A WakeCap call to labourer safety

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A WakeCap call to labourer safety
Construction is the largest industry in the world. At current global GDP growth levels, $57 trillion will be invested in infrastructure between now and 2032.

dubai - Firm provides real-time, cloud-based visibility on worker productivity

By Sanjiv Purushotham
 Value Mining

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Published: Mon 12 Feb 2018, 4:42 PM

Last updated: Mon 12 Feb 2018, 6:55 PM

HI-TRAC: The author's shorthand for Happiness Index, Infrastructure, Talent, Regulations, Access and Capital. The six pillars that make the UAE a great place for a startup. This week's article is about a venture that is focused on delivering significant change in infrastructure-related projects.

The opportunity
Right across the UAE, construction is visibly booming. Multiple industrial, infrastructural, residential and commercial projects are underway in the country. It is a capital and human-resource intensive industry that requires state-of-the-art management capabilities.
An often overlooked fact is that construction is the largest industry in the world. At current global GDP growth levels, $57 trillion will be invested in infrastructure between now and 2032. It is also one of the least digitised. Ironically, productivity has been declining as 98 per cent of projects are overdue or exceed budget, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report Reinventing Construction: A Route To Higher Productivity. Causes for this include lack of connectivity at the project level, slow information sharing and low levels of automation on site. Given the nature of the industry, viable tools for maximising effective and productive utilisation of human resources is critical to timeliness and cost control.

The problem
Within the human resource domain, worker productivity and safety are probably the most important factors for success. Both are linked to each other. Less-evolved organisations take short-term approaches to productivity, often at the cost of worker safety. However, as a result of advances in automation, connectivity and data analysis, both productivity as well as safety factors can be better resolved symbiotically. Typically, this requires the ability to continuously monitor worker movements and recognise patterns that could indicate deviations. Also, as the size of construction projects increases, the ability to manage thousands of workers in mega construction sites requires intensive deployment of supervisory staff.

The company
Recognising this need, Hassan Albalawi, CEO of WakeCap (www.wakecap.com) worked on a solution that would be technologically highly advanced yet simple enough for deployment with minimal disruption. He sees the challenge as being three-fold - high reliance on the human factor, extremely tough environment which requires the highest levels of safety and poor network connectivity on site.

Says Albalawi: "We aim to disrupt the construction industry without disrupting the work." He is a Saudi national and an engineer by training. Working alongside Albalawi is Ishita Sood, COO. Sood, also an engineer, was earlier with a startup in the wearables domain. Albalawi and Sood got connected via Angelist. The current team of 7 comes from 6 different countries and they bring in a combined experience of more than 55 years.

The solution
WakeCap is a solution that consists of three key elements. One element is the sensor that is hard-integrated into the existing personal safety equipment i.e. a helmet, the second is a software layer for control and safety monitoring and the third is a reliable project-level communications and data network. The sensors provide real-time, cloud-based visibility into worker attendance, location and accidents. The solution also enables a two-way alerting system.

There are interesting, potentially transformative applications. For one, it allows for monitoring of worker movement. Apparently, the bulk of safety issues happen because of unauthorised presence in areas that should be out of bounds. The second is that the lack of movement indicates that either the worker is asleep or has taken off his or her helmet. Both of which could be potentially dangerous. The third is the aspect of supervision. Usually, supervisory staff as a ratio of the actual labour could be as high as 20 per cent.

With a remote monitoring system like WakeCap, the need for supervisory staff is greatly reduced, leading to higher productivity. The fourth engaging element of the solution is the use of a local network based on beacons and a communications protocol similar to low-energy Bluetooth signalling. A scalable "mesh" can be quickly deployed onsite. In remote construction sites, mobile or GPS systems networks are usually unavailable.

The fifth is the ability to monitor absenteeism. Another outcome from this is the ability to further increase productivity by visually mapping worker movements. For example, the inconvenience of poorly located toilets and water-points were quickly identified in a pilot, leading to higher worker morale and productivity. This has led the team to identify data analytics as another monetisable revenue source.

A unique feature of the solution as explained by the company is its hard-integration with helmets. The sensors for the solution are incorporated into the knob that adjusts the fit of standard helmets like the ones from JSP and 3M. These sensors are being incorporated as original equipment. The other aspect about the hardware element is the elimination of recharging. Since the sensors work on relatively low energy utilisation, button cells in the sensors can last six months currently and the team is working on increasing the length between replacements to a year.

book

The financials
WakeCap is deployed on a subscription-based model. The revenues are based on per device per week fee. The benefits to the customer organisation are quantified on the basis of the value of increased safety and productivity as well as instantly available data and reports. According to Albalawi, he estimates that the solution will be relevant to an estimated market size worth $1.4 billion in the GCC and approximately $47.5 billion globally.

The association with in5 and the drive of the team has helped it get noticed by HAX, the hardware accelerator arm of SOS Ventures, a California-based investment company. HAX connected the WakeCap team to top-of-the-line fabricators in Shenzhen in China. The solution itself gained interest from the Consolidated Contractors Company, reportedly the largest construction-related company in the Middle East. This 130,000 manpower-strong company is piloting a deployment with WakeCap and investing in it. The solution is planned to scale to full go-to-market deployment by Q1, 2019. It is currently in its seed round stage of funding which it expects to close soon.

The writer is founding partner at BridgeDFS, a bespoke digital financial services advisory firm (www.bridgeto.us). Views expressed are his own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy. He can be contacted at sanjiv@bridgeto.us.

Hassan Albalawi, CEO of WakeCap
Hassan Albalawi, CEO of WakeCap

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