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Leverage Lessons Learned to Adopt Technology from Pilot to Enterprise

August 14, 2018
Staff
As we celebrate our 10th anniversary of the Gilbane Cares Incident and Injury Free Safety Program, our commitment to continuous improvement drove us to research and invest in wearable technology that reduces incident reporting time on Gilbane construction sites.  After industry-wide research, we chose to pilot the Spot-r clip by Triax.  Looking beyond the core use of the technology solution in construction, I share valuable lessons learned on our journey from pilot implementation to enterprise adoption to deliver safety innovation in the field while leveraging data to increase productivity for workers.

Ensure Stakeholder Alignment

The right stakeholders need to be represented.  Safety, risk management and technology were aligned with common strategic goals in our process.

Ask the question…What else can it do?

Don’t settle for the obvious.  Understand what your platform needs and push the envelope of the technical capabilities and useful data capture.  Improving safety response time was the core driver for the Spot-r Clip.  When we learned about additional capabilities, we found multiple benefits of data usage and integration of the Evac Tag and Equip Tag elements.

Define the Pilot Process

When we chose the pilot job site, we needed to define how standard processes had to be adapted to implement and measure success.  Communication, training and documenting value were major factors in our decision process.  To be effective, this process takes team discipline with an understanding of the quantitative benefits that need to be achieved.

Quantify Success  

What good is a pilot if you don’t define success?  We made an investment choice so we had to identify benefits and assign values to them.  Values could be time, money, lives saved, or streamlined processes.  Moving from a pilot to platform integration requires justification with an expected return on investment.

Test in the Field and in a Lab Environment

The pilot project provided real data from the field.  But we were not satisfied with that alone.  We created situations in a controlled environment to understand how data reports in non-traditional circumstances. Our team had some fun in creating scenarios and seeing how the technology reacted.

Assess Scalability

The pilot project showed results.  Now what?  Along the way we assessed methods to scale the technology into best suited projects and continue to expand our implementation.

Commit to Continuous Improvement

Make sure feedback is provided to the vendor during the pilot process and gain a commitment for continuous improvement.  Technology should be constantly updated to anticipate future needs.  We needed to be confident that our feedback would be heard and contribute to a proactive partnership.

Want More Construction Tech?

Click here for a sneak peek at what we will present at the AGC ITForum on August 16th in Chicago!

  • AGC IT Forum Conference at the Sheraton Grand Chicago, IL
    Thursday August 16, 2018
    10:40-11:40 AM
    Presentation title: Pilot to Enterprise:  How to Make Innovation More than a Buzzword
  •  A Dialogue about Digital Transformation panel discussion at the ConstrucTech Technology Day at the Double Tree in Chicago-Arlington Heights, IL
    Thursday, August 23, 2018
    10:45-11:20 AM