All about On!Track with Laing O'Rourke
How did you hear about Hilti ON!Track?
Ged McColgan: I first heard about ON!Track from Andrew Boyle MBE – Andrew is Laing O’Rourke’s Head of Logistics at the Manchester Airport Transformation Programme. At that time, we were looking over our tracking and asset management system which was basically an Excel Spreadsheet. That worked for us at the early stages but obviously as the project grew, we knew we needed a solution that was more accessible for the operators working on site.
Here we have the Consolidation Centre for all the goods that we ship to our project. You can imagine the volume of materials that arrive, they need to be checked and quantified properly with the correct documentation. We need to keep everything in a controlled environment.
What is the main benefit you’ve seen from ON!Track so far?
Ged McColgan: For me, it has to be the fast reporting. Literally within a millisecond I have a report with all the information I wish to bring together! The system can be easily configured so I can have access to all the data I need.
What was the implementation like?
Ged McColgan: To get the systems up and running there is some initial work that you have to commit to. We had to count all the assets we had – almost 2000-line items. Each item of plant and consumable had to be physically tagged. To get the job done we had to ask for some support from the wider team. With that element complete, we had to train people to use the new system. As with any newly introduced innovation or change in working method, there was a bit of resistance from some people. When they saw that it made their life easier they soon came back to say that they liked On!Track. For me, that’s positive.
How does it help you manage the tools onsite?
Ged McColgan: Doing a stocktake is easier. We can go on site, locate a tool and read the tag by using a smart phone or tablet. Ping! It takes two seconds to record its presence on the inventory.