Batson-Cook Construction Upgrades Its Digital Tools to Enable Portability and Combat Heat

For over a century, Batson-Cook has specialized in general contracting, construction and design-build contracting throughout the southeast United States. Recognized as a premier construction organization, Batson-Cook is committed to quality work and project outcomes, made possible through top-notch digital tools.

For years, Batson-Cook used consumer-grade laptops and tablets on site. Over time, the company realized these devices weren’t up to their high standards — quickly running out of battery power, breaking when dropped, and overheating in the sun. The unreliability of these devices caused downtime, and high replacement costs hindered operational efficiency.

Unfortunately, the challenges didn’t stop there. The use of these systems also caused difficulty during the construction layout process — a component key to the successful foundation of a building. For example, if the base of the building is wrong — even by just a sixteenth of an inch — every step after will be incorrect and run the risk of a building that isn’t sound. Since workers were unable to bring their laptops into the field, they could not show and visualize measurement discrepancies between the markups on their laptops and on site. This posed a greater potential for measurement hiccups.

Aware that they needed a new digital solution to mitigate these challenges, Batson-Cook switched to the Panasonic TOUGHBOOK 33.

Working in the Heat Without Losing Data

Thanks to the TOUGHBOOK 33, Batson-Cook fulfilled its need for a heat- and sun-resistant device suitable for the field. Features like enhanced screen brightness and extreme heat certifications mean workers no longer need to find shady spots to view critical data points or run the risk of losing data from their devices overheating. Minimal battery life is also a thing of the past, thanks to the TOUGHBOOK 33, which can run up to 20 hours. Now, workers can go a whole shift without needing to charge.

The TOUGHBOOK 33 is also a game changer in the layout process. With the 2-in-1 functionality of the TOUGHBOOK 33, workers can detach the screen from the keyboard base so the device can be used as a tablet. This allows workers to share measurement data with supervisors right in the field to more accurately visualize and express key points.

Introducing the TOUGHBOOK 33 transformed workers’ daily lives. The combination of heat and sun resistance, with 2-in-1 portability, boosts efficiency throughout the organization to meet Batson-Cook’s standards of providing stellar construction quality.

For more information on why Batson-Cook chose the TOUGHBOOK 33, check out the full case study.