ecchelmet 241 ‘certified’ Digital Ambassadors are driving ‘Digital for Safety’
Thanks to the Academy of Digital Transformation, a collaborative initiative of Corporate HR L&D and Corporate Digital, we now have 241 ‘certified’ Digital Ambassadors in our ranks who have been mandated, as Mahesh A Chikodi, Chief Digital Officer, L&T, shares, “to leverage digital technologies to improve business productivity and efficiency and enhance communication, collaboration, innovation, operational excellence, and Safety.” Each Digital Ambassador is seen as a pioneer driving digital adoption across project sites.
Even the best digital construction safety tool without a solid implementation strategy will fail, especially if the team resists the digital construction software hence it is imperative for someone at project sites to drive digital for Safety, Quality, etc. and that is where our Digital Ambassadors can make a difference.
Mahesh A Chikodi
Chief Digital Officer, L&T
WET IC leads in our growing list of certified Digital Ambassadors:
Creating ‘Digital Catalysts’
As a next step, the Academy has recently launched the Digital Catalyst programme that will feature ‘Digital Catalysts’ who will be trained to spot digital interventions, drive change management, derive the ultimate outcome of digital, and own digital solutions developed for their respective functions at the Cluster/Project levels. 116 nominations for Digital Catalysts have already come in thus far.
A journey well begun
While the past decade has seen an explosion of technological innovations, several safety processes, however, have remained unchanged globally. Digital for safety, as a practice, has been gradually maturing at L&T with digital solutions like SHEILD, Safety App, ViewEHS, predictive analytics for safety, Computer Vision, and others already in action that are capturing more safety data, analysing it better, and implementing changes quicker. For the effort to bear fruit, it is essential that findings from safety reports are completed and incorporated into SOPs.
Global statistics show that 32% of employees in any construction company are likely to resist a transition from paper-based processing to techbased processing. “Even the best digital construction safety tool without a solid implementation strategy will fail, especially if the team resists the digital construction software,” cautions Mahesh; “hence it is imperative for someone at project sites to drive digital for Safety, Quality, etc., and that is where our Digital Ambassadors can make a difference.”
Another survey conducted in March 2023 on ‘digital transformation’ conducted by the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) and Safe Site Check In reveals that 95% of the respondents reported being more productive because of new technologies designed for the construction industry. 72% said that smartphone apps were handy to manage projects and the workforces better; 13% found GPS layouts helpful, and 9% found drones and robots as able allies. 3% mentioned other technologies like augmented reality and wearables.
Voices of two of our Digital Ambassadors …
Through ‘View EHS’, we have adopted digitalization at our MLIP, Cluster-IV Project for EHS functions like Safe Execution Card, training, mock drills, inspection checklists, permits, audit reports, environmental monitoring reports, subcontractor EHS performance evaluation, observations with auto escalation facility, safe manhours, and more. By analysing our data, we have successfully identified the project’s low EHS-effective areas and focused on them to improve and reduce the incident potential rate from 3659 (2021–22) to 1222 (presently). Recently, we have achieved 2 million safe manhours and our client, Department of Water Resources, Odisha, strongly believes that our success is directly attributable to our EHS digitalization. ‘View EHS’ has already been implemented across some 250 WET project sites with 4,587 users.
Bhaskar Sekhar Parichha
Assistant Manager – EHS, WET IC
At our BHEL Ennore project site, despite its remoteness, we have implemented 100% digital in the permit system & TBT recordings through SHEILD and our client’s app, thanks to which EHS documentation is much easier; we are able to provide digital evidence during EHS audits and analyse safety performance data at committee meetings to maintain virtual inspection records. VR-based training modules have also made realtime impact on the workers about the consequences of unsafe acts/conditions.
B Suresh
Assistant Manager – EHS, L&T GeoStructure
A score to measure digital adoption at site
Construction projects in India have their own unique set of hazards, risks, and impact on the environment, depending on geography-specific reasons. Identifying these hazards and controlling the risks associated with them are vital to execute projects safely. Corporate Digital has recently launched an application – Digital Adoption Assessment Score (DAAS) – to help assess the extent of digital adoption at a project site and track digital progress, which will be executed by Digital Ambassadors.