Machine control and Panasonic TOUGHBOOK are perfect partners on the construction site

In 2021, the company Søndergaard Salg &anlæg initiated a development project at Stige in Odense. Before the first stone for the construction was laid, roads, connections to the sewer network and pipes for electricity, water and heat must be established.

Previously, this was done with the help of manual measurements and the following excavation work. A complicated task that could easily result in mistakes – especially when it came to large projects with several different contractors and many excavators at work.

Today, the industry has been modernized and digitalised, machine control and rugged tablets have taken over. This is the case in Stige, where entrepreneur Frederik Søndergaard from Søndergaard Salg & Anlæg has largely experienced the benefits of the interaction between the Makin machine control software and Panasonic TOUGHBOOK A3 devices, which are manufactured specifically for the toughest working environments.

"We use machine control to constantly identify where we are on the construction site and where we need to dig. We don't need to use sticks in the ground to mark out where the lines should be located. Instead, all the information is available on the tablet. It's easy to scroll through the entire project and to prepare for the next task. It is convenient because I can prepare from home without the excavator being physically present on the construction site. It really makes life a lot easier," concludes Frederik Søndergaard.

Sten Kristensen, Chief Growth Officer at Makin, is also full of praise for the collaboration with Panasonic: "This is a project that is 100% digitalised. Machine control tells the operator exactly where to dig, instead of being reliant on manual measurements and physical drawings. Although the solution is super advanced, it is also very easy to work with and very precise in its results. Machine control and TOUGHBOOK devices are created to interact in this way," he says, adding that the advantage gets greater the more excavators involved in a construction project. This is because all work is continuously archived digitally, ensuring an always updated overview.

Panasonic TOUGHBOOK A3 is specifically designed for tough work environments. This is reflected, among other things, in the fact that the device is water and dust proof and can withstand a fall of up to 1.5 meters. The TOUGHBOOK A3 has an extraordinarily long battery life and provides good viewing in all light and weather conditions and withstands the vibrations that occur in an excavator. Makin has been a partner of Panasonic TOUGHBOOK for several years and offers market-leading machine control systems, where they have a long history – since 2004. They are established in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.