Innovators in the UK have unveiled a ground-breaking technology using the Ethereum blockchain for paying workers in real time. Apps are now available for safe lifting practices and accessing 3-D project data. Learn more about the low recovery rates of the $1 billion in construction equipment theft.

Apps

NIOSH Releases Lifting Equation Mobile App

NLE Calc, NIOSH free mobile app, is based on the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation, an internationally recognized standard for safe lifting. NLE Calc determines a score based on the data a user enters about a lifting task and offers recommendations to optimize the task or perform it differently. The app calculates the lifting index, which is the ratio of the load lifted to the recommended weight limit for the lifting task, and displays the risk level. Workers can use the composite lifting equation to optimize multiple complex lifting tasks, such as lifting many objects of various weights in succession or lifting objects in awkward positions. NLE Calc app can be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play.

Assemble Systems Mobile App Leverages 3-D Project Data

Assemble Systems’ mobile app for Apple iPads and iPhones gives construction professionals access to 3-D models and “conditioned meta-data.” The app leverages 3-D project data, allowing users to sort by specific systems, scopes or objects of the construction project. The project team can add specific assembly codes or status to any object in the model helping to track activity in the field. The app is integrated with Procore and will be available on the Procore App Marketplace. Procore customers can view 3-D Models on an iPad through the Assemble integration.

Software & In the Cloud

Cosential CRM Integrates with Procore

Users can integrate key data fields into Procore with Cosential CRM. Projects are automatically created within Procore when a sales lead or opportunity reaches a certain stage as defined by the firm. Users can forecast soft backlog, understand a firm’s impact on client networks, identify strategic market and buying trends, analyze and report on business intelligence, access data so marketing can focus on winning projects, and produce InDesign and Word documents with information tailored for each submittal.

Video & Cool Stuff

LoJack Publishes 2016 Construction Equipment Theft Report

LoJack intelligent communications devices, telematics cloud services and software applications streamline iot deployments for collecting, monitoring and reporting business-critical data and intelligence from vehicles and equipment. LoJack’s "2016 Construction Equipment Theft Recovery Report" and infographic on construction equipment theft reports the top three most stolen and recovered construction equipment brands are Doosan Bobcat (26 percent), John Deere (17 percent) and Caterpillar (8 percent). Fifty percent of the commercial equipment stolen was no more than five years old and equipment was recovered 97 percent of the time in the same state where it was stolen. A 2014 National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) report indicated that up to $1 billion is lost annually due to construction equipment theft and only 23 percent of it is ever recovered. LoJack is a subsidiary of CalAmp.

Etch Platform Enables Real-Time Payroll Payments

A new concept in real-time payments is available from UK-developed Etch platform. The Etch app on workers’ phones confirms they are on the jobsite, and as they work, their wages flow into their Etch wallet. This money can then be spent from the Etch app or the Etch.pay card. Etch transactions are on the Ethereum blockchain, so monetary flow is documented; Etch transactions are easily audited. The concept was tested at a building site in Oxford England and was made available to the UK construction industry September 5, 2017. Etch is the first approved ‘dapp’ (decentralized application) in the Construction Blockchain Consortium, a group of leading UK champions of disruptive technologies who are transforming the built environment.