How has the biometric system impacted the construction industry
Biometric system is fast becoming a commonality in Singapore. This ranges from mobile applications to complex security systems, particularly in the construction industry. The construction industry plays a huge role in Singapore’s development. Hence, there needs to be a proper management of the entire construction site. This includes attendance of construction workers and individual work progress.
Each day, there are construction workers coming in and out of the work site. This will require construction companies to monitor each individual. The security of the work site is to be ensured. This is likely to prevent the theft of valuable construction tools and materials, which can incur losses for contractors. Safety is another factor for construction sites. A falling object can potentially result in fatal injury for workers. All these show the need for the biometric system to easily handle the dynamics of the workplace.
This article shows how the biometric system has impacted the construction industry and the future it will bring to the industry.
Enhancing Security in Construction Sites
In most construction sites, the workforce has a good many of headcount. Hundreds to thousands of workers are accessing and working in a single site daily. This would virtually be impossible to be controlled manually. With a reliable biometric system in place, there is greater enhancement of security and accountability in the worksite.
A secured workplace will mean that employees will be able to work with minimal distractions. As a whole, construction projects will be completed on time and prevent companies from incurring unnecessary losses.
Construction companies will be able to keep track of every worker and their performance. This will ensure that employees perform their work at a high standard while upholding safety. In an emergency, they can be assured of an immediate accountability for all on-site workers.
Practically, they can use the system to conduct an immediate system roll-call to account for every worker on-site. Historical data of workers, such as their movements and safety violations, can also be tracked to safeguard the workplace from erratic behaviours.
Evolution of the Construction Business
By tapping into biometric access control system and capabilities, construction companies are now able to identify and drill down data to each individual workers. It enhances the company’s ability to track productive hours of every individual worker in the construction site, which also means that managing payroll will be easier. With the biometric capabilities, more data is made available for analysis and insight into site productivity which was not possible in the past.
Security and safety are also improvements made from the past. Access rights are fully controlled through authorised workers with the appropriate certifications and skill sets. With the use of biometric systems, contractors are less likely to use illegal workers for construction projects.
Yet a complex system like the biometric system has its weak points and this may potentially cause the system to be compromised if not managed properly.
Potential Drawbacks of Biometric Systems in a Construction Site
With more digital data, systems with the ability to manage a huge amount of data collected are needed. System components must be able to communicate seamlessly with one another to maximize data potential and avoid data silos.
Furthermore, stability and security of the system has become more important as construction companies and their operations are increasingly reliant on them. This factor, especially pertaining to personal data and PDPA, is an important focal point in recent times.
Intercorp’s answer to its drawbacks
Biometric systems are not fool-proof, which means that the data stored in such systems can be compromised. It is, therefore, important to ensure that the security in the biometrics data cannot be compromised.
At Intercorp, we use our proprietary 256-bit encryption security to safeguard biometric data. This will only work effectively with our unique identification and matching algorithm. As such, even when biometric data are compromised, the perpetrators will find it impossible to use the biometric data. At the system level, Intercorp has also built in many security safeguards, such as SSL certified applications, to a secured end-to-end VPN channels for all data transmissions.
What lies ahead for the future of biometric systems in the construction industry
Moving forward, biometrics 3.0 will enable biometric technologies to become non-intrusive and omni-present through the worksite. It will be tightly imbued into video analytics and coupled with Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). Biometric technologies will thus be able to achieve incredible data insights such as people, objects, behavioural and situational recognition. Construction companies will benefit from this as it allows them to better manage their worksite as well as improving productivity and safety as a whole.
As time passes, we believe that an increasing number of applications will leverage on biometric technologies in numerous phases of construction lifecycle. This is especially so in the productivity vertical wherein individuals will be accountable and responsible for their daily work. Site behaviour is likely to improve greatly due to A.I. recognition. This will result in better situational awareness, productivity measurement and enhanced safety for a construction site.
Conclusion
We hope this article is insightful in showing you how biometric systems have impacted the construction industry. If you are a reader from the construction industry interested in our biometric authentication systems or just want to enquire for more information, please feel feel to contact us.
