A decentralized mobile-based morning assembly application for construction sites with GPS-assistance technology and intuitive UI/UX

Abstract

Morning Assembly in construction sites in Japan is an age-old practice that is influenced by tradition. One or more managers conduct this assembly by physically gathering construction workers in a designated place to relay information regarding tasks, safety, disasters, emergencies, Work Progress and many more. Typically, a bulletin board has been in use for this type of assembly. However, these assemblies are usually crowded, unmanaged and time-consuming. Besides this, workers are also less likely to pay full attention to the speaker due to the chaotic nature of the assembly. These assemblies can also be a ground for spreading infectious diseases like COVID-19 and others. Hence, with the aim of improving the overall assembly experience for both management and workers side, we propose an application that helps to conduct assemblies in a decentralized and secure manner. With this application, managers can conduct assembly and broadcast information directly to the worker's smartphone and hence eliminating the crowded and unmanaged nature of assemblies. This application uses the GPS location of the site and the registered worker's smartphone as an identification pair – which is then used to identify which worker is physically available inside which site. Once the worker is within the allowed range of the site, as determined by GPS data, information like site detail, disaster, and safety declaration of the current site along with images and videos is broadcasted to the worker. Site information is simply not broadcasted to devices located outside of the site range and designated time to avoid information leakage. Keeping workers' IT literacy in mind, the app is provided with a simple yet intuitive UI/UX to navigate through and gather assembly information. This novel application was tested in multiple construction sites on which it has helped to increase the productivity of managers and workers significantly.