With nearly one million square feet of floor space covering eight locations, Dynamic Manufacturing needed a simple, comprehensive and intuitive way to manage security, access control and video. Now, from anywhere with an Internet connection, facility personnel can see all activity and assess alerts generated from multiple transmission manufacturing and repair facilities in Hillside and Melrose Park, Ill., from a single Cloud-hosted security management platform.
Integrated Security Specialists (ISSI) in Long Grove, Ill., has been the security solution provider to Dynamic for more than 10 years and currently provides intrusion, video verification and access control, including COVID-19 monitoring with Connect ONE, the Cloud-hosted system management platform by Connected Technologies. Family operated for more than six decades, Dynamic is an IATF 16949-certified operation and Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC)-certified business. The company was recognized by General Motors as 2019 Supplier of the Year, an award they have garnered some 21 times.
Addressing COVID-19 Concerns
With the pandemic an ongoing consideration for the safety of its workers, Dynamic wanted to require a temperature check where employees entered. Leveraging the Safe Passage Module, a feature of Connect ONE, users who fail to enter through the designated location are immediately flagged as such on their credential, indicating they have not used that entrance.
“Safe Passage allows us to ensure all employees are entering through one main entrance before any other area of the facility,” says Chad Richardson, director, environmental, health, safety & training, Dynamic. “This allows us to complete necessary COVID protocols and instill confidence that every employee is being effectively screened upon entry.”
Safe Passage provides a framework for a one-time, periodic self-approval process and can be customized to the user’s compliance regulations and workflows. A required checkpoint option means their approval is dependent on entering the premises via the designated area and passing an additional condition such as a temperature scan. If workers try to access a different door in the facility an access violation event is generated and managers are notified of the event via email, text or push notification.
Dynamic Security Project Manager Luke Szulczewski manages all services for the company. Along with administering approximately 400 credentials for employees with various specific access levels, he also implemented a feature that ties alarm zones to camera feeds from Exacq Technologies surveillance for video verification. Dynamic has approximately 700 alarm zones spread over the eight locations and 600 installed security cameras. Upon an alert, Szulczewski receives a text message and can access a photo of the event for immediate verification.
Dynamic utilizes the Connect ONE Cloud-hosted system management interface, which provides a bird’s-eye view of all its solutions across all locations. “The interface is convenient and consolidates information into the web-accessible interface, so the user can monitor locations and alerts in real-time and on the fly,” explains George Laegeler, founder and managing director of ISSI. “In addition, we needed to make sure we could control where employees were entering, and Safe Passage handles that aspect efficiently.”
Remote Cloud System Management
ISSI set up specific programming rules for each zone and cameras covering the premises through the Connect ONE Cloud. The use of video verification has helped Dynamic quickly assess alarms and ascertain if the alert is an actual issue requiring immediate response or a false alarm caused by rodents or small animals triggering building motion detectors.
“It’s nice to be able to see what the exact issue is. I’ve also set up daily reports and history recordkeeping that allow us to better manage the system,” Szulczewski explains, adding that he can arm, disarm and handle comprehensive system management remotely.
Currently he is working on converting users to HID Global photo identification card access, including warehouse workers who typically didn’t have card access. Once complete, there will be approximately 800 cards spread across the eight locations; Connect ONE offers the ability to “batch” or populate credentials easily from the interface instead of at each alarm control located throughout the facility.
With Connect ONE, the manufacturer can easily expand security at its facility and add other services as necessary. “I use the Connect ONE app on my iPhone often,” says Szulczewski. “It really simplifies managing all the alerts and statuses of the buildings. Each night I’m able to quickly check if buildings are armed as they should be and also get alerts when a building is not armed according to rules I’ve set.”
He continues, “I can also see if there are any exceptions such as zones in trouble on one screen in the interface. Connected Technologies also set up a feature that allows us to monitor certain doors to get alerts if they are open too long. This is great as we had an incident last winter where an overhead door was left open on a particularly frigid day.”
Szulczewski says the Cloud-hosted system allows him to automatically populate and batch access permissions for all users across all its 10 installed access panels. With this feature he can pick the access template and those parameters for the user are automatically sent to each panel to establish the appropriate access permissions.
“The biggest thing is the ability to take multiple locations, buildings and systems and bring them all together to manage from one interface. Alerts come directly to me and I can open the app on my phone to make sure the system is operational — with Connect ONE I see everything in one place.”
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