Countryside Properties breaks new ground with smart site working

Countryside Properties, one of the UK’s foremost housebuilders with a £5.1 billion development programme of new homes, communities and regeneration, is using software from Mosaic Management Systems to pioneer the way in which developers record and manage inductions, site access and worker competence.

Following a successful trial at its site in Harold Wood, Essex, Countryside Properties will be rolling out Mosaic across its key sites.  At Kings Park in Harold Wood, Countryside Properties is building an exclusive collection of luxury family homes and contemporary apartments, has around 220 workers on site monthly, the majority of whom are employed by the developer’s sub-contractors.  Using Mosaic’s software and CSCS Smartcards, the company has a totally accurate picture of who is on site at any point of the day, how long they are on site, what inductions they have received and what training, qualifications or accreditations they hold.When the site manager reads workers’ CSCS cardsusing a PDA, the Mosaic system instantly tells them whether, using job specific criteria stipulated by Countryside Properties, they are competent to start work. The information can be accessed by authorised site and head office personnel and can also generate reports both for use by Countryside Properties and its supply chain.

David Hudson, Countryside Properties’ Head of Health and Safety comments:

“Ensuring that people are competent to carry out their jobs is vital both to effective health and safety management and to productivity.  Using the Mosaic system means that we can be entirely sure that everyone working on our sites has received the required briefings and training which minimises risk to themselves and others of unsafe or unskilled work.

“This initial use of Mosaic’s system is helping us to achieve our objectives and it will shortly be rolled out to other sites in southern England.”

Mosaic provides Carillion with powerful solution for competence and asset management

Carillion Eltel is a joint venture between Eltel Networks and Carillion the leading integrated support services and construction company, which has installed  software from Mosaic Management Systems on a number of its sites. Carillion’s clients are varied and include UK Power Networks (UKPN), which owns and maintains electricity cables and lines across London, the South East and East of England and National Grid for whom Carillion works in a joint venture with the Polish division of ElTel Networks, the infranet specialists to refurbish National Grid’s power network.

These types of contracts require people with highly specialised engineering and construction skills and a system to be able to record their qualifications and competence so that Carillion Eltel can verify that they meet their clients’ demanding standards for skills and training.  In National Grid’s case this means that everyone working on their sites must, at a minimum, pass their BESC (basic electrical safety and competency) examination, which has to be retaken every three years.  Then, depending on what job they are doing people working for Carillion and its sub-contractors need to prove that they have further specific training.  There is a whole range of specialist courses and training that people need from working at heights on electricity equipment to tower rescue as well as more generic certifications including first aid, banksman, fire warden responsibilities and driving licences.  Then there are the various certification schemes which need to be recorded such as IOSH Certificates, CSCS and CPCS cards and IPAF.  And for the personnel from ElTel Networks the qualifications that they achieved in the JV training school in Poland must also be recorded and monitored.

In addition to the clients’ basic requirements, Carillion takes its investment in people’s skills very seriously and provides additional training for on-site workers,

Gordon Cowan, Carillion’s SHEQ and IMS manager says:

“Knowing that we go above and beyond their specification gives our clients extra reassurance that their projects will be completed safely and efficiently and gives us additional peace of mind that we have done everything we can to prevent harm to workers and the equipment they work with.”

When there are hundreds of people on site and the different courses have different expiry times and pass criteria, the amount of paperwork generated is vast, which is why Carillion has chosen software from Mosaic Management Systems to record and manage worker and asset data on its National Grid and UKPN sites.

Gordon continues:

“Without Mosaic we would be juggling lots of spreadsheets and inputting a lot more data about people and their qualifications so it saves us a lot of time and improves accuracy of record keeping giving us easy access to a wide range of information about what people on our sites are competent to do.  The system also has extensive reporting tools and flags up expiring qualifications and other criteria we specify so that manual processes to pull these figures and facts together is automatic and removes the potential for human error too.”

Carillion is also using the system to manage its various assets and PPE on site.  Using Mosaic’s Asset Tagging module equipment is logged using smartcards and handheld PDA’s, its certification recorded and any work done on it is logged to build up a machine history record.  And as Carillion’s insurers Allianz complete inspections they can upload their reports to the Mosaic system to expand the information held further.  Items are also logged against the contract they are being used on and even the person who is using it so that there is comprehensive and irrefutable proof about the use, assessment and maintenance of equipment that can be accessed quickly by Carillion’s own safety advisors as well as its clients’ safety personnel.

Gordon concludes:  “As the Mosaic system becomes more embedded in the way we work, its popularity is increasing as more and more people realise the value of having company and client-wide access to accurate and comprehensive data about people and equipment on our sites.”