BAULOC: An award-winning place for everything, with Eagle Eye

Exciting news! 

Eagle Eye was just awarded Safety and Security Solution of the Year in the London Construction Awards for a project developed along with solution developer VisionVal for Würth GmbH, a world leader in specialized fasteners for the construction industry. While we’re proud to play a critical role in this project in particular, what’s just as important to us is seeing a project come to fruition thanks in part to our open, cloud-centric ecosystem. 

What is the innovation? 

It’s worth taking a look at what Wurth and VisionVal were able to do. They applied existing sensing and output capabilities to a specific industry problem, utilizing the Eagle Eye Cloud VMS and bridges as the foundation of a tightly integrated solution designed for new construction projects. 

Wurth’s BAULOC system streamlines and tracks the provision of tools at construction sites. Professional-grade tools are fundamental to the construction industry, where every minute on site costs money and carries risk.  

But those tools are expensive — and they’re notoriously prone not only to theft when tracked too loosely, but to simply being misplaced in the course of high-energy work days, or being logged into inventory under the wrong name or part number, which makes it difficult to track when that tool is next called for. Tool provisioning is also a logistical challenge that can be complicated by the use of multiple vendors. 

With BAULOC, Wurth delivers tools in a range of secure containers delivered straight to a construction site. VisionVal’s integration of both an Eagle Eye surveillance system and Brivo access enables friction-free access, 24 hours a day. An easy-to-use interface makes it simple to query the system for tool availability and to obtain the needed ones. In addition, precision weight sensors help identify and track the status of individual tools. 

A very connected toolbox

BAULOC self-service cabinets automate tool tracking, allowing workers to check out the right tools and return them when done, ensuring accurate accounting. No wait time is needed, and inventory can be checked remotely. The inventory contained in each cabinet is linked to enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools, providing real-time business information on the current project and helping to plan for future ones.

Overall, the system provides workers with greater autonomy to access and utilize the tools they need at any given moment, while maintaining their security when not in use. And staff needs are greatly reduced, so they can spend more time providing advisory support and less time tracking down tools. 

Importantly, the BAULOC system is tailored to specific projects and the construction phase. Rather than transport heavy and valuable tools to a site just in case they’re needed, specially packed containers that contain only the right tools in an easy layout make the most of limited construction time, and mean workers don’t have to leave the site for equipment.

Besides tools, BAULOC cabinets can carry the right inventory of personal protective equipment (PPE), fasteners, and consumables like specialized adhesives, making it a one-stop, step-saving source for materials. 

Breaking down problems to build up solutions

The approach that VisonVal took in implementing this solution echoes that of many other Eagle Eye technology partners. It starts by identifying a defined problem — a bottleneck that can be addressed by analyzing and acting on video data, or by combining video data with other information. Then, that problem is whittled into manageable steps and solved through a combination of cameras, sensors, and the Eagle Eye Cloud VMS (as a source of data, a display output, or both). 

When it makes sense, this problem-solving approach can use the VMS for more than just displaying messages on an end-user’s screen, too. Messages can be conveyed by a variety of channels, right up to a public loudspeaker for wide-scale announcements.

An important upshot, both for technology entrepreneurs and for enterprises large enough to drive their own in-house solutions, is that a surveillance system built with flexibility and extension in mind lets you iterate custom solutions quickly, without requiring that you start from scratch.

We like to say that today’s surveillance is about much more than cameras, and this is a good illustration of why. There are exciting developments on the way in this field, and from Eagle Eye, to make this kind of innovation even easier.

Timothy Lord

Timothy Lord has witnessed and written about IT security trends and the ongoing evolution of SaaS for more than 25 years.