The leading manufacturer and installer of high quality PVC double glazed windows, Safestyle UK, has announced today that it has made an annual saving of half a million pounds by scrapping conventional s
caffolding systems.

The Bradford based company is reaping the financial benefits of improved efficiency and significant cost saving benefits since investing in 13 Lobo Systems.

 They can be configured to meet any access application from a NASA space shuttle to cleaning tapestries. It is put together without any tools and its unique, patented clamp provides a safe and secure working facility up to a maximum height of ten metres.

 Steve Birmingham, Safestyle UK managing director, comments: “We are delighted with the Lobo system: the product gives us far greater flexibility when working at height and above all it has saved us money in the long term!

 “Prior to using Lobo we sub-contracted all our work to conventional scaffold firms with our spend spiralling into 100’s of thousands of pounds a year.”

 The equipment is made in the EU and is available in kit forms or, to meet specific applications, Lobo engineers will design a bespoke system. The kit can be configured to meet any access application from the installation of windows to the maintenance of a space shuttle.

 “Given the state of the global economy, reducing capital and operational spending has become a priority for many companies,” highlighted Robert Bokros, Lobo Systems’ managing director.

 “Like Safestyle UK, many of the companies we have worked with have experienced their conventional scaffolding spend running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. Add to that the cost of paying a daily hire charge once the installed equipment is on site and the cost benefits of Lobo are easy to appreciate.

Facilities Managers can now adopt one access system which will meet all of there requirements.

In the past it would be necessary to have all kinds of systems and equipment for the many access issues that exist. This multi equipment approach has a number of associated problems; firstly cost, where you need to spend on a different system for each issue, especially if you have awkward access areas to reach.

The Lobo System offers the solution to this as it can be assembles to offer access in hundreds of different areas and is the best at awkward areas.

Simply by adding more Lobo components means you can scale the system to meet ongoing and future requirements.

Training is also an issue as you would need to ensure your entire staff have been trained on the various systems, this involves keeping several records and ensuring refresher courses are kept up to date.

With the Lobo Systems approach you have one product and you can simply add to it and you have one training course to worry about.

Access to awkward areas.	Excellent high tech environment applications	Renovation of treasured works of art
Clean Room Application	The product can successfully span the engine.	Helicopter Maintenance
The system can be built easily and quickly on staircases.	Window installation	Pay Back Period in 4 months!

We all appreciate that one of the most expensive overheads in your business walks on two legs and arrives every day at 9am and leaves at 5pm. I am of course talking about your labour costs.

So, when a product comes along that suggests it can save your labour costs and provide a more flexible way of working; it might just be worth investigating. Scaffolding is not normally a subject I would get exited about; however analysis of the data suggests this particular product requires deeper scrutiny.

I would have my knuckles wrapped by the manufacturer if I did not dispel immediately the image, which is conjured up by the word scaffolding. There are significant differences between scaffolding and the Lobo Work Platform System, the subject of this article. The differences are technical and commercial, hence the excitement.

Firstly we are unlikely to see this product on a building site, so can we dismiss straight away the concept of traditional scaffolding with heavy tubes and planks of timber. Think more of an adult’s version of Meccano that can be assembled without the need for any tools and is used by manufacturing companies for production and maintenance. Enough said about the product, let us look at the all important cost benefit that may very well save your company thousands of pounds.

The people at Lobo have supplied me countless incidents of companies who use the Lobo System in preference to calling in the expensive and inflexible scaffolding contractor. It needs to be said up front that the Lobo System is not the answer to all your scaffolding requirements, but certainly any internal, facilities, plant or machinery applications are a strong possibility.

On meeting the brains behind Lobo, great pains are taken to explain how it all works, citing that some of the largest companies on the planet have taken the plunge and now use the system. We all accept that the way data is presented can have different interpretations, but looking closely at the figures they do appear to stack up.

Lobo have documented a number of case studies that clearly show the cost saving advantages, which reveal impressive results with only a minimal investment. The customers studied are not all from the same sector and range from double-glazing installers to huge manufacturing multinationals. Whilst they come from a diverse industrial base, they all appear to have similar cost issues, which may be resolved by using a Lobo System.

BOEING,  MillerCoors AND SAINSBURYS

Lobo sights NASA, Boeing, Airbus, Miller Brewing, Anheuser Busch and Sainsburys as only some of their best known customers.

The actual use may differ due to the versatile nature of the product but the cost saving benefit applies to all.

All these companies and many more besides, have to employ externally based (outsourced) scaffolding companies.  They have to comply with the working at height regulations, sometimes for reasonably simple maintenance tasks.

This can be expensive, as it takes time to erect a system, which is where the cost is, and then it stays up for pre-agreed minimum rental time.

Often this can be a week or longer and costs more and more each day which may be counter productive. Lobo points out that their system can be assembled by anyone, who has been trained, quickly and easily and then packed away when not in use.

The additional benefit of having your own system is that it is available 7 days a week and deployed whenever you want, quicker that traditional scaffolding. The knock on effect could mean greater production uptime, with the obvious cost saving ramifications.

The case studies I looked at revealed a payback time of between 1 to 9 months with a capital spend of between 10% and 40% of the existing scaffolding budget, this only applies to the first year, as once you have made the investment it is plain sailing from the pay back date onwards.

Below are three worked examples of real companies

Chemical Plant

International Brewer

There are on going annual operational costs which amount to no more than 5%, but looking at the big picture these figures make impressive reading.

A conclusion can therefore be drawn on a cost saving basis alone.

It might be that you are able to cut your scaffolding costs in half or even reduce it down to zero. Big budget holders, for example oil and chemical companies, spend millions each year and may feel resigned to paying these huge sums year after year.

Now perhaps there is an alternative, where the cost benefit analysis adds up and your reliance on outsourced scaffolding companies can be reduced into the bargain!

Complex Shapes are easy

Any Shape or Size

10m or 30 Ft Tower Kit

 

If you are considering working at height then where else can you have a more critical working environment than flying either the NASA space shuttle or an RAF Tornado jet?

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 don’t actually feature either of these as the basis upon which the regulations were drawn up but both, ironically, are involved in a British invention that is designed to create a safe working environment when servicing them.

This regulation places onerous requirements on anyone who sends paid employees to work at a height "where a fall is liable to cause personal injury". A full risk assessment must be carried out before anyone is asked to work at height – that is now the law.  

We are not only talking about significant drops – accessing a light fitting to change a bulb clearly fits into the criteria because a fall is liable to cause personal injury. So you can now add as part of the solution to the question “how many people does it take to change a light bulb?” - the health and safety executive who carries out the risk assessment.

Ladders do not always provide the solution and indeed according to many sources they are often the cause of accidents.  In homes and gardens in Britain an average of 50 people die each year from falls off ladders – and a further 6000 require hospital treatment.   The situation in the work place is often potentially far more hazardous. 

Most parties agree that regulation to improve safety is a good thing.   The Work at Height Regulations are broadly welcomed.     The risk assessment needs to fulfil a number of basic criteria relating to the equipment that is being made available and from which the employee will be expected to carry out the work.

Drawing on the above, it is evident that safe and secure access to the place of work is a basic essential and stability at the given height is another. 

When the employers or employees reach the working height, are there sufficient safety rails on the platform to allow them to complete the tasks without leaning out dangerously?  Are kick-boards in place around the base of the working platform to prevent tools and equipment dropping down onto employees on the ground?   And finally is there sufficient lighting to be able to see the task in hand?   All this has to be written down and recorded properly.

In the event of an accident, failure to have complied with any of these aspects would be significantly damaging to the employer.

The traditional answer to many questions of access is traditional scaffolding or a scaffolding tower.   Providing it satisfies the risk assessment criteria it is the historical solution.  The problem with this however, is that normally it is provided by external sources.  If you face an equipment breakdown requiring access at height you need the solution immediately.   Short notice hiring is even more expensive than pre-planned and you might need it for something as inconsequential as changing a light bulb.

When it comes to servicing the NASA Shuttle and RAF Tornado jet fighters, the Work at Height regulations offer a constantly changing need.  Working on the Shuttle on the ground requires one set of criteria, whilst when attached to a space rocket it’s quite a different requirement. The nose cone of a Tornado is set at one height off the ground and reaching the top fin of the tail plane is an entirely different situation – and height.  

The solution to both of these – and many more – lies not with traditional scaffolding but with a modular system that, rather like adults meccano or erector set, can be expanded or reduced without the need for tools to meet the demand of the job.

You don’t have to be working in aerospace because regardless of your business, occasions will arise when you will be asking someone to work at height.