8 | MAY 2019
News
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
Staying alive: whilst working at height Retirement village benefits from
everything Optima has to offer
On Tuesday 26th Feb-
ruary the All-Party Parlia-
mentary Group on Working
at Height published its
report into serious injuries
and fatalities of employees
whilst working at height.
The Group took verbal and
written evidence and the
Glass and Glazing Federa-
tion (GGF) played its part
in this Consultation. The
Report revealed some stark
figures showing that the
UK has 0.55 fatalities per
100,000 employees.
The Report highlighted
that more needs to be done
to improve the safety cul-
ture in organisations where
working at height is normal
practice. Paul Blanchard,
who is a champion for
change, spoke passionately
about his experiences. Paul
had been a building con-
tractor for over 20 years but
fell from a height of 12 feet
resulting in three months
in a coma and nine months
in hospital. He now regu-
larly shares his experience
of life as a wheelchair user
and how it impacts on his
family.
https://www.ggf.org.uk/
publications/health-
and-safety-publications/
code-practice-working-
heights-domestic-
replacement-window-
industry/
Profile 22’s Optima
windows were chosen for
the refurbishment of two
tower blocks and the con-
struction of a new low rise
apartment block to create
224 one- and two-bedroom
independent living apart-
ments in Nottingham.
Longstanding Profile 22
Approved Window Con-
tractor Select Windows is
an award-winning fami-
ly-owned company based in
Walsall in the West Mid-
lands.
The contract required
the fabrication of windows
and doors for 224 one- and
two-bedroom independ-
ent living apartments. The
installation work consist-
ed of two elements. The
first was the replacement
of windows on two tower
https://www.ggf.org.uk/
publications/health-and-
safety-publications/
working-at-height-safely-
with-ladders/
blocks – Winchester Court
and Woodthorpe Court –
that have been part of the
Nottingham skyline for
decades as part of a wider
refurbishment project that
also included full external
wall rendering and internal
upgrades to the heating
system. The second was the
installation of new windows
and doors on a low rise
apartment building being
constructed on the same site
as the tower blocks as part
of the project.
The end result has trans-
formed the Nottingham
skyline and created high
quality independent living
apartments.
www.profile22.co.uk
FROM ASPIRATIONAL TO ESSENTIAL
Greg Beachim of First Degree Systems looks back at his
first PC, the early beginnings of the internet (for him), and
how software is helping shape the future of fenestration.
Going back longer than I
wish to admit, a computer in a
window factory was practically
unheard of. It was, for the bet-
ter part, something that was for
the aspiring college campus; not
something that could be found
littering the desk of a fabricator.
With the advent of Microsoft
Windows 95 all things changed,
and the SoHo style of PCs start-
ed to come into play. I for one
remember dragging home a box
the size of a small tower block
and setting it up for the first time;
eager to witness the glorious offer-
ings that the latter half of the 90s
offered those who were prepared
to part with a considerable sum of
money.
The internet was something that
was also a rarity and relied on a
56k modem to coax it to life with
a 1MB data file taking about 45
minutes to download. Software
came in a package the size of a
washing powder box, filled with
20 or so floppy disks that would
take hours to clunk their way onto
your prized possession.
Having started in fabrication in
my late teens, getting my hands
on a PC for the first time to pro-
cess windows was a revelation.
Going from a manual calculation
on a paper-driven system that was
fraught with the risk of errors to
an almost magical white box that
took seconds to process what
would normally take hours of hard
drudge really was a complete 360.
This however is where to this day
a large proportion of both retailers
and fabricators are.
Paper-driven systems and
spreadsheets - although simple
- are costly to the extreme. They
are laborious, which costs more
money in manpower alone, than
typical software-driven systems.
For a retailer (as an example)
securing an order generates reams
of paper all that has to be housed,
copied, reviewed, stored and re-
trieved manually.
Would you look manually carry
products to the customer? Of
course not. You have a van, a tool
for the job. You purchase a prod-
uct designed especially for the job.
So, isn’t it time to let go of the
paper too?
Let’s follow a typical sale to man-
ufacture process – the sales person
fills in a form manually sometimes
in triplicate that is based on an
out-of-date price matrix that is
offering the wrong products. This
is then sent to the customer to
agree and await the forms return.
Once agreed it gets passed to a
surveyor to re-draw, and sent into
the administration office to be
written up again to send to order.
At this point the fabricator has to
manually process those products
again before printing another ream
of paper to pass the products to
manufacture where the paper gets
lost discarded.
The world has moved on, and
so has fenestration software. No
longer is it just a tool to do a spe-
cific task; it’s a system, an end-to-
end electronic superhighway that
allows businesses now to optimise
so much of what they do reduce
overheads and keep ahead of the
competition. From that very first
encounter with the end user, right
the way through the sales pipeline
on to survey and manufacture and
delivery, there are now software
systems that can do this and the
First Degree Group leads the mar-
ket in this sector.
Sales teams can now be live
with up to date prices and prod-
uct information delivering an
unrivalled customer experience.
Capturing customer agreements
live and being able to pass these
electronic documents back to the
administration team. Imagine
a world where going from sale
to survey to being able to order
product for manufacture took mo-
ments rather than days. Imagine
the ability to electronically order
products for fabrication without
reprocessing by yourself or the
fabricator. The saving in mistakes
alone is considerable for most
businesses.
www.first-degree-systems.com