Bechtel is one of the most respected global engineering, construction and project management companies. With their customers, they deliver landmark projects that create long-term progress and economic growth. Since 1898, the number of extraordinary projects completed by the company is now more that 25,000 - in 160 countries and on all seven continents. Bechtel maintains its leadership position by relying on the hallmark values of excellence and integrity. Meaning success is evaluated by operating at the highest ethical standards, and measured by the enduring quality of Bechtel projects.
Completing projects in 160 different countries speaks to Bechtel being a truly global organization. The sheer scale of many of the projects requires the local skilled labor market's involvement to get the job done, which more often than not, includes crane operators. As load handling activities are inherently among the highest risk construction and maintenance tasks on the work site, the number of qualified crane operators available is key to meeting important deadlines. Most projects do not have an asset like a mobile crane available to assess the skills of applicants, and for an organization like Bechtel, finding out an employee's skills are not what they claim to be in the middle of a project just is not an option. According to Chief Rigging Engineer, J. Keith Anderson, "Historically, we have not conducted practical assessments at hiring offices. We have assessed the operators on arrival or have tried to assess remotely on whatever cranes are available, which is clearly not always representative to the true skill level."
As a company that embraces innovation as a driver of continuous improvement, Bechtel has researched potential solutions to improve the process of verifying an operator's skill level before they arrive at a project site. As Anderson notes, "It has been such a shame to fly operators around the world, only to hand them a shovel in the end."
Equipment simulators were part of that research, but in the worlds of Anderson, "To date, simulators have been costly, not very realistic in how they look or how they react, have been bulky and difficult to mobilize."
Enter ITI VR Simulations.
By leveraging VR technology, the ITI Desktop VR Mobile Crane Simulator is able to create a total immersive experience that checks off all the boxes for Bechtel: