A change in sequence designed to move handrail installation away from height and make edge protection part of the precast-panel installation methodology.
Sometimes improving safety is less about inventing a new product and more about moving a task to a better place.
On the Kuatro high-rise project, NON-DRILL Director Paul Breen noticed handrails being fitted to precast panels from a manbox after the panels had already been lifted into position.
It worked. But it was slow, labour-intensive and required the handrail installation itself to take place at height.
Paul proposed changing the sequence.
Instead of waiting until the panel was standing, the precast manufacturer would incorporate two additional anchors positioned outside the lifting anchors. That meant the NON-DRILL edge protection could be installed while the panel was still on the delivery truck without interfering with the lifting chains.
The panel could then be lifted with the protection already fitted.
Don't optimise a poor sequence. Change it.
Construction teams spend enormous effort improving productivity. But sometimes the biggest improvement does not come from making an existing task faster.
It comes from asking whether the task needs to happen in that location at all. Installing a handrail more efficiently from a manbox is one option. Installing it before the panel reaches height is a different way of thinking.
By considering the edge-protection connection during precast planning, the project could move the work to a more controlled location and make the protection part of the panel installation sequence.
That is why NON-DRILL keeps coming back to the same question: When will the edge become exposed, and can the protection be there first?
For precast construction, that conversation belongs with the panel design, lifting methodology and temporary-works planning. Not after the panel is already standing.
Planning a high-rise precast project? Talk to NON-DRILL about whether the edge protection can be fitted before the panel reaches height.