b'BUSINESS MANAGEMENTContinued from page 29Milwaukee One-Key Tools connect through Bluetooth to an inventory management app, and other assets can be included in inventory through QR Codes or by using a Bluetooth-enabled TICK button.No matter if youre using technology or not, you havesystem. Using labels with barcodes and QR codes you to have a process for tracking your tools and keepingcan scan into an online database can make the process them inventoried. Anything that goes to the job sitemuch simpler. Tied to smartphone apps, that method needs to be tracked and on the job site, craftspeopledigitizes an onerous process. Those programs work need to be assigned responsibility for any tool theywell in the manufacturing world where tools tend to use. No matter how you work that, whether you usestay in the same place, but in the construction arena spreadsheets or everything is hand-written, there istools move from site to site and often can get buried often little interest among construction crews to spendin the bottom of a trucks toolbox, making them far their time doing paperwork. more mobile than intended.I bet that on 50% of job sites that is how inventory is taken, says Stoller. The foreman grabs somebodyTool Manufacturer Technologywho writes down a bunch of inventory numbers thatToolmanufacturerssuchasBosch,Milwaukee have been email, then goes around to check off alland Dewalt (a division of Stanley Black & Decker) the tools. The process is painstaking. The person inare leaning into technology to help prevent tool theft the field has to find everything then transpose it back. and loss. By giving management and workers the Giving responsibility to a craftsperson for a tool oftenability to monitor and track tools more simply and implies ownership. You have a drill on your siteeffectively, they are reducing the burden of inventory assigned to Joe who takes it to another site, saysmanagement and creating new capabilities that can Gagliano. but you didnt track that move. More oftenhelp recover lost tools.than not on a site with a lot of tradespeople, theyreFor the most part, the new technologies rely on a just trying to find the nearest tool to get the task done.combination of Bluetooth technology and software They think its their tool. A lot of crew members takeapps. Milwaukee Tool has a program called One-Key tools home to do side jobs. They dont mean to bethat pairs Bluetooth-enabled tools with a software app. malicious about it, but somewhere in the process thatThe tools may be a Milwaukee Tool but the company tool may get stolen and doesnt get back. also provides small asset ID tags called TICKs that There are technologies out there that can improve thatcan attach to any tool such as a ladder. Tools are 30 www.mrca.orgMidwest Roofer'