Flexible security cuts costs at construction sites in Denmark

Security solutions and process planning can cut a construction company’s building costs by as much as 12 percent, according to FM Bygningsdrift, a Danish consulting firm that specializes in establishing, optimizing and managing construction sites in a safe and efficient way.

Among other things, the company designs entrances and exits, access systems and security levels throughout the project to optimize the work flow at the site. “The logistics of a construction site are extremely challenging with complex flows of goods and people, precise time management, various levels of security and an overall and constant safety aspect,” explains FM Bygningsdrift’s Business Development Director, Ole Stensbjerg.

“In many ways it is similar to an airport, where you have your slot. Work must not ever stop – an interruption is extremely costly. To replace missing goods or even machines is painful, but nothing compared to the cost of delays.”

Stensbjerg, whose company works with international construction companies clients as Skanska and NCC as well as with smaller companies on individual projects, says that when his company is brought in at an early stage it can optimize the construction period itself and help its clients cut costs substantially.

“Security should also be scheduled in from the very beginning of the project,” he says. “For example, the access control system: the site should be divided into zones at various periods of the construction and construction workers should have different access right at different times, and though carefully planned it requires an hourly flexibility. That is a particular challenge that Dansikring (Securitas’s brand in Denmark) has solved with a system that is partially mobile that suits this industry very well.

To illustrate, Stensbjerg draws a quick map of an imaginary construction site on the whiteboard and points out the soft spots: “The goods reception areas are vital: Can trucks come in and offload without hindering traffic or interrupting work? Will someone account for the goods and do we know what it is worth? Who will take responsibility of the goods on site? Take a truckload of toilets delivered to a construction site for example – normally it would just be offloaded on site, with little supervision, though it represents a huge value on the black market. However, once mounted inside the building, it is no longer the immediate subject to potential theft. Different risk levels at different times.”

For Stensbjerg and his colleagues, security is an integral part of the construction process but not something they do themselves. “We all know we need to increase the level of security at construction sites, but the standards in this business are too low. I have seen too many examples where companies hire a local mom-and-pop shop and their idea of security is to walk the dog past the construction site in the evening.

“When we have a choice, I prefer to work with Dansikring. I have worked with them on a number of large projects and together we are getting better and better. And our ambitions are getting higher! Dansikring’s flexibility is important, but what I appreciate the most is their determination to make a difference and to create something new.”

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