b'THE OFFICIAL NFBA MAGAZINETECHNOLOGY & RESEARCHMilwaukee 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.who writes down a bunch of inventory numbersandDewalt(a division of Stanley Black & Decker) that have been emailed, then goes around to checkare leaning into technology to help prevent tool off all the tools. The process is painstaking. Thetheft and loss. By giving management and workers person in the field has to find everything thenthe ability to monitor and track tools more simply transpose it back. and effectively, they are reducing the burden of Giving responsibility to a craftsperson for a toolinventory management and creating new capabilities often implies ownership. You have a drill onthat can help recover lost tools.your site assigned to Joe who takes it to anotherFor the most part, the new technologies rely on a site, says Gagliano. but you didnt track thatcombination of Bluetooth technology and software move. More often than not on a site with a lot ofapps. Milwaukee Tool has a program called One-Key tradespeople, theyre just trying to find the nearestthat pairs Bluetooth-enabled tools with a software tool to get the task done. They think its their tool.app. The tools may be a Milwaukee Tool but the A lot of crew members take tools home to do sidecompany also provides small asset ID tags called jobs. They dont mean to be malicious about it, butTICKs that can attach to any tool such as a ladder. somewhere in the process that tool may get stolenTools are tracked and managed through the app. and doesnt get back. You use the app to scan the asset ID tag, says There are technologies out there that can improveGagliano. Every time you do that, it will give you that system. Using labels with barcodes anda location update with the time signature and date QR codes you can scan into an online databasecode. Its really good for scanning in and scanning can make the process much simpler. Tied toout.smartphone apps, that method digitizes anUsing Bluetooth technology and apps to scan, onerous process. Those programs work well in thewhich Dewalt and Bosch also have, means that manufacturing world where tools tend to stay ininventory moves much more quickly. Doing the same place, but in the construction arena toolsinventory manually can take two to three minutes move from site to site and often can get buried inper tool, says Stoller. Just digitizing, even without the bottom of a trucks toolbox, making them farBluetooth and bar codes, can drive that down 50%. more mobile than intended. With Bluetooth and bar codes, you can drive that Tool Manufacturer Technology time down even further. And you start to create Tool manufacturers such as Bosch, Milwaukeeeasy accountability.34 / FRAME BUILDER - MAY2022'