Coates IoT tool to boost productivity

Australian equipment rental company Coates is developing technologies said to aid customers boost on site productivity and efficiency.

The company has begun installing a newly developed retrofit telemetry device across its fleet and is piloting proprietary solution Smart Site, an IoT-enabled productivity tool.

It plans to officially launch Smart Site to customers in key market sectors, including Mining, Oil & Gas, Power, Manufacturing, Construction and Infrastructure, towards the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Smart Site uses RFID (radio frequency identification), LoRaWAN (long-range, low-power wide-area networking) and GPS, to create geofencing around the perimeter of a site.

It allows customers to track and analyse operators and other personnel, along with tagged equipment, to find efficiencies.

As originally reported by Australian IT publication itnews.com.au. Neil Moore, Coates Product Specialist, said, “Customers can create geozones inside these networks to isolate key locations on site.

“This information allows customers to measure the amount of productive time spent in predetermined work zones and the amount of unproductive time spent outside of these zones.”

Smart Site is said to enable the location of smaller high-value tools and equipment not fitted with a telemetry device, with those that are underutilised to be redistributed or off hired, improving productivity and reducing hire costs.

The system can trigger alerts when tools or equipment leaves a geofenced zone for loss and theft prevention. 

For industrial customers, Smart Site uses ‘smart badges’ for staff to produce time and motion studies and identify areas for improvement in productivity.

Smart Site can also be used for safety and security, to send an alert when a staff member remains stationary for a set period. or to signal unauthorised access to restricted areas.

It can also be used to assist social distancing on a job site; if a Covid-19 outbreak occurs, the technology allows a potential infection risk to be identified. 

Coates has also been actively working on its overall sustainability, having recently committed to net zero emissions.