Hilti’s North American Marketing Director Thibaud Lefebvre has begun 2023 with a move to the UK to take up senior leadership positions in the company’s GB and E1 (Northern European) regions, now sitting as GB vice president and a member of the E1 leadership team covering GB, Ireland, Finland, Sweden
Leading holiday homes manufacturer Victory Leisure Homes has announced a unique new partnership with market-leading systems, software, services and manufacturing equipment specialists Hilti. The partnership has seen Victory implement an advanced asset management system across the business that is bespoke to its exact needs. An innovative collaboration, Victory is the only holiday home
The British Board of Agrément, the UK’s first appointed UK Technical Assessment Body, recently issued the first UK Technical Assessment to Hilti Corporation, a multi-national company that develops, manufactures and markets products for the construc-tion, building maintenance, energy and manufacturing industries. Confirmed recently by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing
Musculoskeletal Injuries in Construction Health and safety is a key priority for today’s businesses and employees. Although the majority of people working in the construction industry care about health and safety and are diligent in their work, the construction industry remains one of the most dangerous sectors to work in
Hilti’s North American Marketing Director Thibaud Lefebvre has begun 2023 with a move to the UK to take up senior leadership positions in the company’s GB and E1 (Northern European) regions, now sitting as GB vice president and a member of the E1 leadership team covering GB, Ireland, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. Beginning his career with Hilti back in 2001 in his native France, Lefebvre worked in various sales roles before relocating to Spain in 2012 as a sales director for the south of Spain and Canary Islands. He joined Hilti Canada in 2018 as sales director for the largest division in Hilti North America, going on to lead the business unit for tool services and software in 2020 as marketing director and member of the North America marketing leadership team. His responsibilities included the tool repair network, warranty and service concepts as well as Hilti’s software and internet of things (IoT) business in the region. Lefebvre’s move to Hilti GB sees him sit alongside long-standing sales director and fellow VP Gareth Prosser. A passionate advocate of digitisation across the industry, Lefebvre’s position will be heavily focused on modernisation for Hilti’s customers via technology. He commented: “Productivity in construction lags behind other sectors, and has stagnated for over 20 years as a result. Construction is one of the least digitised sectors, but this means there is huge opportunity. The construction sector can make significant gains in productivity and thus profitability by embracing the advantages of new technologies, IoT and digitalisation. As an example, our customers have tried many things to manage, optimise and track small tools and equipment, but it’s still one of the biggest challenges they face today. Our research shows that each jobsite loses on average 2 days per month of productivity due to workers searching for tools, or not having the right performing tools. I strongly believe we can make construction better, and we, at Hilti, deliver productive solutions, software and services to make it so. We have what is needed to become the best productivity partner of our customers.”
Leading holiday homes manufacturer Victory Leisure Homes has announced a unique new partnership with market-leading systems, software, services and manufacturing equipment specialists Hilti. The partnership has seen Victory implement an advanced asset management system across the business that is bespoke to its exact needs. An innovative collaboration, Victory is the only holiday home manufacturer to use Hilti’s management system in this way. Enabling Victory to manage vital components across its Hull and East Yorkshire sites, Hilti’s ON!Track asset management system uses data matrix codes and Bluetooth technology to track and manage tools, equipment and materials via a cloud software platform. The unique collaboration significantly reduces timescales across all aspects of the manufacturing process, with ON!Track saving Victory up to 6,000 hours per year. As part of the partnership Victory also benefits from Hilti’s all-inclusive fleet contract, which gives access to unlimited manufacturing support and maintenance, and significantly shorter lead times to receive new tools, alongside the option to upgrade Hilti’s top-of-the-range fleet every three years. Mark Hewitt, director of operations at Victory Leisure Homes, said: “As a company that prides itself on challenging the norm and turning traditional processes on their head, we were eager to make the most of Hilti’s market-leading ON!Track technology to create the most efficient and productive system possible for our team. “As well as providing workers with the very best tools for the job, the partnership streamlines the manufacturing process and allows the team to have complete visibility on everything they need with one touch of a button. “Our decision to partner with Hilti came after trialling its system for six months. We place a great deal of value on the views of our workforce and their feedback on the trial was extremely positive.” The new system also allows Victory to help efficiently support its 45001:2018 accreditation in Occupational Health and Safety and ensure its sites remain compliant, safe, and productive. In addition, management can run automated reports on the status of all units within seconds, reducing downtime and substantially decreasing paperwork. Sebastiaan Groenhuijsen, head of product management for Northern Europe at Hilti, added: “It’s always great when businesses use our ON!Track asset management system in new and innovative ways. By tagging its large catalogue of holiday homes, Victory has used out-of-the-box thinking to tailor ON!Track to the business – which we hope will inspire others to do the same. We look forward to continuing this partnership with Victory and our future collaborations.” Other benefits of the partnership include regular tools servicing to ensure all tools are fit for use and remain within the vibration levels for the user.
The British Board of Agrément, the UK’s first appointed UK Technical Assessment Body, recently issued the first UK Technical Assessment to Hilti Corporation, a multi-national company that develops, manufactures and markets products for the construc-tion, building maintenance, energy and manufacturing industries. Confirmed recently by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), approval was granted to the BBA to roll out the issuing of UK Technical As-sessments; in support of UKCA Marking. While UKTAs are not mandatory, UKTAs will be an important channel for manufactur-ers to achieve the industry expected UKCA Marking. Rickard Bergeryd, Structural Codes & Approvals Manager/ Anchor Expert and Olga Katsanova, PLS Manager BA Fastening & Protection from Hilti Northern Europe said, “Being awarded the first UKTA certification by the BBA makes us very proud and fur-ther strengthening our market leading position providing high quality technical prod-ucts and services to the UK market. This also contributes to a higher level of Safety and accuracy of our products and upholds our commitment to supporting the industry in building a better future.” John Albon, BBA’s Chief Scientific Officer, said, “We are delighted to be able to issue Hilti with their UKTA certificate. This is a big step forward in supporting our clients and the industry in getting ready for the upcoming CE to UKCA transition, enabling the BBA to respond quickly to client demands due to pressures on them to future proof their businesses”.
Musculoskeletal Injuries in Construction Health and safety is a key priority for today’s businesses and employees. Although the majority of people working in the construction industry care about health and safety and are diligent in their work, the construction industry remains one of the most dangerous sectors to work in when it comes to musculoskeletal injuries.1 According to statistics from the UK government agency, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), there were 498,000 workers reported to be suffering from work-related musculoskeletal injuries in 2018/19 with 41% of these injuries relating to upper limbs and neck.2 Altogether, HSE reports that 8.9 million working days were lost due to work-related musculoskeletal injuries in 2019/20.3 Overhead Work: A Major Risk Factor Musculoskeletal injuries develop when biomechanical demands, such as extreme postures, repeatedly exceed the worker’s physical capacity during construction work. In this regard, overhead work has been identified as a major risk factor for this type of injury in the shoulder region. Working with the arms raised over 90° for more than 10% of a worker’s working hours increases the risk of work-related musculoskeletal injuries in the shoulder region by one to two thirds.4 Support is Needed Overhead work remains a very common part of construction work today. And despite growing automation, numerous strenuous tasks cannot be fully automated, at all or at a reasonable cost. One solution to physically relieve workers while keeping them in control of the task is to assist them with an exoskeleton. An exoskeleton is a wearable system that provides physical assistance to its user through assistive torques and/or structural support. As the system is worn on the body and follows the user’s movements, no – or very limited – modifications of the workplace are required. Exoskeletons are drawing great interest from the industry to help alleviate some of the issues caused by overhead construction work. Hilti Exoskeleton: Addressing Productivity and Increased Demand xoskeletons are designed to enhance productivity by reducing stress on the body, causing less pain and fatigue due to a reduced load on muscles and joints. This reduced stress and increased comfort when working enables workers to improve their health and reduce the amount of sick days they take, provided that they still take the required rest breaks for physical and mental wellbeing. Tests have proved the effectiveness of the exoskeleton in terms of reducing stress on a worker’s muscles and joints, to improve the health of a worker and minimise days lost through ill health. By being able to retain skilled workers for longer periods of time due to less employee sick days, construction companies can utilise exoskeletons to improve operations twofold by improving employee wellbeing and increasing on-site productivity. Read the MRI Report here > References: HSE, Construction Statistics in Great Britain, 2020 HSE, Health and Safety at Work: Summary Statistics for Great Britain, 2019 HSE, Work related musculoskeletal disorder statistics (WRMSDs) in Great Britain, 2020 Grieve J, Dickerson C., Overhead work: Identification of Evidence-based Exposure Guidelines. Occupational Ergonomics, 2008; 1: 53-66
