GiveMePower help McDonalds public safety

GiveMePower's PowerCAD SiteMaster software allowed CAD Limited to produce more than 300 digital plans in record time to assist McDonald's meet new licensing laws.

A new case study by "CAD User" magazine reveals how GiveMePower Corporation's new PowerCAD SiteMaster software and Leica Geosystem's DISTO Plus Bluetooth wireless laser allowed UK-based CAD Limited to assist McDonald's save tremendous amounts of time and money, and to meet strict new government licensing deadlines enacted to enhance public safety and security in the UK.

Detailed by David Chadwick in the July/August 2005 issue of "CAD User" magazine, every company in the UK that provides food and drink beyond 11pm in the evening must now have a digital copy of its building plans registered with the local planning department to support the new licensing requirements.

Failure to do so within very tight time frames will result in an immediate revocation of the old licence, and the need to submit a fresh planning application.

An immense and onerous task for the many thousands of eateries and pubs that must conform to the new laws, and who precious few have up-to-date digital floor plans, the reasoning behind the new licensing laws are quite sensible.

In the event of a major incident at any of these establishments, the instant availability of detailed layouts of the premises will be invaluable to fire and other emergency services.

The ultimate aim is to provide digital plans on handheld computers or in the cabs of fire trucks and emergency vehicles, so that rescue teams can plot their way into a building while still on their way to it.

Some American response teams are even considering personal displays inside their headgear.

All an outcome of 9/11, where it is reputed that paper plans were being rushed to the towers while firemen where attempting to enter the building.

Quicker off the mark than most was McDonald's, the world's largest foodservice retailer, who have 300 directly owned outlets in the UK and a large number of franchises.

The possibility that that they could lose licenses in some of their premises would make a considerable impact on their income.

The problem was that McDonald's were quoted 3 man days from architect/surveyor combinations to measure each outlet and produce the requisite drawings - a couple of people taking a day to do the measuring, and one person an extra day to convert them to digital drawings.

Fortunately McDonald's didn't take that route - instead talking to Michael Axon, managing director of CAD Limited, a UK-based consulting firm who was able to do the same job much quicker, cheaper and safer using precise measurements from a Leica Geosystems DISTO Plus portable laser, fed data directly into a panel computer loaded with GiveMePower's PowerCAD SiteMaster software.

Using this revolutionary system, CAD Limited sped the production of precise, AutoCAD-compatible building surveys for McDonald's using single person crews to produce accurate digital floor plans for each of more than 300 outlets in an average time of 4 to 6 hours, versus the 3-person and 3 man-days previously quoted.

This dramatic improvement in surveying time and cost came in spite of additional details within the restaurants that had to be included to assist firemen unraveling their hoses within the premises - 90% of the tables and chairs inside the public areas are bolted down.

Perhaps just as impressive, CAD Limited was able to email drawings back to McDonald's lawyer's offices directly from the site using Bluetooth-based email technology.

The data was even capable of being emailed back to CAD Limited offices, and fed into their 3D modeling software to produce an accurate 3D model of the outlet within minutes of receipt.

Conclusion? Time saved by using the services of firms like CAD Limited: considerable.

Money lost by UK companies missing the August 6th, and ultimately the 24th of November deadlines: also considerable.

Opportunity for companies to update their working practices to leverage the benefits of using GiveMePower's laser-based technologies: tremendous! PowerCAD SiteMaster is part of GiveMePower's complete family of CAD Anywhere 2D and 3D design, viewing and mobile/wireless collaboration solutions - each uniquely designed to save time and money in the office, in the field or on the shop floor.

In addition to McDonald's and CAD Limited, other users benefiting from GiveMePower technologies include small and medium size businesses, to major corporate and government enterprises such as; AT and T, General Dynamics, Maytag, Penn State University, the United States Postal Service and multiple branches of the U.S.

Military.

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