Pan-United Implements Contactless Technologies and Safer Construction Workplace Practices
As Singapore enters Phase Two of its reopening, concrete innovations and
digitalisation can play a leading role in enhancing safe distancing at worksites. Pan-United Corporation Ltd (“Pan-United” or “泛联集团”) has introduced initiatives that will minimise physical interactions and
improve productivity at construction worksites.
These concrete innovations include:
1. PanU New Generation Self-Compacting Concrete (“PanU NewGen SCC”)
Pan-United has enhanced its product mix design of a specialised rheologic concrete that flows easily to reach hard-to-fill corners. Unlike regular concrete, which requires several concreting workers to manually vibrate and compact the material into place, the PanU NewGen SCC requires just a single worker to guide the concrete pumping pipe. It allows workers to better keep a safe distance from each other during concreting work.
Besides reducing the manual labour required, the PanU NewGen SCC can also improve productivity by 75% and reduce casting time by 40%, resulting in faster construction completion. Previous generations of SCC have been used to build skyscrapers in densely populated areas (e.g. Tanjong Pagar Centre, Singapore’s tallest building, and HDB projects).
With PanU NewGen SCC, only one worker is required to guide the concrete pumping pipe around the slab area. Regular concrete will require several workers to work closely together to manually vibrate and compact the material into place.
2. AiM (Artificial Intelligence Mixing) in-transit concrete management system
The company has also equipped its concrete mixer trucks with an in-transit concrete management system called AiM, which calibrates each truck’s concrete consistency during the journey from the batching plant to the project site. If changes in concrete consistency are detected, the system will remotely adjust the concrete mix, maintaining the specified concrete
properties by the time the mixer truck reaches its destination.
This system eradicates the need for quality assessors and product technicians to be physically present at the worksite to test and approve the concrete quality from each mixer truck. Apart from minimising the number of workers and employees on-site, the system also increases product quality consistency and minimises the risks of project delays.
3. AiR (Artificial Intelligence for Ready-Mix Concrete) operations optimisation platform
Digitalisation of concrete operations across the entire supply chain, through the development of an optimisation platform called AiR, has enabled the automation of back-end processes such as delivery orders and invoices. Pan-United issues electronic delivery orders (“eDOs”) and electronic customer invoices (e-invoices) that make it far easier for the customers’ employees to work from home, and save them time and costs from not having to logistically collate and despatch physical documents around everyday. This minimises physical contact among employees at its premises, and between employees and customers or workers at construction sites.
