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Milwaukee Tool's 'One Key' Aims to Bring Construction into the Digital Age

Rachel Wiesner
Northwestern Mutual construction

Major building and construction projects are going on across downtown Milwaukee, from the new Northwestern Mutual tower to the groundwork for theMilwaukee Streetcar. And ,there are even more projects on the horizon like the new Bucks basketball arena and the redesign of Grand Avenue Mall. 

Those construction projects come together quite a bit differently than many of the century-old homes and office buildings around the city, which required a lot of improvisation.

New construction projects require standardization.

Wisconsin-based company Milwaukee Tool has developed a new system called One Key, which aims to make standardizing job sites easier. 

"We started looking at the process of, 'how can we use electronics in our tools and some simple software solutions to offer a much better experience for a user around the field of tool management?,'" says Steve Matson, product manager for Milwaukee Tool. "In some cases that means connecting to a tool and changing some settings, in other cases it's as simple as, when you buy something saving your receipt and a proof of purchase with the product that you got."