PERI: A Clearer Overview on Large Construction Sites

PERI SE has connected its formwork elements for construction sites and can now offer customers a precise localization service.

Whether it is the arabesque Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi, a subway station in San Francisco or the Waldschlösschen Bridge over the Elbe River, whether it is a particle accelerator, sugar silo or sewage sludge incineration plant: When buildings are to be made from liquid concrete, PERI's scaffolding and formwork experts are much in demand. Formwork systems for flowing concrete ensure that walls, ceilings, pillars and foundations, bridge piers and silos are the right shape. PERI, headquartered in Weissenhorn, Bavaria, is now represented in over 70 countries around the world and involved in numerous construction projects.

Projects such as the new Terminal 3 at Frankfurt Airport. In Europe’s largest privately financed infrastructure project PERI is involved in the construction of the so-called drive-by platform, a bridge 550 meters long, 27 meters wide and 10 meters high on which travelers can drive straight to the check-in. The structure with its 70 v-shaped supports is intended to connect the two access and exit ramps. PERI is responsible for, inter alia, the formwork.

Ensuring that the right parts are in the right place is a complex process, and on a large site such as the one at Frankfurt Airport the construction material is often at more than one storage location. Looking for parts is laborious and requires time, manpower and reasonably orderly documentation.

PERI was looking for a digital solution to locate formwork elements swiftly and precisely. In a workshop with Telekom the idea of combining two tried and trusted IoT systems took shape. Telekom’s Low Cost Tracker records exactly where a formwork element is on which construction site or in which of PERI’s 160 rental warehouses. The water- and shockproof device relays its position daily via the cell network to Telekom's IoT Cloud. Using Telekom partner Syfit’s solution, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)  and a smartphone app, construction site workers can locate the formwork element to within a meter wherever it is stored on-site.

Connectivity on the Internet of Things offers PERI several advantages. On an Internet web portal the manufacturer and customers both have a current overview of the location of all parts. They can manage their warehouses and stocks more efficiently and and deliver the elements required faster and on a shorter route, saving time, manpower and costs. Asset tracking shows PERI where rented-out parts are and when they will be returned to which rental warehouse. This solution also enables PERI to locate lost or stolen material. In the future all information is to be fed automatically into PERI’s ERP system and will thereby make possible an even more efficient purchase and rental model for formwork elements.