This audio is automatically generated. Do us know if you have comments.
Workers may have an idea of when they will have to withdraw. But the autonomous machinery could push this period, according to a lead of granite construction.
Aaron McClellan, responsible for technology for the construction of Watsonville Infrastructure Builder in California, is familiar with the use of technology. Granite introduced supervised autonomous teams, where he has readjusted existing machines, at the Tucson International Airport in Tucson, Arizona and a job at New Mexico.
The retrofit kits in these projects It came from Bluelight Machines, based in Pittsburgh, which includes remote control of any mobile or desktop device and regular software, and updates of outdoor functions, on the company’s website.
Here, McClellan talks about the immersion of construction about the implementation of autonomous teams, the advantages that the company has harvested and tips on how to talk to workers about the new technology.
Publisher Note: This interview has been published for brevity and clarity.
Construction Division: How did you encounter these autonomous kits and what problems did they solve?
Aaron McClellan: We introduced ourselves to the Buelight machines through a couple of different channels. We ended up climbing north of California, where we saw a demonstration, had a conversation with the company there, and it adapted well to what we needed to improve operations in the Arizona region.
From there, we started coordinating meetings, had some visits to the site and then decided to move forward. It has been operational for about four or five months.
Dirt rollers for us are a monotonous task that draws a specialized operator in a more critical path or scheduled activity. For us, the use of a supervised autonomous dirt roller allowed us to use those operators in a more efficient way.
Add our work. It allows them to do more with the teams we have, without having to sit inside a roller that moves up and down a project throughout the day.
We have two right now. We have one in a project in New Mexico and we have one in a project in Arizona.
What have you noticed since the granite began to use autonomous technology?
I think that the use of self -supervised or remote self -control teams allows for more safe operation. We would certainly get efficiency.
There is time savings. If you have a specialized operator and have to move material with some type of rock carrier, they are more critical for operations to move the material inside and around the workplace that we are not flattening a piece of flat dirt.
Aaron McClellan
Permission granted by granite construction
It makes much more sense to give them the controls. They laid the moving dirt roller and then operate the truck. We can get a lot of efficiency.
If we talk more generally, it allows us to climb our workforce. We know that there is a huge job shortage. The way we look is, if we can climb where we have several machines on an operator, we allow our operators to be more effective.
He also takes them out of the seat. In certain cases, we have a very high risk work that, if an employee sits in the operator’s seat inside the machine and something should happen, it could be fatal. If we can eliminate this person from this environment, it allows it to be a safer operation.
How was the technology learning curve?
We waited for a little ramp period. So, it’s OK, we’ll hear it for a week and we will get used to operators. Maybe another week of entering and around, but once they had the feeling of using the tools they had, it was a day or two, and then they went to the races.
I think many things refer to the collaboration you have with the companies that provide these types of solutions.
Many of the technology has moved rapidly over the last two years, so it is much easier for operators to understand how to control it. They build in many similar tools that operators would see in their cabin.
A large part of the board on the machines’ cabins are also taken to the tablets or seats where you sit paper.
How do your employees feel this technology?
I think there is a lot of work. There is a lot of openness. I think they see that it is not only about replacing anyone.
Whenever the courier is about safety and efficiency, and expand the possession of some of these operators who can see retirement on the horizon. It allows them to expand this possession even even above the dates they had provided for themselves depending on the physical limitations.
There will always be hesitation and change. We embrace it and know that we have to understand where skepticism comes from and we know them in half, and we understand how this is, and how we will allow us, or work with you.
What is the encounter for your workers halfway through?
Many thing is to understand what they want.
If we move to an autonomous machine, for example, there are certain aspects that they like to feel well. If we can have relationships with the sellers who provide these restoration kits that do these impressive things through the use of technology, do we also have to consider what is the operator so accustomed to that it will be difficult for them to travel without it?
One of the things we had conversations with a supplier for a while ago was the natural feeling of the machine and the operation of the controls. This is something that develops inherently over the years and years of operating this machine.
Take this feedback, and then provide it with those solution providers, helps solve the vacuum on the camp versus the technology that can be used.
