GARDENA, CA —Xcel Mechanical’s new Smart I.D. Training & Certification Program is saving the company time and money, while leading to increased efficiencies in the field and in the office, program officials said.
Industry experts agree that verifying whether an employee is trained and qualified for a given jobsite task is one of the most basic elements to running a safe and productive construction site.
Project foremen use such information to align and assign manpower. General Contractors often require on-the-spot verification to make sure their subcontractors are trained and qualified to operate certain equipment, or perform certain tasks.
From a project profitability perspective, this information is critical to all parties involved and helps to avoid potential liability issues and other jobsite problems including missed timelines, shoddy work, or even accidents. And therefore, the decision was made to “go digital”.
Now in its third month, Xcel Mechanical’s new Smart I.D. Badge program has significantly improved upon a paper-based monitoring process by digitizing the entire effort. Program managers now have instant visibility into the readiness of the entire field force. Pro-active e-prompts arrive 60-days in advance of certification expiration dates. Once an update is recorded in the system, it is pushed out to that employee’s I.D. badge instantly and can be scanned by any QR-reader equipped smartphone or device.
“Having project-ready field teams is fundamentally critical to our business,” said company President Kevin Michel. “To have this level of visibility, to be able plan ahead, and to instantly provide this information when needed is invaluable. This puts us out in front, and will contribute to smoother project execution and delivery. And that’s big.”