On a regular basis, we highlight content posted on other blogs that we feel would benefit our readers. This week's blog highlights include:
Document Management Strategies and Tactics – Go Digital
Many of us still are paper-based for some or all of our documentation. Capturing all information digitally is the first of four steps to a successful documentation strategy according to Christina Urban at the Zbrella.com blog. Whether you use a documentation app or scan and save paper-based forms to a pdf, you’re ahead of the game. Tie your files to jobs, use a barcode scanner and enforce file-naming standards are the other three steps recommended by Urban, and we agree. Visit this excellent post here.
Construction Safety – Immigrants More At Risk
At the HCSS blog this month is a post by Krysten Powers covering a New York Times investigation of construction accidents. Accidents have increased in New York during the recent construction boom, in part due to the rush to complete work, but also due to contractors being lax about working conditions and employee safety training. The study also brought to life that immigrant workers incurred most of the injuries and deaths. Undocumented as legal citizens, compounded by language barriers, these workers either are not aware there are safety regulations in place, do not understand their right to speak up, or may fear reprisal. Click here to read the entire post on this very important topic.
Construction Equipment Theft and Prevention
Theft of construction equipment and materials exceeds $1 billion per year, notes Amy Chien, also at the HCSS blog this month. In addition, physical damage resulting from theft or vandalism can put the safety of workers in jeopardy, she adds. However, management and project staff can take a few simple measures for protection and prevention, including detailed inventories, basic site security and working with local law enforcement. Check out the complete blog post here.
Construction Equipment App
As long as we’re on the subject of documentation apps and equipment in today’s Blog Highlights, we have located a free app to accomplish an equipment inventory. Heavy Equipment Inventory App by Snappii, available free for IOS and Android devices, does a tidy job of collecting equipment data, including inventory date, equipment location, brand and model, serial number, status and condition, mileage, year built and cost. It works with bar codes and will capture photos of the equipment to keep in the record. The record is then saved as a PDF and/or Excel spreadsheet. While not a database system, at a minimum you can use your device’s “share” function to send it completed documents as an attachment to an email, message, printer or copy to another shareable app or cloud file server. Locate the app in your app store or visit the Snappii website here for more information.
