Construction Site Inspection
It goes without saying that construction sites can be very dangerous places to work unless strict safety programs are in place. Whether you are talking about constructing roads, building residential properties, factories or essential services infrastructures like power plants, a multitude of hazards are present.
Activities like excavation, drilling and power tool noise, working at height, dirt and dust from soil and a whole host of raw materials each pose their own distinctive threat to health, safety and productive operations.
The levels of construction work have been increasing over the years. With that has come an increase in injuries and fatalities on construction job sites.
As a consequence, there has been a huge focus on mitigating health and safety risks on building sites by vastly improved management and control practices.
Every construction project or job site manager today has safety as their number one priority. However, the job of managing safety in the construction workplace is not an easy one due the numbers of employees, plant equipment, and tools together with their movement around a site.
Consider the job site manager’s responsibilities. Every day they are responsible for ensuring that all operatives are physically fit, have the correct training and are authorized to perform the operations they are expected to undertake. They have to ensure that all machinery, personal protective equipment and other safeguarding processes are well maintained and fit for purpose.
The same thing applies to moving plant like vehicles, diggers, graders, compressors and lifting equipment are all fit for the use for which they were intended. On top of that, their bosses need to ensure that they have traceability across all the job sites under their control.
And god forbid, if there is an accident, job site managers will be called upon to verify in an instant that they have followed all the appropriate safety processes and procedures!
The challenge faced by all construction companies and their management is to maximize job site safety for all employees and maintain complete legal compliance.
The core problem in achieving this objective is the sheer complexity of the management task at hand.
Construction Site Inspection Software Functionality
Thankfully, a happy marriage between digital information technology and smart phone telephony has provided some very earnest and robust construction site inspection software and site safety software solutions.
These applications are readily available from a number of vendors which make the job of conducting site inspections, auditing and subsequent reporting are far more manageable proposition.
These software applications are perfect for job site managers, project managers, sub-contractors, supervisors and foremen. Invariably, these tools are almost always provided in convenient “hand-held” format with multi-purpose usage across a range of digital devices from laptop and tablet computers to smart mobile cell phones which enable their users to set up, monitor and control various facets of construction site operations in order to deliver a safe and legally compliant job site.
Construction site inspection software facilitates the storage of all site wide documentation in a central portal which is easily accessible from all persons equipped with and authorized to use the software. The scope of these systems cover all the processes required to control and manage safe and efficient construction operations.
Many common features of these systems include:
- Carry out site inspections using the mobile device of your choice
- Critical data is available on demand virtually anywhere a digital signal can be received
- This data is also kept safe and secure using cloud based storage systems
- These systems enable the management and auditing of certifications, licensing and employee training
- They are ideal for tracking the safety condition of equipment, employees or job site training status
- Simple compliance is facilitated for reporting and permit control
- Improved safety is realized from observing causal effects of site operations and their impact on accidents and injuries
- They utilize bar code and RFID technologies in order to simplify and speed the identification process
- Construction site inspection software also provides “real time” reporting and complete traceability
- Swift implementation of preventative measures
Most software providers include the printed material required as well as storage systems for monitoring and managing job site managers’ daily workload.
Some vendors even include other complementary features like toolbox safety talks, employee induction and site set up processes, job site rules and regulations and attendance registers if needed.