held liable in almost every conceivable circumstance.” In other words, if there is ever an accident — regardless of whether the contractor himself is at fault (ex: being drunk on site) — the construction company is liable.

Should Gerstman’s analysis hold true, construction firms are facing unprecedented liability when it comes to on-site workplace accidents.

And since that’s the case, accident prevention needs to be even more of a focus for construction managers.

Construction safety is nothing to mess around with. Even if you’re following OSHA’s guidelines to the letter, there are additional things construction managers can do to protect their crew.

Experience is the best thing to rely on when it comes to keeping workers safe. That’s why I reached out to a host of construction professionals for unconventional construction safety tips. In an industry where best practices save lives, this advice is indispensable. Read on to find out what these managers say about keeping their crew safe and healthy.

1. Get your point across with creative demonstrations.

2. Protect your toes!

3. Invest in the right equipment for fall prevention.

4. Test your equipment.

5. Use “Toolbox Talks.”

6. Keep your workers cool and your worksite clean.