Greyform Transforms its Multi-Storey ICPH Operations & Fulfils OLS with Hubble

We are excited to welcome Greyform Pte Ltd (Greyform), a concrete precast production company, as our newest client. Hubble is honoured to support their Integrated Construction and Prefabrication Hubs (ICPHs) with our Hubble Aura IoT for Resources Tracking (Hubble Aura IoT). In this customer success story, we will explore how this adoption has greatly improved their methods for tracking and managing their workforce to meet the requirements of the Off-site Levy Scheme (OLS) in the multi-story advanced manufacturing facility.

Why Integrated Construction & Prefabrication Hubs (ICPHs)?

ICPHs represent the future of construction, with a high degree of mechanisation and automation. These multi-story facilities are designed to produce a wide range of prefabricated components such as:

• Prefabricated Individual Components: Columns, beams, staircases
• Prefabricated Integrated Sub-assemblies: Prefabricated Bathroom Units (PBUs), modular prefabricated Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) systems
• Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) Modules

Furthermore, enhancing Singapore's ICPH capabilities enables local production of critical components, ensuring resilient supply chains that can sustain construction activities even during import disruptions. Some advantages of ICPHs include: 

• Improved Productivity: Off-site prefabrication results in significant manpower and time savings at the project level.
• Enhanced Quality Control: Production in a controlled factory environment ensures high-quality prefabricated components.
• Reduced On-site Disruptions: Noise and dust are minimised as most construction work is carried off-site.
• Safer Work Environment: Automation of labour-intensive tasks in a controlled environment enhances safety and creates higher-skilled job opportunities.
• Versatile Use: ICPHs can also serve as storage for formwork, construction equipment, and other related activities.

20,051.0 m² ICPH at Kaki Bukit

Greyform’s ICPH spans 20,051.0 m² and boasts an annual production capacity exceeding 60,000 m³ of precast components. This capacity surpasses what a conventional precast yard can achieve within the same factory space. Their product lineup includes:

• Façade walls, columns, beams, slabs
• Refuse chutes, staircases
• Lightweight panelised PBUs and Prefabricated Kitchen Units
• Hollow core slabs and pre-stressed beams
• Large Panel Slabs

Greyform’s ICPH Facility

Challenges of a Multi-Storey Concrete Hub

Greyform faced significant challenges in their multi-floor concrete hub. Accurate location tracking was difficult due to workers being on different floors. Traditional tracking methods often struggle with the vertical movement of workers and complex floor layouts, leading to potential inefficiencies and safety concerns.

Moreover, the concrete structure caused signal interference and reduced quality through multipath propagation, as well as absorption of Bluetooth signals, weakening them and decreasing their effective range. Concrete can also block Bluetooth signals, creating challenges for maintaining consistent connectivity in construction environments.

Greyform is also seeking ways to manage rising labour costs without sacrificing productivity, while complying with the latest dependency ratio ceiling (DRC) announced by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), effective January 1, 2024. 

How Hubble Aura IoT for Resources Tracking Supported Greyform 

Real-time Location Tracking Across All Floors with Bluetooth Connectivity

Inside one of Greyform ICPH’s floors

To ensure strong and consistent signal coverage throughout the hub, our team at Hubble conducted multiple site surveys and strategically placed Bluetooth location anchors every 30-50 metres on each floor. These anchors are positioned at higher levels with minimal obstructions to address the challenges of multi-story environments and compensate for signal loss.

The Bluetooth location anchors used are waterproof and have a battery life of up to five years, ensuring reliable performance in diverse conditions. The Bluetooth dongles have a signal range of 50 to 300 metres and an IP67 rating, making them waterproof and dustproof. This robust design is well-suited for concrete-rich environments, ensuring reliable connectivity even in harsh conditions and amidst interference from concrete structures. To ensure reliable tracking, Hubble also employs multi-technology solutions, with the LoRaWAN Gateway capable of tracking the locations of the dongles using Wi-Fi.

Achieve Cost Savings with Worker Levy Reductions under OLS

One effective strategy to manage rising labour costs is to leverage on technology to optimise workforce management and achieve cost savings. Accredited Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) operators like Greyform can now enjoy significant worker levy reductions under the BCA OLS. These reductions can be up to 47% per work permit holder, potentially saving up to SGD 300,000 annually for 100 work permit holders. Achieving these savings requires implementing a robust worker management system that ensures:

Live Location Tracking

With workers carrying Bluetooth dongles and the installation of location anchors and a LoRaWAN Gateway on-site, Greyform can experience real-time tracking of their workers' locations across the different floors throughout the entire hub.

Location-based information through geofencing

Hubble Aura IoT provides real-time tracking of worker locations, including specific floor positions. This ensures Greyform can see where each worker is at any moment, crucial for maintaining efficiency and safety in site management. They can also click into the workers’ profiles and receive alerts if workers are outside of the geofenced areas for immediate corrective actions. 

Ensuring qualified workers on each floor by clicking into their profiles

Additionally, the platform’s floorplan view, filtering and multiple worker search capabilities allow Greyform to allocate and plan worker assignments efficiently across different floors, ensuring optimal use of manpower.

Easy Filtering and Multiple Selection of Companies 

Seamless Searching of Multiple Workers by Name 

Uneditable records of workers' locations

The platform ensures that worker location records are uneditable, fulfilling the OLS requirement. Greyform can generate movement summary reports directly from the platform in an Excel sheet format, which helps to prevent data tampering and ensures precise location records.

Manpower Movement Summary Report Generation 

Conclusion 

Greyform adoption of the Hubble Aura IoT for Resources Tracking marks a significant advancement in the management of ICPHs. By leveraging this cutting-edge technology, the company can overcome the unique challenge of manpower tracking in their multi-storey hub. This not only streamlines their operations but also sets a new standard for innovation in the construction industry, paving the way for more intelligent and automated workflows in the future. With these improvements, Greyform is well-positioned to lead the industry in productivity and quality, reinforcing their roles as pioneers in concrete precast production.