Scaffold is a temporary structure, which provides a secure framework for construction workers at elevation. Some of the advantages of scaffolding are, multiple workers can work side-by-side on a site whenever required.

Another major advantage of scaffolding is that it provides access to otherwise hard to reach areas to get the job done. Scaffolding is not only there to support workers and their materials, but also used as a safety measure.

One of the major challenge faced by all departments in construction industry or operational plant during maintenance phase in scaffolding operations, is that of scaffold not being erected on time.

Some of the common possible reasons behind it can be:-

• No formal procedure for scaffold request & its approval.
• It often occurs that the priority requests are raised quite late, due to lack transparency.
• Maintenance or planning team not able to plan properly, because of lack of data.
• Scaffold approval process consumes a lot of time, as most of the time multiple approvals are required and approving authorities are located far away from the actual site of work.
• Scaffold general foreman requires site visits with end-user to understand the requirement, assess safety hazards. Also, they need to visit the site with scaffold building team leader to explain end-users need.
• Bottlenecks related to men and material in scaffolding operations.

Concerned companies have tried resolving these issues with below approach:-

1. Paper-based request approval process
2. Paper-based scaffold production reports submission
3. Maintaining all the required data in excel sheets to generate a schedule
4. They manipulate raw data to generate reports and analysis

The above approach adopted gave a temporary solution and problem was resolved up to some extent but was not satisfactory.

Major hurdles faced:-

• Difficult to maintain – Huge database for multiple sites, Lengthy paperwork, poor data transparency
• Responsible person needs to be assigned all the paper-based reporting work
• Tedious to generate final reports (output)

Looking at above challenges, ASK-EHS with the in-house expertise of scaffolding and information technology domain came up with ‘Scaffolding Management Software’ which offers to overcome all the above-mentioned hurdles.

ASK-EHS’s  Scaffolding Management Software is a comprehensive software solution that manages scaffold operation starting from scaffold requests, its approvals, skill, safety aspects, man and material inventory effectively and efficiently. Its’ major features are;

• Automated scaffolding operation approval workflow(s) with alerts
• Manage scaffold team skill & their productivity
• Material inventory and its bottleneck identification
• Productivity tools – Image Annotation & Floor Map Marking
• Key Performance Indicators (Delays, Uptime, Lead days, MPP, M3/Hour/Person, Inspection failure ratio, most expensive scaffold and many more).
• Design & Material estimation (preliminary)
• Job Hazard Analysis & Safety Inspections
• Invoice supporting data
• Web-based solution and mobile device compatible to use it on field

Scaffolding Management Software thus simplifies many of these complex procedures. The biggest benefit of such digital processes is a radical reduction in the time consumed by requestor, approver or scaffold builder during scaffold operations. Also, communication becomes transparent and almost ‘real-time’ in many cases.