Yokogawa Bridge Implements MetaMoJi's 'eYACHO' Construction Management App to Boost Efficiency and Safety

The construction management app 'eYACHO', provided by MetaMoJi Corporation, has been implemented at Yokogawa Bridge Corp., contributing to the efficiency, labor saving, and improved safety management of on-site operations.

Through the implementation of eYACHO, combined with tablet usage, the company achieved a 7-8% reduction in work time. Additionally, they have realized unique risk assessment operations using the 'Safety AI Solution' (hereinafter referred to as 'Safety AI').

Background and Challenges

Yokogawa Bridge is a leading company in the bridge industry, handling everything from design, manufacturing, and installation to maintenance of bridges both domestically and internationally. In fiscal 2021, while exploring 'on-site work labor reduction using new technology,' the company sought to introduce a smart communication tool that would effectively utilize tablet devices. Under the conventional paper-based operation, considerable time and effort were spent on approvals through signatures, information sharing, and travel for meetings. Simply introducing tablet devices was insufficient to achieve significant business improvements, making the goal of a 10% reduction in work time difficult to attain.

Selection and Implementation Points of eYACHO

To achieve the goal of reducing on-site work time by 10%, the company decided to introduce eYACHO in April 2022. The reasons for selecting eYACHO included its 'Share Note' feature, which was expected to reduce the labor and time required for document circulation, information dissemination, and travel for meetings, as well as its high cost-effectiveness. In introducing the app, they achieved a smooth start by adopting the following procedures tailored to the actual conditions of the job site:

- Prioritizing introduction to sites that were positive about digitalization. - Digitizing daily-use forms, such as work instructions, first. - Leaving the digitization and operation of other forms to the judgment of on-site staff. - Building a system where back-office personnel support the digitization of paper forms.

Utilization of Safety AI

Having realized improved operational efficiency through the digitization of forms, the company proceeded to create and operate a proprietary risk assessment tool utilizing Safety AI. They incorporated past disaster data accumulated in-house and public data from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare into the Safety AI to use for risk extraction during the creation of work procedures and for confirming critical items during reviews. Additionally, it became possible to search for internal rules and notices related to extracted risks, leading to increased opportunities for field staff to see rules designed for their safety. This data is also used as supplementary material for the safety training of younger staff and subcontractors.

Implementation Results

### Digitization of Forms A wide variety of forms, including work procedures, safety and health inspection reports, construction plans, design documents, and daily management documents, have been digitized using eYACHO. Notably, 100% of work procedure manuals and safety/health inspection reports are now managed via eYACHO.

### Reduction in Work Time Synergistic effects with tablet usage have resulted in a reduction of an average of 35-40 minutes per person daily, equivalent to 7-8% of total daily work time.

### Improved Quality of Information Exchange Since documents can be shared from anywhere, information sharing has become smoother even for remote sites, leading to higher-quality information exchange.

### Increased Safety Awareness By using Safety AI, staff have more opportunities to face past disaster cases, enabling them to approach safety management through appropriate processes rather than relying on 'all's well that ends well' management.

Future Outlook

Yokogawa Bridge plans to continue pursuing further operational efficiency by considering methods to build servers for the joint operation of eYACHO among group companies.