Month: November 2021

Construction Services

Construction Data: How to Make it Valuable & Accessible to AECO Stakeholders

Gerri Nielson

The construction industry isn’t short on data. In fact, every project creates massive amounts of construction data from design and planning to turnover and beyond. Yet one of the most significant challenges faced by stakeholders is accessibility to the most important data right when it’s needed. This step is critical to uncovering insights and powering better decision-making. 

So how do we make critical project data accessible through the entire AEC lifecycle to the teams and individuals who need it most? Lauren Collier, Business Leader Project Technology/VDC at SSOE Group, and Sunny Manku, Technical Solutions Executive at Autodesk explore this very question in the Autodesk University 2021 session, Data in the AEC Lifecycle: Using Data to Better Connect AECO Stakeholders

We’ve gathered highlights from their session, including why a data initiative—and subsequently a unified platform—is paramount, the benefits of gathering data throughout the project lifecycle, how to best prepare your firm to succeed at data analysis, and more. Let’s explore their recommendations for making the most of data through the entire AEC lifecycle. 

 

1. Understand the need for a unified platform

To make data accessible and meaningful to decision-makers, you first must understand the value of capturing project data in a unified platform. 

For starters, what is a “unified platform”? A unified platform connects people, data, and workflows together throughout each stage of the project lifecycle for comprehensive construction project management. 

The next question: What makes a unified platform so powerful? It’s the technology that connects with and moves your strategy forward. As Lauren explains, “ Technology shouldn’t just be the driving force to your strategy. Technology should be that accelerator. It’s that integrator. It’s the glue that allows you to really get your strategic initiatives done.”

“Technology shouldn’t just be the driving force to your strategy. Technology should be that accelerator.”

Lauren Collier, Business Leader Project Technology/VDC, SSOE Group

A unified platform also provides a single source of truth to rely on. Often referred to as a common data environment (CDE), this isn’t merely a list of APIs connected to a SaaS solution. Instead, it’s a type of construction management software that provides access to data and tools that designers, engineers, and builders need. Furthermore, a unified platform enables third parties and customers to create and share their own purpose-built solutions whenever, wherever, and however they need. 

When data lives in one place, you have the ability to break it down across design, planning, building, and operating. As Sunny puts it, this opens up “an opportunity for all stakeholders, regardless of what they’re doing in the project, to be able to collaborate effectively in one place.” Stakeholders not only have the confidence that data is living in one place, but they can also pay attention to version controls and review past decisions made on the project in earlier stages. 

A unified platform should play an active role in coordinating how products work together, rather than just allowing you to exchange data with other applications. The data exchanged must flow seamlessly and bidirectionally across all capabilities within the platform. By doing so, users receive a productive, intuitive experience that drives much more effective workflows. 

 

2. Connect costs and schedules to project data

Cost certainty is an important part of setting expectations and delivering a great project outcome. By picking the right unified platform, you’ll find budgets are easier to manage because you’re more effectively connecting cost activities to schedule with real-time project data. When you stay on schedule and within budget, it’s no surprise that customers are happier and open to working together on more projects.

In addition, maintaining budgets and schedules is critical to maximizing profit margins. However, the construction industry is no stranger to delays, rework, and blown budgets. A recent Dodge Data & Analytics research report revealed that 66% of general contractors are carrying added costs from overtime shifts on at least three-quarters of their projects due to schedule slippage, with 50% of them needing to extend the project end date. Bad construction data is at least partly to blame for these statistics and adds up to $1.85 trillion in cost impacts to the industry globally. 

Construction data and technology both play major roles in maintaining budgets, schedules, and customer satisfaction.

Construction firms need a solid data strategy to overcome the impacts of bad data. In the Harnessing the Data Advantage in Construction report from Autodesk and FMI, proper data management is identified as being a significant competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced market. You can download the report for free to discover actionable steps for implementing a data strategy and access the useful checklist with the most most important steps.

Construction data and technology both play major roles in maintaining budgets, schedules, and customer satisfaction. Lauren elaborates on how data management fits into SSOE’s efforts, “We are more successful in our design effort and our value proposition to the client if we can coordinate that design, construction, and execution with no surprises. That’s really why [our] data initiative became very important to us.” This level of accessibility and coordination must be available at all phases of the construction lifecycle: designing, planning, building, and operating. 

To help avoid unwelcome surprises, the Schedule tool in Autodesk Build is worth checking out. This tool allows teams to collaborate, connect, and integrate with the most up-to-date schedule. Everyone has access to real-time information around the master schedule data in the field to work together seamlessly and efficiently. All of which helps prevent cost overruns due to schedule disruptions.

 

3. Unlock the potential for data analysis

Of course, one of the main benefits of a good data management strategy is a more confident analysis of the numbers, which leads to smarter decisions. SSOE uses Autodesk Construction Cloud products to provide greater context for all stakeholders and increase collaboration between design and construction. Hence, why Lauren is presenting on this popular topic.

Her team worked to better understand the potential for analysis through data architecture mapping. This exercise made the team realize they wanted to measure key performance indicators by connecting and consuming data. To do so, they decided to bring their data into a single source of truth through investment in Autodesk’s unified platform. This initiative also reflects SSOE’s commitment to respect in the workplace by fostering a culture of personal accountability. 

For SSOE, increasing respect and accountability is about reducing waste and increasing collaboration. “It allows for the whole team to kind of come together. It’s not these wasteful silos [sic] anymore,” explains Lauren, “It really is, ‘this is the place I go. This is the place I can consume information. This is the place I communicate. And this is the place that I report out.’”

 

4. Identify infrastructure and talent needs for full-lifecycle data management

Ultimately, making construction data accessible to AECO stakeholders really comes down to simplification. Firms often have multiple, complex systems producing and storing data. These systems may run effectively in the background but impede collaboration and analysis through their lack of connectivity, and thus a lack of practical usability. To better prepare your infrastructure for lifecycle data analysis success, Lauren recommends being selective about the tools and integrations you select to keep your tech stack simple and efficient.

From there, bring your internal and client resources into the picture. SSOE has leveraged its internal technology staff as well as clients in the digitization process. “Our clients have been very informative in this digitization process because there’s data they want to consume downstream. The easier that we can make that data easily accessible to them, we become a more valued partner.”

As you work with internal and external resources, consider which data skills you’ll need to prioritize. Having a strategy for upskilling your workforce will help to get more out of data and foster a more data-driven culture. For insights into what roles construction leaders expect to grow in importance,  this article sheds some light

 

Want to learn more? 

The most effective construction software platforms quickly and easily connect decision-makers to the data they need the most, when and where they need it. A unified platform is the first and most crucial step to data accessibility across the entire AECO lifecycle. From there, you can increase your results by implementing a data management strategy and encouraging your firm to analyze data by preparing your infrastructure and talent. 

If you need help finding the right unified platform, our team would be happy to help you unpack that. You can contact us here

 

The post Construction Data: How to Make it Valuable & Accessible to AECO Stakeholders appeared first on Digital Builder.

Construction Blogs

Top 10 Construction Companies in the U.S.

Gerri Nielson

How the Biggest Construction Companies in the U.S. Are Building Our Cities & Workforce

As the U.S. works to bounce back from the pandemic, top construction companies are helping lead the way to recovery. Across the industry, you can feel the momentum in resilience, creativity, and the human spirit for problem-solving.

While spending has seen fluctuation lately, it’s expected to rise over the next several years. In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, national construction spending is expected to exceed $1.55 trillion in 2021. That’s a 7.5% increase from 2020. Of that $1.55 trillion, $1.2 trillion is expected to go to the private sector, with much of the remaining funds addressing public needs. With the passing of a major Infrastructure Deal, official construction spending estimates may change. The deal is expected to generate about two million jobs per year, for the next ten years, with an emphasis on America’s physical infrastructure.

So, who are the largest construction companies leading the way? We’ve created a SlideShare of the top 10 construction companies in the U.S. to answer that exact question. Our list is composed of companies ranking on ENR’s Top 400 Contractors list. On the SlideShare you’ll find information about each company’s location, revenue, employees and year founded. Flip through below, then continue reading to discover insights about how a few of these top companies, and more, tackle some of the most common construction challenges. 

Top 10 Construction Companies in the U.S. 

10 of the Largest Construction Firms in the U.S.

Here are the top 10 construction companies in the United States as listed above in our SlideShare. 

1. The Turner Corp

Location: New York, NYEmployees: 10,000Revenue: $11.77 billionFounded: 1902

2. Bechtel

Location: Reston, VAEmployees: 55,000Revenue: $17.6 billionFounded: 1906

3. Fluor

Location: Irving, TXEmployees: 53,000Revenue: $19.166 billionFounded: 1912

4. Kiewit Corp

Location: Omaha, NEEmployees: 22,000Revenue: $10.3 billionFounded: 1884

5. The Whiting-Turner Contractin Co

Location: Baltimore, MDEmployees: 3,800Revenue: $6.2 billionFounded: 1909

6. Sto Building Group Inc

Location: New York, NYEmployees: 2,200Revenue: $4.9 billionFounded: 1971

7. Tutor Perini Corp

Location: Sylmar, CAEmployees: 10,000Revenue: $4.76 billionFounded: 1894

8. AECOM

Location: Los Angeles, CAEmployees: 54,000Revenue: $13.24 billionFounded: 1990

9. Skanska USA

Location: New York, NYEmployees: 7,600Revenue: $6.5 billionFounded: 1971

10. DPR Construction

Location: Redwood City, CAEmployees: 5,900Revenue: $5.94 billionFounded: 1990

How Top Construction Companies Approach 3 Common Challenges

Of course, with opportunity comes new obstacles. If you’re adept in problem solving, the following obstacles are exciting challenges that can give you a competitive edge if tactfully approached. For a better understanding of how you can approach three very common challenges in construction, we’ve provided examples of how top firms have succeeded in solving these problems.

1. Complex projects with tight deadlines

As technology improves, expectations rise as well. Highly technical projects require significant resource planning, forecasting, and attention to detail. Add in tight turnaround times and the obstacles only increase. Gilbane Building Company, ranked #11 on 2021’s ENR400, is one of the construction companies tackling challenges like this one head-on. 

The Rhode Island-based firm constructed a state-of-the-art engineering lab and academic facility for students at the Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT) in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. This project was WIT’s first new academic building in over 40 years. 

Gilbane was brought in to construct the new four-story, 78,000-square-foot academic building for engineering innovation and sciences. They were on a short, 15-month schedule. In order to meet the tight turnaround and represent the polytechnic university’s focus on innovation, the firm leaned on cutting-edge technologies and processes. Specifically, Gilbane leveraged prefabrication, design-assisted preconstruction processes, and virtual reality (VR) to meet the deadline and high-tech requirements. 

Speaking to prefabrication as one of those crucial pieces to finishing on time, John Myers, Gilbane’s director of visual design and construction for New England says, “Off-site fabrication for us, from a safety standpoint, from a schedule standpoint, from the standpoint of being able to do things in parallel instead of in sequence, those are the things that make Gilbane successful.” For a deeper dive on this this impressive, yet challenging project, we recommend you read the full story here.

In the spirit of higher education, Gilbane also created a “living” classroom out of the project. It allowed WIT students to learn the most current and advanced construction methods as Gilbane went through the building process. Students got hands-on experience with each step of the project in real-time.

2. Identifying benefits of new technology in preconstruction

We’ve all heard the adage: “No one likes change.” It’s common for firms to face resistance to new technology and innovations. Usually, the resistance is not due to an individual’s resistance—it’s an organizational challenge. Improving structure and processes can be slow when the productivity and profit gains haven’t been fully understood by decision-makers. The truth is that technology proves to be an ally over and over again. We look at how two leading firms responded to different scenarios related to the need for new technology in preconstruction.

2a. Proving value of new technology with money saved

Multinational construction and development company, Skanska, ranked #9 on the 2021 ENR400, encountered some pushback from clients when moving from 2D to 3D modeling. The company decided to switch to 3D modeling for quantity takeoff to save time and money on projects.

The Skanska team has found that the best way to reassure hesitant clients is to provide proof of 3D modeling’s value. Kelsey Stein, National Preconstruction Technology Manager at Skanska explains, “By having better standards that we can give to the design team, it’s helped us perform a closer estimation while saving time and money on our projects.”

The 3D takeoff uncovered missing quantities that accounted for a 28% discrepancy….saving a tremendous amount of money that would have been lost under the traditional 2D method.

To provide greater context for clients, Skanska compared the results of a traditional 2D takeoff and a 3D takeoff using Assemble on the same project. The 3D takeoff uncovered missing quantities that accounted for a 28% discrepancy in the curtain wall scope. As a result, the firm saved a tremendous amount of money that would have been lost under the traditional 2D method.

2b. Building easy-to-use technology for your own employees

PCL, a construction company coming in at #14 on the 2021 ENR400, found themselves needing to create easy-to-use technology for their preconstruction managers—so they did just that.

Breaking out the challenge, PCL’s estimators and managers were adept at reviewing 2D drawings and managing the preconstruction process. However, the review of 2D drawings can be a very manual process and slow down workflows. This created inefficiencies. On top of that, preconstruction managers were regularly receiving more 3D models from the design team as they moved to digitizing their workflows.

Knowing they had to improve access to insights that 2D drawings couldn’t provide without significant effort, PCL created a multidisciplinary team to evaluate and identify their priority project KPIs. They determined which ones would be most effective at tracking design progress in real time and got to work building their own data management and interpretation tools. 

“Predictability is the name of the game when it comes to construction. If we can better track the progress of design, then there will be little-to-no surprises when we receive milestone design deliverables.” -Nick Kurth, PCL Construction Enterprises Inc.

Their team can now easily access critical, real time project progress data through Autodesk Assemble, Autodesk Revit and a Power BI dashboard. This technology enables them to better interpret data and generate cost-effective designs with the most efficient use of materials.

Nick Kurth, VDC Manager at PCL Construction Enterprises Inc, shares why the dashboard was so critical, “Predictability is the name of the game when it comes to construction. If we can better track the progress of design, then there will be little-to-no surprises when we receive milestone design deliverables. This dashboard solution is another means for us to drive lean principles around target value design. It’s also essential to have transparency between our design team and our precon team, and that’s a key part of what this provides.”

3. Having geometric & cost certainty

As a Fortune 500 firm and ranked #8 on the 2021 ENR400, AECOM is used to partnering with clients in the public and private sectors to solve complex construction challenges. The premier infrastructure firm is known for its construction and design-build approach, which leads to optimized collaboration, productivity, and efficiency. Under the design-build construction delivery model, contractors, designers, and owners collaborate as a team to meet owner expectations. 

AECOM America’s BIM Director, Russ Dalton, is responsible for helping the teams behind the firm’s construction and design-build approach win new business. He then supports them in making sure the projects are executed effectively. 

Technology is essential for helping Russ do just that. His team, and AECOM as a firm, has embraced BIM 360 to achieve geometric certainty and cost certainty. They’re now moving toward operational certainty. Through their commitment to achieving certainty, and the technology that enables it, AECOM has carved out a competitive advantage.

“We’ve witnessed a 32% increase in productivity with this methodology.” -Russ Dalton, AECOM America

AECOM’s Barclays Center Arena project was a testament to the effectiveness of how they use BIM 360. Russ shares, “We looked at [this project] through predictable lenses to make sure that in the construction process it could be completed with geometric certainty and cost certainty.” 

The $450 million project was not only finished early but came in under budget due to AECOM’s commitment to BIM 360. Russ says that the use of BIM 360 generated “$4.5 million in cost savings” on the project. He goes on to add, “We’ve witnessed a 32% increase in productivity with this methodology.”

The Road Ahead

These leading construction companies are showing the industry, and the nation, what’s possible on the road ahead. They’re also highlighting that it takes innovation, persistence, and the right tools to not only survive, but thrive in the face of challenge. Remember, obstacles are opportunities and the best days are ahead for our industry. Technology is helping us get there.

The post Top 10 Construction Companies in the U.S. appeared first on Digital Builder.

Construction Management

A Practical Guide to Construction Accounting Software

Gerri Nielson

Construction accounting software is a must-have, but may seem daunting to implement new solutions if your accounting technology hasn’t kept up with the complexities of your growing business. Managing the myriad of accounting activities across an entire construction business, or at any phase of an individual project, you’re going to want access to the most accurate, real-time numbers possible.

No stranger to disruption, the construction industry is experiencing higher levels of digitization than ever before. The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation by as much as seven years according to some experts. Technical tools and solutions are making some of the most complicated and manual practices in construction a concern of the past. 

That includes accounting. Sure, accounting may have a bit of a reputation for being mundane. But the latest innovations in construction project management software provide an exciting level of financial clarity—especially useful to connect project finances to accounting decision-makers. If you’re exploring options to make construction accounting more efficient and accurate, you’ll find plenty of helpful information on choosing the right software below. 

The Basics of Construction Accounting & What Makes It Different

At its most basic level, accounting helps businesses understand and capture accounting activities. It’s essential to business administration, management and financial reporting. Sometimes referred to as the “language of business,” accounting personnel document an organization’s accounting activities to accurately measure financial performance. This information is then communicated to owners, investors, creditors, and regulators. It will also dictate who you do business with and how.

Construction accounting takes into consideration the challenges that come along with the construction business. This includes tracking revenue, job costing, payroll, and managing several contracts and project risks simultaneously. Because the building process is so uniquely complex, accounting practices must be adapted to the construction industry.

Let’s look at what makes construction accounting different from most other businesses.  

Everything Is Moving All the Time

The nature of construction is quite different from your average business. Outside of a major project roadblock, all aspects of a construction project are moving forward simultaneously. Instead of operating from a fixed location with a fixed set of products or services, construction projects rely on a range of locations, materials, and services. Everyone and everything tends to always be on the go. As a result, accurately managing milestones and finances throughout the life of a project—whether payables or receivables—can be challenging.

Unique Project- and Contract-Based Milestones

Firms typically work on multiple projects at a time. Instead of having one transaction, organizations may have multiple transactions occurring simultaneously across several project partners. Each project partner likely has their own set of timelines and milestones that impact accounting. Furthermore, it can take time to actually receive payment for services rendered. Some firms use project-based accounting. In this practice, each project functions as its own entity with profits and losses. 

Another consideration for construction accounting is long-term contracts. It’s not uncommon for projects to take years to finish. In these scenarios, expenses and revenue may occur at different times than had been originally planned. Knowing the implications of when and how to accrue income and expenses across multi-year projects is an art in itself. 

Tracking Sales

Businesses often create categories and cost codes to track sales. There are often multiple vendors on projects in construction, whether that’s to account for materials or services, there are often tens, if not hundreds, of billable line items on any given job. Traditional accounting practices leave a lot of room for error and confusion. Purpose-built construction accounting software can help to automate this process and meet the need for multiple service or product categories. Smarter categorization enables a much cleaner look at overall business performance. This is made especially easy with dedicated construction accounting software.

Industry-Specific Costs and Expenses

Every construction job involves direct and indirect costs that cross multiple categories. To make things even more complex, items that you might consider overhead expenses are often actually costs of goods sold because they are connected to a client project. Overhead costs can fluctuate month to month based on workers’ compensation, subcontractors, insurance, training, and more.

What to Include in Construction Job Costing

The complexity of construction accounting extends to calculating how much a project will actually cost the firm. That’s where job costing comes into play. This calculation method divides the project into specific tasks. That way, you can track expenses to the various tasks of a project. It provides greater visibility into which projects, activities, and materials are generating the most costs

With job costing, you can separate the project into the main phases and then sort scopes of work into each phase. Organizations can then create unique construction cost codes to track the expenses. You may choose to create a handful of codes or multiple codes for a more granular view. After developing the codes, you can generally divide them into five categories: labor, materials, subcontracts, equipment, and overhead. 

Labor 

How much does your crew cost you? That’s what the labor categories in job costing can help you answer. To find this number for each project, start by calculating how much it costs per day to have your crew. This is likely to be your high level hires like general contractors, who you’ll interface with regularly. Don’t forget to include insurance, worker’s compensation, and taxes into the figure. You can then multiply the number of days you’ll have the crew on the project. 

Be sure to include a buffer for unforeseen labor costs in your estimates. Project progress is rarely linear. You’ll also want to parse out subcontractor costs with the help of your general contractors. More on that below.

Materials

These costs can be both direct and indirect. For example, direct material costs can include items like concrete and steel. It’s often easier to link these items to a specific project. Indirect material costs include things like nails and caulking. You may also apply a margin for delivery and cleanup. It’s important to think of the life of a material, and any complimentary materials, when costing your project.

Subcontracts

General contractors are enlisted to manage construction activities and schedules, but are also instrumental in minimizing risks and issuing subcontracts. Each subcontract encapsulates costs for a general contractor and revenue to a subcontractor for specific scopes of work on a construction project. Managing subcontractor payment applications is fundamental to construction accounting, and also drives the upstream receivables, as subcontractor costs translate into general contractor revenue.

Equipment

Depending on whether or not your contracted labor brings equipment to the table, you may want to cost this out separately. At which point, identify your equipment supplier rates and multiply by the estimated length of the project or time needed with that particular asset. It’s possible that equipment needs will span multiple projects. 

If your contracted labor does bring equipment to the table, work with them to identify expected costs for a clear picture of how your equipment impacts accounting activities over the life of a project.

Overhead

A lot of work goes on behind the scenes so you can’t forget to include the cost of doing business. That means you’ll need to measure accounting activities that go beyond the above mentioned categories. In other words, don’t forget about overhead when job costing. Some things to consider including would be full-time staff, office rentals, administration, and depreciation of equipment.

5 Steps for Revenue Recognition in Construction

Revenue recognition is the accounting of revenue when certain conditions are met on a project. Certain governing bodies issue revenue recognition standards to disseminate accounting best practices.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) updated reporting standards for revenue recognition from contracts with customers in 2014. This standard is known as Accounting Standards Codification Topic 606 (ASC 606), or more simply, the new standard. Prior to the new standard, many organizations relied on the percentage-of-completion method and completed-contract method.

According to FASB, the intent for the latest guidance is to “report useful information to users of financial statements about the nature, timing, and uncertainty of revenue from contracts with customers.”

FASB has adopted a principle-based revenue recognition approach. With this approach, revenue is recognized according to two key factors. First, the contractor must meet performance obligations. Second, the control of goods or services must be transferred to the customer. This transfer can take place at a particular point in time or over a period of time. 

To comply with revenue recognition standards, or ASC 606, be sure to follow these five steps:

Identify the contract with the customer.Identify the performance obligations in the contract.Determine the transaction price.Allocate the transaction price to the separate performance obligations.Recognize revenue when (or as) the entity satisfies a performance obligation.

Top Construction Accounting Technologies

Dedicated construction accounting software solutions can help to optimize processes and automate manual tasks. As you consider ways to improve your construction accounting processes, keep these leading solutions in mind. 

QuickBooks Online (Intuit)This cloud-based financial management software helps you manage your finances efficiently and gives you time back in your day. Create estimates, build invoices, track sales, monitor cash flow, and manage your customers as well as suppliers from one intuitive platform. Oftentimes, QuickBooks Online will be integrated with a project management platform to track costs and provide an operations team with the tools they need to control documents and manage budgets.

Morpheus Connect any ERP to Autodesk Build’s leading budget and cost management solution for a truly integrated financial environment. No more double entry, manual errors or missed information.  You gain full transparency from the field to the office on job costs.  Trusted for over 20 years by the ENR 400.

DataStreet: DataStreet was built to eliminate time and material tag paperwork and reduce the amount of time spent on change order processing. The cloud-based project management platform increases transparency between your office and field teams. All of the data is stored in the cloud for easy access; use project-specific settings to customize your workflows and experience. 

Rhumbix: Want to streamline your field operations? Rhumbix can do just that by quickly capturing timekeeping data, time and materials changes, and factors impacting construction labor costs. Get all the insights you need to make smart decisions about labor cost management, risk management, and safety while easily connecting to your existing accounting solutions.

SageAutodesk Construction Cloud partners have built dynamic integrations between Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate and Autodesk Build, uniting accounting, project management, and field collaboration. Manage cost-related activities, streamline workflows, and connect data for greater real-time visibility into your project’s financial health.

Wrapping Up

As you can see, there’s a lot of nuances specific to construction accounting. The software solutions that exist are getting better at addressing these complexities every single day. 

With the right construction accounting software, accurately job costing, tracking timelines, and adhering to the revenue recognition standards is much easier. It puts owners and contractors on the same page throughout the life of a project. Plus, the standardized approach makes tracking company-wide finances across all projects a much less daunting task.

The post A Practical Guide to Construction Accounting Software appeared first on Digital Builder.

Construction Management

Scaling for Success in the Plant and Manufacturing Industry Through Standardised Ways of Working

Gerri Nielson

Axalta Coating Systems Ltd are a leading global coatings provider dedicated to the development, manufacturing, delivery, and service of liquid and powder coatings, with their headquarters in Philadelphia, USA. With over 150 years of experience in the coatings industry, they provide their customers with innovative, colourful and sustainable solutions.

Predominantly developing and manufacturing coatings for light and commercial vehicles, industrial and refinish applications; Axalta embraces the latest trends alongside emerging technology and systems to deliver the finest coatings to more than 100,000 customers across the globe. With 46 manufacturing centres across the world, 28 laboratories and a presence in over 130 countries, the team at Axalta are constantly looking at news ways to push boundaries.

Marco Schuh, BIM Manager at Axalta, has worked in the architecture, engineering and construction industry for the last 20 years. In his various roles, Marco has witnessed the vast expansion of computer-aided design first-hand and has seen Business Information Modelling (BIM) use and demand rapidly increase. “For the last five years, I have been focusing on cloud-based project management practices in a BIM environment, so I have seen the application and the technology grow too,” says Marco.

In 2019, Axalta’s plant engineering subsidiary business based in Wuppertal, Germany began exploring how they could move some of their local project data from a local server into the cloud. The team wanted to be able to host and store project documentation centrally in a secure environment but also to learn more about how they could improve, implement, and embed digital workflows for this business unit to aid communication and collaboration.

Standardising ways of working

With many different document management practices happening on the ground for the plant engineering team, ensuring standardised document management processes were implemented smoothly was very important. Alongside this, the team also needed to find a solution that allowed everyone to access the documents they needed wherever, and whenever they needed them.

Working in a plant environment with tight timescales means that the team at Axalta cannot afford to lose project time due to poor communication because of missing project data. The team were already using a server solution for internal documentation, but it limited their ability to successfully access, track and collaborate on documents in a transparent way.  

After a period of exploration, Axalta concluded that Autodesk Construction Cloud’s BIM 360 solution was the right technology for Axalta’s needs with a focus on improving communication. To implement the solution successfully and smoothly, Marco partnered with Autodesk’s customer success team and their local reseller partner, Mensch und Maschine Deutschland. It was crucial that the team at Axalta were able to move their interdisciplinary project data into the cloud environment in a seamless way, minimising any disruption to ongoing live projects.

“Our projects are time-critical, so we need smooth, transparent, clear communication and filing to know where project data was stored as we transitioned from our previous system to BIM 360,” Marco reflects.

Creating a comprehensive transition plan

Scaling for success in the plant and manufacturing industry through standardised ways of working

The team at Axalta were aware of the long-term negative impacts that could arise from disruption to ongoing projects, so they created a comprehensive transition plan. The plan, which spanned a 12-month period, involved an elaborated transition process which included a testing and a migration phase. This happened in parallel with Axalta’s ongoing day-to-day regular processes, so the team were managing two ways of working at once. Working in this way helped to minimise any interruptions or delays to ongoing work and allowed the team plenty of time to understand and prepare employees for new ways of working within the team.

To get started, the team at Axalta began their journey with BIM 360 on a large collaborative project which involved several stakeholders – many of which were not directly located on site at Axalta’s plant facility. To ensure all the external collaborators and partners were safely and comprehensively introduced to the solution and the new ways of working, Marco conducted introductory sessions on site. As well as this, Marco and the team created an internal handbook for project team members to use with a complete overview of the BIM 360 project workflows that would be rolled out.

We worked closely with the team at Autodesk to ensure we transitioned successfully, and this included bi-monthly calls with tech champions, mentorship on workflows for these champions, feedback sessions with Autodesk’s product team as well as ongoing communication on outcome-focused goals,” says Marco.

Internal plant maintenance projects and construction projects for new plants began using BIM 360 for document management and digital workflows. The team began with a focus on document management practices but soon expanded into using other capabilities BIM 360 had to offer. Naming conventions and folder structures were the first areas the team focused on as well as supporting the Computer Aided Design (CAD) teams with how they could digitalise and integrate their processes with BIM 360. This involved training sessions and one-to-one support by Marco as a BIM 360 expert.

We began exploring the functionality that allowed our teams to make notes and annotations onto our models in BIM 360 which increased accountability, transparency and communication immensely,” says Marco. “Annotating directly on the model meant that we minimised the chance of anything being missed when moving between different platforms and systems.” The team have also looked at what other digital workflows they could expand to use such as issues tracking.  

For the team at Axalta, using BIM 360 as their common data environment meant internal communication on projects improved significantly. Marco says: “BIM 360 gives us a single source of truth, transparency between all project stakeholders, and accessibility from anywhere meaning we’re all much better informed during a live project than we were before we started using BIM 360.” For the team, quality has increased dramatically as all project team members can be sure they are accessing one single source of truth. As well as this, standardising the team’s approach to document control and modelling has meant that all project collaborators can be sure they have the most up-to-date and accurate information they need when making important project decisions related to their tasks and activities.

Scaling for success

After a year of testing and using BIM 360 in the plant engineering subsidiary business, the use of BIM 360 is being explored by some of Axalta’s manufacturing, construction, and engineering departments in their locations in Germany.

Looking to the future, we plan on expanding our use of BIM 360 in plant and engineering even more,” affirms Marco. “We’ve also began integrating further technology into BIM 360 such as our laser scanning workflows and we’re looking to use the BIM 360 Coordinate feature to improve our model coordination processes,” remarks Marco.

For the team at Axalta, implementing BIM 360 to create robust document management processes, digitalising workflows and capturing project progress information in a BIM environment has not only improved team collaboration but delivered better project outcomes. “The most popular features in BIM 360 that our teams are using are the, project management, model coordination and issues management workflows as well as the powerful approval workflows for reviews within document management capabilities which reflects how the quality of our projects are improving through the use of BIM 360,” says Marco. Looking to the future, implementing the use of BIM 360 on more and more projects is the focus for the team as well as harnessing data for better project insights to drive decision-making across the business.

The post Scaling for Success in the Plant and Manufacturing Industry Through Standardised Ways of Working appeared first on Digital Builder.

Construction Blogs

Improve Cash Flow Forecasting with Autodesk Construction Cloud

Gerri Nielson

For any business, having enough operational cash on hand is critical. Without being able to accurately forecast cash flow, making important decisions about the future of your firm or projects is a risky venture at best. So, when it comes to an industry as complex as construction—where maximizing profit and minimizing risk is the goal—accurately forecasting cash flow throughout a project’s lifecycle is essential.

The challenge with forecasting is that it’s often a time-consuming process making sense of scattered data, various spreadsheets, and multiple disconnected processes or systems. For example, some teams lean on reports from their ERP system, then look at buy-out logs and compare against schedule projections. Others rely on their scheduling team to resource load the schedule, then use the scheduling tools bell curve for analysis. In any case, the process is tedious, and by the time you’ve cobbled together all the necessary information from all the different teams, it’s easy to lack confidence in decisions relying on your cash flow forecast.

So, how can your team ensure appropriate forecasts are created to maximize profit?

The answer is Autodesk Construction Cloud. With Autodesk Construction Cloud’s cost management solution, all cost activities are centralized, and teams have the ability to connect the budget to the schedule. And now, with the newest release, Autodesk Construction Cloud improves cash flow forecasting, making it an effortless and accurate process.

Cash Flow Forecasting with Autodesk Construction Cloud

Connecting Cost & Time

Preliminaries and general conditions can vary between projects, especially items significantly affected by specific conditions like restricted access site locations and traffic management. These can typically be circa 10-20% of the project cost. 

For the Contractor, there’s little price security from fixed-price Subcontracts that you get when packaging regular construction scope. That means risk is high, and contractors must plan carefully. But with few estimating systems having the functionality to assist in planning these costs, teams have to do it in spreadsheets manually, which runs a high risk of error. 

Luckily, Autodesk Construction Cloud’s recently released functionality for planning these method-related management costs enables teams to plan time-based allowances in a visual way utilizing a Gantt chart view. By connecting schedule tasks to budget line items, teams can quickly determine duration then enable calculations for annual price increases. Teams can then use the pricing in the estimate submission. If successful, all the information is set up, ready for tracking and forecasting when the project begins—eliminating yet another spreadsheet from the process.

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Built-In Forecast Distribution Curves

Now, with the release of phase 2 of our forecasting functionality, we have added the ability to connect the entire budget so teams can plan and track the project’s cash flow as a whole throughout the duration of the project. Four built-in forecast distribution curves are available, including front-loaded, rear-loaded, typical, and linear. With this, teams can efficiently perform forecast distributions for each budget line item. 

When performing distributions to items connected to schedule tasks, dates automatically pull in, but can be altered if necessary. If needed, teams can customize the distribution further by adding or removing date ranges. In addition, teams can easily make edits within the forecast final cost field as they’re making their projections. The system will auto-flag if the distribution total doesn’t match the forecast-final cost; with a click, you can choose to have the system automatically adjust it for you—a graphic representation of the original plan versus the delta displays. 

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Project Level Cash Flow Analysis

Once all budget line items are forecasted, teams can access a project-level cash flow analysis in the new Forecast tool. Within this view, the information is summarized by revised budget, work completed, actual costs, and forecast-final cost, which can be viewed by period or cumulatively. This real-time summary enables teams to see planned actual and forecast quickly and provides them with the ability to quickly drill down into details if needed. Along with a table of data is a built-in dynamic time-versus-money chart, allowing teams to visualize the project-level cash flow distribution throughout the project lifecycle.

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better way with Autodesk Construction Cloud

Autodesk Construction Cloud is designed to help you make smarter, more meaningful business decisions throughout the entire construction process—from design and planning to building, handoff and operating. We make sure you can connect workflows and teams to the data they need most, when they need to make a decision. Whether that’s improving forecast accuracy, or making valuable information available to stakeholders when they need it, Autodesk has you covered.

If you’re interested in learning more about the latest updates across all Autodesk Construction Cloud products, please check out this article

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Construction Blogs

Behind the Build: Interview with Justin Lipsey, VDC Technical Leader, SSOE

Gerri Nielson

The importance of hard work and thinking big cannot be understated, especially in the world of modern design and construction. These are the very things that lead to growth, innovation, and career success, which is why it’s essential that we strive to embody these traits in our day-to-day lives.

One person who’s doing just that is Justin Lipsey, VDC Technical Leader at SSOE

Justin started his construction career as a plumbing engineer, and in 2018, proactively made the transition to a more tech-focused role in VDC. He’s achieved quite a lot in just over three years within the VDC realm, including winning SSOE’s Founder’s Award and landing a speaking engagement at Autodesk University

Justin credits his accomplishments to positive thinking, dedication, and of course, hard work. 

We recently caught up with him to discuss his construction journey thus far, as well as what’s next.

 

Tell us a little bit about SSOE and what you specialize in.

SSOE is an AEC firm specializing mostly in the “engineering” portion of that AEC acronym. We’ve been around for 70-plus years and have business units that touch pretty much every facet of the industry. So, we range from semiconductors all the way to educational projects.

When working at SSOE, you’re actually able to interface with anything you would like. There are loads of opportunities. In my case, I have over a decade of experience as a plumbing designer/engineer. I was in the automotive and manufacturing business unit, and my specialty was siphonic storm drains. 

But then I switched over to technology. Now, my role is with the Project Technology department and I’ve been here just over three years. I specialize in all things BIM 360 and ACC (Autodesk Construction Cloud). 

I started off just by volunteering and training with pilot projects. And two and a half years later, many of my coworkers call me “BIM Three Lipsey”.

 

Walk us through your career and what led you to becoming VDC Technical Leader.

I’ve always been into technology and computers, and I like being creative. But sometimes design and engineering projects aren’t creative at all, especially the types of projects I was working on. 

So I started looking for ways where I could get into tech but still remain in my industry. A VDC rotation slot happened to open up, and at that time I didn’t really know a great deal about VDC. I just had a very broad idea of what it was. 

But I took the leap, and that spiraled into registering point cloud data, laser scanner operation training, and all things reality capture technology. I learned really quickly and I get to work with developers now. I can really say that I’m passionate about this work. 

I also got to go to AU in 2019 and just sat with the Forge devs for an entire day. I learned so much just by sitting next to them, talking to people’s managers, and soaking it all up. So VDC led me into the world of construction technology. 

The way I see it, technology is like the wild wild west right now. Depending on your job title, you get to make your salary—you get to decide on your duties and tasks. It’s amazing.

 

What is your proudest accomplishment in your 6 years at SSOE and why?

About a year and a half ago, I wrote down this list of goals. It included things like speaking at AU (Autodesk University) and winning a Founder’s Award, one of our most prestigious awards at SSOE. 

I’m proud to say that I hit those goals in about 6 months. I was given the opportunity to speak at the virtual AU last year, where I discussed the topic of AEC product ownership

There was also the Founder’s Award, which was given to the project team who developed training materials to support the rollout of BIM 360. Before the pandemic hit, we were piloting BIM 360 and trying to understand how to best roll it out. Then COVID happened and there were infrastructure issues immediately. That’s when we made the quick decision that every new project going forward starting January of this year would be in BIM 360. 

To make it happen, we needed to develop training materials. I was afforded the ability to utilize all of the beautiful music equipment I have collected over the years and my limited knowledge of video creation and editing. I purchased an iPad app, watched a few YouTube videos, and was able to create over 20 customized training videos for BIM 360. Our team also created a SharePoint site to house all of our training content and other supplementary information. To-date, we have uploaded over 150 pages of tips and tricks, knowledge base articles, and quick reference guides

“One of the most rewarding parts of my job is when I finally get things to click for someone, and they say, ‘Oh, I understand that now! And I’ll share this with my team.’” —Justin Lipsey, VDC Technical Leader, SSOE Group

There were a whole bunch of people who contributed to our training content, so I can’t take all of the credit. Our developers were able to whip up this automation, despite some limitations within the API for BIM 360. They did a bunch of workarounds to get a lot of “ease-of-use” functions out to our users. 

I’m proud of all of that. I knocked all my goals out of the park and I think it’s just the power of manifestation—writing things down, and looking at it every day.

 

s construction evolves, how do you see the role of VDC Leader changing?

Honestly, I think the future is going to be more focused on data analytics, as well as innovation, research, and development. 

I am also hoping for more product ownership because, over the next five years, we’re going to need a team of people who understand computational design, algorithms, APIs—all that fun stuff. We’re trying to build that team of people right now and we’re looking to leverage Power BI and dashboarding. We’re trying to figure out how to harvest the data from BIM 360 and our new ERP Microsoft Dynamics to gain the insights we need to make better business decisions. We also want to better visualize that kind of information in a palatable way for our users. 

Right now, VDC is more of a manual process. I interface with project teams. I’m doing a lot of the training and tons of research and documentation, but I believe that the future would be similar to how Revit developed. Now, you have Revit power users who do a majority of what a BIM manager used to do 10 or 15 years ago, managing templates, setting up models, etc. This allows BIM managers to focus on more high-level important coordination items.

In the future, it should be the same for VDC. Research and development should come from operations. They should be telling us what they need, what they want, and VDC performs the analysis and evaluates how to best fit it into our tech stack. Then empower them through the use of data to visualize the end goal. 

There’s also the learning aspect to the job. BIM 360 and ACC Build have the Insight module, and we’re really trying to utilize that. I think a big part of the future is learning how to use all this data and figure out how to apply it to upcoming projects. Then we can really handpick our clients and projects. That way, we’ll be more profitable and provide the most value. 

I also think that product owners and managers will become more prevalent in our industry. Technically, I’m a product owner of BIM 360 right now. We have this amazing automation process that our developers came up with, where you can create a new project in our ERP system, and it spins up a BIM 360 project. It also spins up an Outlook group so they can track their project email. As a product owner, I helped connect the developers to the business by defining what would be the most valuable automation for our project teams. 

Being a part of the BIM 360 team, I interface a lot with our users and take feedback to the devs and give them improvement ideas for that automation. And in my eyes, that’s the future. If more of our VDC folks would learn the skills needed for product management and the human side of technology, I would welcome that.

 

What are the biggest challenges you face in your role? How does technology help you overcome those challenges?

We’re in this digital transformation phase where we’re no longer attempting to bend technology to fit our processes, we’re revising our project execution processes to fit the technology. This can be a challenging concept for people who have been doing something a certain way for 20 or 30 years. 

But one of the most rewarding parts of my job is when I finally get things to click for someone, and they say, “Oh, I understand that now! And I’ll share this with my team.”

This is what happened with BIM 360. It helps us collaborate a lot better, and certain processes are streamlined now. 

 

When you think about the future, what are your plans to advance innovation and productivity at SSOE?

Our CEO has set a goal for 2025 to improve efficiencies and productivity by 50% organization-wide. This is a large undertaking for us, and BIM 360 was just the beginning. ACC Build is being piloted now on a few projects and we are looking for ways to utilize the new features in the platform. We have partnerships with Autodesk, Microsoft, and Cintoo that we are looking to leverage and assist in the development of solutions that progress our strategic business goals, and advance our industry. I am keeping an eye on a few game changing companies like AVAIL and Bridgit in hopes of partnering with them one day as well. But most importantly for us, automation is the key. Whether it’s through Dynamo, Power Automate, or developing something custom, we are looking for ways to streamline our project execution processes with automation and generative design. Last but not least, we are attempting to break down the silos between design firms, fabricators, and GC’s through the use of Fab Parts in Revit.

 

What advice would you give to the next generation of men and women entering and preparing for the future of the industry?

Something I try to instill in my son is that if you put your head down, work hard, and are respectful, opportunities will present themselves. I have an associates degree in CAD Technology, but I worked extremely hard to get to where I am today. So to all future technologists, don’t focus on getting fancy acronyms that you can add on after your name. Work hard, stay curious, dream big, and build your future without limitations in mind.

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Construction Services

The True Cost of Not Having a Data Strategy

Gerri Nielson

In any workplace, good decisions drive good outcomes. In construction, those outcomes can vary from staying on schedule to facing major time and cost over-runs.

But decision makers are now contending with more complex projects and shorter timelines than ever before.

In fact, four in five APAC construction professionals say schedule compression is fueling the need to make more rapid decisions, according to Autodesk Construction Cloud’s new Harnessing The Data Advantage In Construction report.

Autodesk partnered with FMI Global to survey more than 3,900 construction industry stakeholders, including more than 500 across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India, and Hong Kong, to understand how their approach to data was propelling them forward – or holding them back.

And the single biggest factor interfering with making good decisions? The lack of reliable data.

 

Data quantity

The research revealed vastly different approaches to data strategy, but what’s almost universal is the fact that more data is being generated and collected than ever before. In fact, most project managers and field supervisors report spending two to three days a week collecting and managing the ever-increasing torrents of data.

A big factor in this workload is the multiple channels from which data must be collected, and the numerous formats it arrives in. As one subcontractor told us, “The usual way in which most construction companies operate is a lot of decentralised information.

“We create 2D designs, spreadsheets, PDFs and a whole range of different file types and formats. This is very hard to manage.”

 

Data quality

Not only are many streams of data unwieldy – they can also be tainted.

For the average construction firm, almost 40% of the data they are collecting is bad – inaccurate, incomplete, inconsistent or untimely.

For data to produce valuable insights and drive better project outcomes, it needs to be readily:

AccessibleConsumableUnderstandable

Worryingly, just one in eight construction professionals believe that most of their data meets this definition. This doesn’t just undermine confidence in data-driven decision-making; it undermines projects too.

Industry data indicates that for every $1 billion of revenue earned by a contractor, the total cost of poor decisions driven by bad data could be as high as $165 million. In fact, it is estimated that bad data is responsible for 14% of all construction rework.

That means bad data costs the construction industry an estimated A$2.49 trillion in 2020. And that’s before we count:

the environmental cost, with global construction waste reaching 2.2 billion tons by 2025, andthe reputational cost, including 77% of megaprojects being delivered at least 40% late.

 

Difficulties using data

Despite the vast increases in data flows, barely one in 10 construction professionals report always incorporating project data into their decision making. Most do it sometimes, at best.

These concerns over data quality are why the companies that are reporting getting the most out of their data have formal plans in place to ensure the quality of their data.

“We have invested a lot of time and money ensuring the integrity of our data. Otherwise, it will all be a terrible waste,” one told us.

Another contractor explained, “We want the data to work for us and not against us. If you have bad data, the results will be bad, no matter how good the process is.”

Among the chief challenges faced in using the data being collected are:

combining data from two different sourcesgrappling with missing informationdifficulties in accessing data, either because of its structure or because other parties are unwilling to share.

Overcoming this requires both process and people solutions.

On the process side, for instance, replacing non-collaborative digital channels such as email with cloud-based, construction specific technology can ensure data is collected accurately and easily accessible.

Underpinning all of this is a firmly mapped out data strategy. Such a strategy must cover which data is the most valuable to a given team, and how it can be made reliable and accessible.

Having this not only helps you ensure your processes and tools are fit for purpose – it also helps bring the people you need up to speed.

A subcontractor in the mechanical, electrical and plumbing sector told us, ”Everything is centred on our information being iterative and creating bidirectional workflows with BIM software to drive commissioning activities out on-site.

“That means that we can actually collect data from the field and format it back into the model. We’re getting consistency through construction documentation – and consistency breeds quality.”

 

Data-driven decision making

Our research clearly shows the impact of trying to make decisions with bad data – the average company reports that it results in poor decisions 38% of the time.

On the other hand, those companies that have nailed their data strategy say it is driving fewer budget overruns, fewer missed schedules and fewer safety incidents.

By managing data effectively from collection to access, these are the companies unlocking its value and moving to the next level, where nothing is left to chance.

An integrated digital approach allows them to see all of the dependencies on a construction site and review the project schedule for potential risks.  They can see how a change order might affect the project’s critical path, and re-prioritize accordingly.

Despite this, one in three APAC construction firms without a data strategy say the cost and resourcing required for a data strategy is holding them back.

It’s a bit like trying to save money by skimping on maintenance – any savings you make will be wiped out when something inevitably goes wrong.

Learn more about how Asia-Pacific construction firms are using data to build better in the Autodesk/FMI Harnessing The Data Advantage In Construction report.

DOWNLOAD NOW

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Construction Services

Why Connected Construction Workflows Power Better Building

Gerri Nielson

Picture this: there’s a group of people working on a major presentation and each person is assigned their own section or chapter. Everyone has a general idea of what the presentation is about, so team members decide to tackle their sections separately and plan to get together to combine their work.

But problems arise when the team meets to put together their chapters. While each person did well with their respective assignments, the finished presentation lacks cohesiveness. And because some members were unaware of certain changes and updates, the presentation was filled with inaccurate information.

It’s quite obvious where the team went wrong. Each member was assigned their own “thing” and they ran off to execute without collaborating with each other.

Instead of this approach, the group should’ve synced and communicated more frequently with each other. They should’ve connected their workflows and established a single source of truth, so that everyone was working with the same information.

Doing so would have prevented the headaches of having to edit and reconstruct the presentation.

The above scenario may be a bit simplistic, but it illustrates what could happen if workflows aren’t integrated. This problem is prevalent in the construction industry. Too often, teams suffer from miscommunication, data loss, and mistakes due to a disconnect with their processes and systems.

The key to avoiding all that? Three words: connected construction workflows. 

In this post, we’ll go over the value of integrated workflows in construction and shed light on how you can put them into practice.

What are Connected Workflows?

To understand connected construction workflows, let’s back up a bit and discuss what a workflow is to begin with. According to Gennpact, a workflow “is the definition, execution and automation of business processes where tasks, information or documents are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules.”

Workflows are used to coordinate tasks between people and keep information and systems in sync. They play a major role in executing tasks and bringing projects to life, which is why it’s important to optimize them.

One way to do that is to implement connected workflows. By keeping workflows integrated, data flows smoothly from one system to the next, thus ensuring smooth collaboration between all stakeholders.

The key attributes of connected workflows are:

Automation: Data and processes are automated. There’s no need for manual entry, and you can rest assured that information is automatically in sync across all your systems.

Integrated: Multiple systems are connected to each other, which means there are no silos or duplication. Teams enjoy a common data environment and are on the same page at all times.

Transparent: Connected workflows provide a single source of truth for data and information, thus supporting trust, transparency, and accountability in the team.

Benefits of Connected Construction Workflows

Now, let’s look at some of the key benefits of having connected construction workflows.

Increased efficiency. According to the Harvard Business Review, knowledge workers spend up to 50% of their time “hunting for data, identifying and correcting errors, and seeking confirmatory sources for data they do not trust.”

That’s a lot of wasted time and effort, and you can avoid all that by keeping your workflows connected. With integrated systems and automatic data flow, team members won’t have to spend time re-entering information, asking for clarification, or hunting down data. Instead, they can focus on execution and complete tasks more efficiently.

Reduced risk. When data entry and other processes are automated, you minimize human error and information loss. Data is kept accurate and secure, and it’s easy to retrieve the information you need to make important project decisions.

Detailed records. Connected workflows automatically capture records of activities, such as when new information is added or if any changes are made. Names, dates, and time stamps are recorded, making it easy to audit projects.

Improved collaboration. When workflows are connected, so are teams. Everyone has access to the same data and are able to communicate effectively, which streamlines collaboration.

Needless to say, more collaborative teams tend to work better. A survey by Salesforce found that 97% of respondents believe that a lack of alignment within teams has a direct impact on a project’s outcome. What’s more, 86% believe that lack of collaboration and ineffective communication lead to workplace failures.

Commonly Disconnected Construction Workflows [and How to Fix Them]

So far we’ve discussed what connected workflows are and the benefits they offer to construction teams. Below we’ll shed light on the construction workflows that are most commonly disconnected, and how to fix them.

Bidding and Qualification

The bidding and qualification process is often disjointed, particularly when it comes to evaluating vendor risk. This is because risk managers are siloed from the estimating department and the information they need (i.e., company data, info on safety, financials, and insurance of subcontractors) live on separate platforms.

All that makes it difficult to analyze and manage risk.

You can fix this by integrating your prequalification and risk management software with your preconstruction software. This ensures that the information required by both estimators and risk managers are accessible through a tightly-integrated system.

When teams can view all the data they need in one place, they can search for subcontractor data, build lists, and assess risk much more quickly.

Preconstruction and Construction

When done manually, bringing preconstruction data (e.g., plans, models, and estimates) to the field is a process that’s fraught with issues like lost data and wasted time. Information can slip through the cracks and as a result, project managers have to grapple with missing files and data.

Unfortunately, most of the tools used to manage these workflows are outdated and aren’t intuitive, so much of the process involves manual and inefficient work.

All that can be solved by integrating your preconstruction software with your construction management solution. By keeping these two systems together, you can ensure that any information created during the preconstruction phase stays intact when handed over to project managers in the field.

Checklist Follow up Actions

Quality and safety checklists often contain a long list of questions. The answers to those questions can either confirm everything is going according to plan or flag a problem that needs immediate attention.

If the checklists have no built in controls to require action depending on the answer to a question, the necessary follow up can be delayed or even completely missed. This can be avoided if teams set up their checklists to leverage controls such as conditional logic. This approach provides the ability to require a specific action depending on a specific answer. 

Forms in Autodesk Build have this advanced capability — based on the answer someone in the field gives to a question, the form can be set up to require an action. For example, you can require the creation of an issue or suggest the attachment of a photo as proof. This way, project teams can ensure that every flagged problem gets addressed as soon as possible.

Issues and RFIs

As project issues come up, it’s necessary to create RFIs and obtain information or clarifications to move the project forward.

The task isn’t very straightforward, though. When the process of surfacing issues is disconnected from RFI creation, data leaks and delays may occur. For instance, if a team member needs to set up an RFI regarding an issue they didn’t create, that RFI may end up missing important details.

To solve this, ensure that your projects management solutions are tightly integrated. Details about all issues should be readily available, so that anyone tasked with creating an RFI can do so without missing anything.

Integrated project management workflows also come in handy when they’re connected to meetings. By linking issues and RFIs to meeting minutes, you can make sure that they’re discussed during your team catch-ups.

And since all the data lives in one place, team attendees will be able to access the right information and engage in productive discussions. BIM 360 Meetings is a great solution for enabling these connected workflows.

“We use BIM 360 Meetings to document everything going on in our meetings. The tool is fluid and meeting-friendly. We can easily share a screen, pull up documents, and adjust a meeting agenda on the fly,” said John Weaver, Project Director at Charles Perry Partners, Inc. (CPPI).

“It’s also great that it’s linked to our project management module. We can easily access submittals and RFIs directly from meeting minutes.”

Change Management and Cost

Inefficiencies around managing and implementing changes in construction projects can diminish your bottom line. When it comes to change management, poor communication and data sharing results in projects being delayed and over-budget, which can wreak havoc on your financials.

It’s important to understand and anticipate how changes would affect a project in order to manage them in the most cost-effective way possible.

One way to accomplish this is to integrate your RFI and potential change order (PCO) workflows. Ideally, any RFI information you have will be synced with the PCO (and vice versa) so the two components have a bi-directional relationship.

This setup saves you time from having to double-handle data. Details like status information are synced and accessible, so stakeholders can always get the latest information.

Ideally, your solution should have user permission features that enable or restrict access to data based on people’s roles. Cost information is sensitive, afterall, and it’s important to keep that data secure.

ssets and Issues and Checklists

Managing and tracking construction assets is essential in any construction project. Having a solid handle on moveable equipment, building materials, and other assets will ensure that the necessary components are installed and projects are delivered successfully.

As such, it’s important to streamline your processes around asset tracking. Arm your teams with construction management technology that has built-in asset tracking features, so stakeholders can view and monitor the lifespan of your assets. The solution should also enable users to store and access any asset-related documentation (e.g., warranty documents, cut-sheets, etc.).

You should connect your asset management workflows to checklists and issues, to streamline quality assurance as well as the commissioning process. When assets and issues are tracked and viewable in one place, it’s a lot easier to conduct inspections and ensure that issues are resolved. Commissioning agents can create checklists and view those items alongside the right information, enabling them to quickly verify that the assets have been delivered.

Bringing Everything Together with Connected Construction Workflows

As the digital age of construction continues to progress, connected construction workflows are going to be more important than ever. These days, it’s simply too expensive and inefficient to wrangle siloed systems and procedures. The pressure to deliver projects efficiently, on-time, and within budget continues to grow, and the best way to keep up is to tighten up your workflows and the technologies that power them.

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Construction Management

Goodbye, Spreadsheets: Win More Work with Centralized Bid Management

Gerri Nielson

As the world continues to open back up, we’re starting to see more signs of recovery in the construction industry. Research from Dodge Data & Analytics and Autodesk shows that bidding activity has been increasing since the start of the year. In fact, bidding activity in BuildingConnected was up 36% in January 2021, compared to a three-month pre-pandemic average.

This is great news overall, and as a contractor, you can capitalize on these opportunities by optimizing your systems to keep up with the increasing number of bids coming your way. 

The best way to do that is to eliminate cumbersome tools like spreadsheets. 

Spreadsheets are useful for tracking basic information but they’re not ideal for higher level processes and tasks such as bid management. 

Since the bidding process requires you to manually enter and track numerous bits of info, putting everything in a spreadsheet can get messy and confusing. This could lead to missed bids and loss of potential work. 

What’s more, collaboration can be a pain with spreadsheets. You can’t share files in a centralized manner, so people typically end up emailing each other different versions of the file, resulting in issues with version history and conflict between updates. 

Another problem with using spreadsheets? It’s much more difficult to analyze data. While they can display raw information in neat rows and columns, extracting useful insights from spreadsheets is largely a manual process. 

All this to say that spreadsheets aren’t great for managing bids and they’re certainly not going to help you win more work.

If you’re still using spreadsheets, it’s high time to replace them with a centralized bidding management system. The right solution can streamline the bidding process and make collaboration easier, ultimately helping you win more bids. 

Our recent guide discusses how a centralized bid management system can benefit subcontractors. Download it for free. 

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Read on to explore some of the key insights you’ll find in the guide. 

What is a Centralized Bid Management System?

A centralized bid management system refers to a single platform on which you can centrally manage the entire bidding process. It’s an excellent solution for contractors, because it enables you to track and handle all your bids from one place, which can help you increase your win rates and revenues. 

Case in point: Bowman Flooring Contractor, a Georgia-based specialty contractor increased its win rate by 25% and revenue by $9 million when the company adopted a new bid management system

The team at Bowman used to rely on Excel and emails to manage bids, and they decided to implement bid management technology to improve their processes. 

In doing so, Bowman was able to be more organized and keep all the necessary bidding information in one place. The new software made it easy for teams to track and assign bids and they were able to prioritize jobs that were more likely to win. What’s more, they could pull up past project estimates, which led to better estimates on current projects. 

“Our new software totally changed the way we do business,” said Mike Adams, Senior Project Manager at Bowman Flooring Contractor.

Benefits of a Centralized Bid Management System

We’ve discussed the general benefits of a centralized bid management system, now let’s take a look at the specific advantages of having one. 

Streamlined Bid Management

Having a centralized system that’s accessible to multiple team members reduces the need for double entry and other manual tasks. Unlike using spreadsheets, which involves manually entering data, a centralized system for bid management lets everyone work on the same information at any given time. 

As a result, subcontractors can minimize errors, confusion, and tedious work like reviewing and re-entering data. 

Easy Bid Tracking

Juggling multiple bids can be a nightmare when you’re using spreadsheets and other manual methods. These cumbersome tools can’t centrally store data, so it’s easy for information to slip through the cracks. 

When you have a centralized bid management system, you can easily get a bird’s eye view of the entire bid process. You’ll also have a single source of truth when it comes to the status of all your bids and invites, so you’ll never miss an opportunity again. 

Better Collaboration

A centralized bid management system allows teams to work together without a hitch. Since information is stored and accessed in the cloud, team members can collaborate in real-time and everyone can always get their hands on the most updated information. This eliminates confusion and miscommunication, which leads to a smoother bid management process. 

Simplified Bid Solicitation

A centralized bid management system also improves the process of bidding on and bidding out. When soliciting bids from other subcontractors, the information they submit feeds directly into the bid, so there’s no need to re-enter the same info.

Having the ability to manage both bids in and bids out from a centralized platform paves the way for more competitive final bids. You can track proposals in one place and make data-driven decisions before submitting your bid. 

Download Our Free Ebook

To win more bids in today’s increasingly competitive market, you need all the help you can get. A centralized bid management system enables you to stay organized, save time, and understand your bids better, so you can win more projects and continue to grow. 

Download our free ebook to learn how a centralized bid management system can help you improve your business. 

The post Goodbye, Spreadsheets: Win More Work with Centralized Bid Management appeared first on Digital Builder.

Construction Blogs

Digital Builder Ep 17: 3 Key Takeaways on Collaboration Best Practices in Construction

Gerri Nielson

In the AEC industry, it’s not uncommon to have several different companies — sometimes 20 or more — working on the same project. Dozens of people, each with their own priorities and agendas, are involved in decision-making. Because of this, working together can get complicated — even heated, in some cases. 

That’s why communication and collaboration are crucial in AEC. When everyone involved in a project is on the same page, the entire process runs smoothly and you’ll see better outcomes all around. 

On Episode 17 of Digital Builder, Eddie Campbell, COO at ABSI (Accelerated Building Solutions, Inc.) and Tyler Campbell, Vice President, also at ABSI, join us to discuss how construction pros can increase cooperation within projects. They’re also co-hosts of the Construction Brothers Podcast, a show that delivers fresh ideas that industry professionals can use to improve their careers, projects, and people. 

As a construction company that provides modeling and detailing services, Eddie and Tyler often sit ‘down the chain’ in the projects they work on. This gives them a unique perspective on the interactions between stakeholders and how collaboration can be improved.

The topics we touched on include:

Ways to improve the bidding process Effective management styles Where subcontractors are empowered to improve collaboration Tips for successfully navigating contract disputes

“The thing that has gotten me out of the most trouble during my career whenever things get heated is going and talking with the other person; looking somebody in the eye is always helpful.” — Tyler Campbell

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3 Takeaways on Collaboration Best Practices in Construction

Here are three best practices that construction pro’s should consider implementing to ensure smooth communication and collaboration in their projects. 

1. Reduce barriers to accessing important information

Teams that lack easy access to key project info will struggle to articulate their needs due to a lack of confidence in next steps. With risk mitigation as a top priority in any construction project, confidence in decision-making is key. This is why owners should encourage and enable more transparency throughout a project. This is especially important during the design phase. When stakeholders have more visibility into design progress, they can provide meaningful input earlier in the process, which saves time and improves project outcomes.

“After having spoken with a group of owners recently, I think the number one thing that we need to work on as an industry is transparency. That’s one thing that owners desire, particularly in design,” says Eddie. 

To truly open up lines of communication, you need to instill a sense of trust and collaboration. Many construction professionals focus on protecting themselves first when getting into new projects. This needs to shift into a collaborative mindset if teams want more transparency. 

As Tyler puts it, “It’s the [self-first mindset] that has caused us to really have this brokenness in the industry that I see.”

“I feel like the trade aspect of things is that we’re pushing these designers and we’re giving them great tools. But the designers still don’t quite know how a building goes together in a lot of ways,” says Tyler. 

“I think a big push for us is saying, ‘Alright, let’s get passionate about preaching that this is how we build now.’ The only thing that will drive better design is a better understanding of how the systems work.”

What this boils down to that is teams and individuals should help designers and stakeholders understand what truly goes into constructing a building. This is the “rising tide lifts all boats” mentality, and it’s a good one.

2. Leadership should empathize with processes that aren’t working

Empathy and humility go a long way in collaboration. This is especially important when leading by example. By taking time to understand where other stakeholders are coming from, you’ll come up with better solutions on the same timeline, if not faster, and reduce the stress caused by lack of alignment. 

If a process isn’t working, for example, it’s on leaders to recognize and correct the course. 

“Being humble enough to change our processes is something that, I think, we’re going to continue to have to go through over the coming years as we find new ways of delivering projects under these demanding schedules,” says Eddie.

Regular check-ins can also help teams better understand each other and ultimately be more collaborative. In fact, initiating one-on-one conversations with stakeholders can be incredibly valuable. 

As Tyler puts it, “the best teams are the ones that do check-ins. They don’t need to be like, ‘Big meeting, big everything.’ Just pick up the phone and talk to somebody. Ask them how it’s going and what you can help them with. Let them know that you’re there when they need you. It’s not complicated, but slowing down to do that is sometimes pretty hard.”

3. Invite feedback from more people early in the process

Give more contributors a seat at the table. This doesn’t mean making everyone a key stakeholder. Rather, it’s about inviting contributions from others up and down the chain. Doing so will give you a more holistic understanding of what needs to be done.

Getting everyone on board early ensures that stakeholders have a clear idea of project scope, timelines, and deliverables. That group knowledge helps reduce miscommunication and delays down the road. 

“The best projects that I’ve gotten the chance to be a part of had project managers, senior project managers, superintendents that were seeking to understand the problems,” shares Eddie.

According to him, these projects were a refreshing experience because he and his team sit down the chain, and typically don’t get a seat at the table. 

Eddie continues, “Those have been the best experiences for me, where people are invited to the table, and then problems are solved, rather than fended off.”

His sentiment is clear. Whenever project teams invite feedback from more stakeholders, they tend to be more collaborative and effective in achieving their goals.

Listen to the full episode for more AEC insights

In addition to collaboration best practices, we explored other topics with Eddie and Tyler, including how to improve the bidding process and what management styles work best in construction projects. Check out the full episode on your favorite podcast platform. 

Apple PodcastsSpotifyStitcherGoogle Podcastsor wherever you listen to podcasts

 

The post Digital Builder Ep 17: 3 Key Takeaways on Collaboration Best Practices in Construction appeared first on Digital Builder.