About OWL?
OWL enables projects to be run with greater visibility and efficiency, allowing Project Managers and Supervisors to better plan and deliver works in the field. OWL improves location familiarity and orientation across entire teams, reducing the risk of work errors and boosting task comprehension.
The platform – consisting of a web portal, mobile app and optional location devices called Tags – offers powerful features for the aid of hazard awareness, productivity improvement and regulatory compliance.
OWL uses geofencing to create virtual boundaries around work areas, hazards and assets, which are used to trigger configurable alerts if users (people, plant or equipment) interact with these boundaries, or Zones.
The Project
The Net Zero Teesside (NZT) Project is working toward the ambitious aim of becoming the UK’s first decarbonised industrial cluster by 2030. The project is being carried out by a committed team, including Eni, Equinor, Shell and Total, with BP leading as operator.
As part of the project, partners and contractors are looking to include technologies to aid in achieving safe and efficient working practices, preventing incidents and delivering to schedule.
As NZT is a large-scale project with numerous partners and subcontractors, AECOM, working with BP, took the opportunity during pre-works to implement a Proof of Concept (PoC) for OWL.
The Brief
During the project, AECOM had several factors to consider, from Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), ecologist reports that indicated ground nesting of the protected Little Ringed Plover, to the protection of individuals and prevention of accidents or incidents.
The aim for AECOM was to implement a simple and effective method of preventing staff from entering hazardous or protected areas, in addition to ensuring that the teams conduct works in the right locations.
Over the course of 2-month period different aspects of the platform were gradually implemented and assessed, enabling AECOM to define a set-up suitable for their operations.
The Approach
Onwave are a UK based company with full stack development control of OWL. This means that when feedback was provided by AECOM, Onwave were able to rapidly implement suggestions from site.
AECOM were able to see first-hand the benefits of this mentality by requesting the addition of the current location co-ordinates on the OWL map interface. This change was developed, tested and delivered by the end of the trial project, and is now an available feature for everyone that uses OWL.
Planning with OWL
Using OWL, AECOM planned Zones across the worksite, utilising the platform’s many customisable features to add additional information and aesthetic details, which were then made visible on the portal and mobile app.
Zones were created for a number of purposes:
SSSI and protected species areas were configured as red Zones for ease of recognition, with alerts configured to warn individuals and their supervisors when these Zones were entered. AECOM also had the alert trigger for individuals leaving, or in close proximity to, a defined area.
Borehole locations were plotted to show the location of works on-site, and allowed the mobile users to orientate themselves on the app’s interactive map.
App vs Tag
The PoC started with Supervisors and Project Managers using the OWL mobile app to improve their situational awareness. App users could see their location in relation to the planned Zones, including planned boreholes, meaning they had a clear idea of their location and its potential hazards.
The next stage was to assess the viability of the OWL Tag Zero, a small location device which uses GPS and a roaming SIM. The roaming SIM also overcame the poor signal experience across the site and removed any reporting lag.
Findings
As with any new technology adoption, there can be some initial reluctance from site teams to adopt, however, good early communication amongst the project team and showing that feedback is listened to and acted on have ensured good levels of uptake. The benefits in reducing the risk of safety or environmental harm are clear and the next steps will be to look at other use cases on forthcoming projects where the wider benefits of this technology can be explored further.
As the initial phase of the project comes to its conclusion, it has been clear that the use of OWL has supported the AECOM team and contributed to the successful delivery of the first phase of the ground-breaking Net Zero Teesside project
