Construction—an industry that’s been around for nearly as long as civilization—is long overdue for a change in the tools used to build the world. While technology has become more and more common on a jobsite, most of it has been focused on taking companies from pen and paper to digital data and drawings. This is a step forward, but still requires a significant amount of manual effort and calculations to be effective. One tool alone may not completely transform an industry, but the right technology in combination could unlock the secret to more profitable and productive projects. That’s where machine learning comes in.
When you hear the term “machine learning” or “AI” (artificial intelligence), your mind probably goes straight to what you’ve seen in movies and television. While there isn’t a terminator on a jobsite (yet), construction companies are beginning to leverage an entirely new generation of technology to further reduce manual effort and increase visibility and insights.
3 ways machine learning leads to faster digitalization
Mapping project progress
A lot of the existing construction technology leverages visualization software to overlay captured data onto a 3D design. While this helps add an extra layer of visibility, it won’t tell you much more about true progress without someone having to look through every photo and laser scan. When given the choice, most jobsite managers would rather walk around and measure progress manually than spend even more hours doing it on the computer.
Computer vision-based progress tracking takes it one step further. By letting the AI automatically analyze visual data, construction companies are able to measure installed quantities and inspect quality—without having to sift through data or manually record the entire jobsite. What used to take someone hours is now an automated, real-time progress and quality report they can access anytime.
Imagine being able to automatically track more than 75 different construction stages and generate progress, down to the materials installed, and all it takes is a 360° camera, BIM, and AI-powered platform.
Increasing visibility
This automated progress tracking isn’t just for the project teams. Traditionally, if an owner wants a project update, they either have to physically come to the jobsite or rely on the reporting of project managers and subcontractors. This reporting takes valuable time, and is often incomplete and delayed (or missing entirely) depending on how busy the team is.
AI platforms take the burden off of project teams by enabling them to capture more detailed data, faster. Artificial intelligence can essentially act as a digital surveyor to capture hundreds of thousands of square feet on a project every week—freeing field crews up to focus on making progress, not reporting on it. Those uncomfortable OAC and weekly trade coordination meetings where progress isn’t clearly measured or communicated can quickly become a thing of the past.
Real-time project visibility allows companies to spot potential issues or overruns faster, and gives them enough time to make changes before it’s too late.
Managing schedules and risk
In construction, the four biggest factors to a project’s success are time, money, quality, and productivity. The right balance of these factors could mean the difference between coming in on time, under budget and losing money on a project. The increased visibility and reporting that AI-based software gives managers can directly translate to real-time feedback on schedule, budget, and quality.
Machine learning provides companies objective schedule and cost budget analysis to ensure everything is progressing to plan, and can prevent costly rework or delays. It isn’t enough to be able to see what’s happening as it happens—companies need to be able to look into the future of a project using predictive forecasts, too (another AI specialty).
The future of construction technology: Saving time and money
Real-time feedback and insights have the power to take construction companies to a new level of project success. Machine learning isn’t about replacing people with machines. It’s about leveraging automated, artificial intelligence to increase productivity and visibility so teams can make better business decisions, faster.
Let’s face it: Getting stuff done is hard. And getting stuff done in the face of today’s shortages, supply chain issues, and inflation is a daunting task for any construction company. Automated construction progress tracking can help you finish projects faster.
Before we get into that, let’s take a closer look at what’s going on.
Skilled labor shortages
Less people from younger generations are choosing a trade or apprenticeship. As a result, the industry is facing a shortage of skilled workers to help complete project milestones. Without knowing how many people can get the work done (and get it done correctly), companies struggle to stay on track.
A less experienced workforce
Those who do choose to go into construction today are still green in their careers and don’t have the experience that seasoned employees do. This creates a learning curve and requires additional time needed to get them up to speed.
More design changes
Unpredictable factors create unpredictable change—and change requires an added degree of flexibility for the project to adapt to the circumstances. As a result, companies are seeing more design changes come through, and the need to stay on top of assessing and documenting them.
Issues in the supply chain
Speaking of unpredictable, the industry ha seen an influx in supply chain issues, causing delays in shipments and—in some cases—a limited supply of the necessary materials available.
Rising inflation
Across every industry, prices are going up. Companies must now reconcile their bids and project scopes to maintain profitability.
Doing more with less
When the going gets tough, construction stays tougher. The industry is no stranger to uncertainty. Now more than ever, companies need to pinpoint areas of improvement and streamline their processes to maximize efficiency.
With all these factors weighing on a project’s productivity, the margin for error is very low—which means operational excellence is critical for success. Many projects get to a certain stage or near completion, but struggle to accurate assess what’s happening (or not) to get the rest of the way there.
Almost done isn’t done.
If the last 10% of a milestone takes more than 20% of the time—that’s a big, potentially costly, problem.
That’s where automated construction progress tracking comes in. With the right technology in place, companies can save 25% of superintendents’ and field teams time that would otherwise be spent on tracking progress and bringing everyone on the same page. That’s less time in meetings and back-and-forth conversations, more time building.
4 ways automated construction progress tracking can help:
1. Increase trade flow
Real-time automated construction progress tracking gives everyone on a project visibility into the current state, without the need for individual communication. This ensures the project moves as quickly as it can and prevents trade stacking.
2. Proactively address issues
Stay on top of milestones with the ability to forecast and predict any slowdowns before they happen—instead of catching them after it’s too late. By automatically capturing more than 75 stages of construction, automated construction progress tracking technology can spot potential issues more efficiently in real time.
3. Manage cash flow
By providing accurate and automated cost budget analysis, companies are able to better understand their project and where it stands with the budget. When unforeseen factors or delays hit, you want all the knowledge and numbers you can get to properly adapt and minimize the impact.
4. Show, don’t tell
In construction, communication can be slow and sparse. Automated construction progress tracking gets everyone on the same page without having to meet to discuss. Having a digital surveyor gives everyone the information and insights they need to collaborate faster—without relying on project resources to collect and report on it.
No matter what gets thrown at the construction industry, a company needs to be resilient and smart to see success on the other side. Companies who invest in the right tools that save time and automate processes have the advantage of receiving data and insights in real time. The faster something is flagged, the faster it can be fixed.
Want to learn how Scripps Health and McCarthy Building Companies are automating construction progress tracking to increase project visibility? Register for our upcoming webinar Almost Done, Isn’t Done.
Ever since the pandemic, QR codes have had a resurgence in society. When the world turned contactless, restaurants and businesses began leveraging QR codes for menus and signage. These small codes have since become a go-to for pulling up web pages quickly and conveniently.
As QR codes continue to become more prevalent, other industries have taken note and discovered ways to leverage them—and construction is no exception.
But before we get into that, let’s cover some basics.
What are QR codes?
The ‘QR’ in QR codes stands for Quick Response, which makes sense when you think about the way they work. By pointing a device’s camera at the code, a destination link is pulled up and can be accessed instantaneously.
While they may have become most popular after 2020, these codes are not a new technology. QR codes were first created in 1994 by the Japanese company and Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave as a more accurate way to track vehicles and parts during the manufacturing process. The original intention behind QR codes was to reinvent the barcode by making something that was easy to scan and could hold more data than the average barcode.
In a time where businesses needed to (and continue to) adapt, QR codes and smartphones have become a powerful duo to further streamline access to information.
Leveraging new types of technology in construction
It’s no secret the construction industry is facing some challenges. From labor shortages to supply chain, the circumstances have further shown the importance of operational excellence on a project. To help combat these challenges, maintain a high standard of execution, and minimize risks of mistakes, many construction companies have found technology to be the answer.
Can QR codes play a part in this? In our webinar Almost Done Isn’t Done, one Doxel customer shared his team’s innovative way of incorporating QR codes around the job site to bring everyone on the same page, faster.
Increasing field-to-model transparency
By strategically placing QR codes around key points of the job site, all the contractors for the project are able to instantly access the corresponding models and plans needed. That way, when the contractor is getting ready for the install or build, they can simply scan the QR code to confirm what they need to accomplish.
Putting the model in the hands of field teams every step of the way gives them immediate access to see where their efforts line up (or don’t) for the project. This makes it easy to ensure accuracy while progress is being made versus waiting until it’s too late.
How do companies make their own custom QR codes? Here’s a handful of solutions to consider:
While this technology is helpful enough on its own, the destination of the QR code is what can really make the difference on a project’s path to operational excellence.
Let’s talk about what happens when laser scanning and real-time progress tracking join the party.
Empowering better progress in real time
Doxel’s AI-powered tool automatically maps and overlays 360-degree video to the BIM and 3D models. The split view allows teams to quickly understand what’s in progress and what’s done, along with the quality of installed systems.
Site progress is automatically quantified and visualized and can be differentiated by trade to compare what’s there to what should be—and as a result everyone is objectively aligned on true progress.
Imagine all this at the touch of a button, a scan of a code. With the convenient access of QR codes connected directly to Doxel, field teams can better (and more instantly) answer two of a project’s biggest questions:
Are things where they are supposed to be?
Are we on schedule?
By having the color-coded, easy to understand analysis of progress just a QR code scan away, project teams can be more proactive and accurate in their work.
Getting started with predictive progress and insights
If you’re ready to take your project models to another level, schedule a demo of Doxel today.
At their core, construction projects rely on cash flow. But it isn’t always simple—considering the complexity of projects and the fact that a company is likely managing multiple of them at once. Some projects take months or years to complete, and payments happen throughout the entire duration.
With so many payments coming and going over the course of a project, it’s crucial for project teams to stay on top of daily progress and constantly evaluate where it stands financially. Otherwise, a project is at risk for being under or overbilled. Billing accuracy is vital for any large scale construction project success.
Under and overbilling in construction
They may seem self-explanatory, but let’s get a few terms out of the way:
Overbilling occurs when a contractor is ahead of their progress and bills for contracted labor and materials before the work is completed. While this may help offset slow payments, it puts the contractor at risk of spending the extra money on something else if they don’t realize they’ve overbilled.
Underbilling happens when a contractor completes a certain amount of work on a project, but doesn’t bill for the full amount. This is typically the outcome of slow billing practices.
Both under and overbilling can lead to a state of negative cash flow, which can be detrimental to a construction company’s profitability and expected outcome on a project.
So, how does it happen?
Underlying causes of under/overbilling
Incorrect estimation
Even before the project starts, money matters. If contractors are unable to correctly estimate project costs—or worse, underestimate their costs—it could set them up to be underbilled and out of cash before the project is completed. This deeply impacts their ability to make money (or at the very least break even) on the project, and it may go unnoticed until the very end when it’s too late.
Inaccurate progress tracking
If a contractor isn’t precise about what has been completed thus far, they will likely bill incorrectly. Trying to guess the percentage of completion could quickly cause them to over or underbill, and as a result the project’s entire budget will be at risk.
Lack of project management
Construction is like a delicate dance, and poor project management could throw the entire routine off balance. Especially on bigger projects with multiple subcontractors, a disruption in one contractor’s ability to complete work could have a ripple effect on the entire project’s timeline and budget.
Effective project management allows a company to catch and correct any potential problems while holding everyone accountable for their part. If everything is settled at the end of the project, it’s already too late and nearly impossible to course correct.
Mitigate billing risks and improve billing accuracy with automated progress tracking
Subcontractors that accurately measure daily progress have the ability to bill more precisely and maximize profits. For general contractors and owners, AI-powered progress tracking ensures accuracy by providing a single source of truth on percentage completed.
Being able to track and even predict progress is a powerful advantage—the more data you have from one unified source, the less likely over and under billing occur, improving billing accuracy.
The best part? The technology already exists to enable companies to collect better, more accurate data with less manual effort. Leveraging features such as automated estimate at completion (EAC) and earned value analysis can help guarantee a company’s project financials and reporting are spot on.
To learn more about the ways your construction company can maximize profitability and improve billing accuracy, schedule a demo today.
Construction is a unique industry in many ways, one of which being the flow of cash and accounting process for projects. Whereas many industries have straightforward transactions and payments, construction costs tend to be more complex and nuanced—which makes it more difficult to stay on top of a budget with money constantly going out and coming in.
From estimation and bidding to delays and change orders, there are many stages and factors that go into determining the cost (and profits) of a project.
How can companies know if they’re on schedule and under budget before the project closes? Work in progress is the answer.
Tracking work in progress
A work in progress (or, WIP) schedule is a detailed report that shows the percentage of progress completed on a project—and takes into account any work that’s in progress in relation to budget and profitability. Below are four reasons WIP Reporting is essential on every project!
1. Creates objectivity
When it comes to a project’s progress, communication is critical. Without clear, real-time communication, project teams waste valuable time meeting to discuss and determine where a project stands. Progress can also be misrepresented or miscalculated, which directly impacts the budget and schedule of a project. With so many moving parts to balance, construction companies can’t afford to make mistakes due to miscommunication.
WIP reports provide accurate progress data that project teams can trust across the entire site. This reduces any subjectivity throughout the building process and gives everyone one source of truth to work from.
2. Minimizes under and overbilling
Many contractors choose to implement progress payments, which means the project is billed based on certain percentages of completion as they’re reached instead of waiting until the end of a job. Combine progress payments with inaccurate progress reporting, and the project can very quickly become overbilled (revenue billed exceeds the work completed) or underbilled (work completed exceeds what’s been billed).
WIP tracking provides the exact progress percentage of work completed to create a shared understanding and accountability for project costs accrued so far—and can help shed light on any discrepancies in the budget to prevent future cash-flow problems. This is especially helpful for those project managers who like to ‘guesstimate’ based on a gut feeling, then try to do the math later to even it out.
3. Identifies risks and issues
Hindsight may be 20/20, but it won’t keep your project profitable. A problem is much harder to fix after it’s already happened. While discussing what went wrong at the end may help your next project, the power to be able to notice and act in real time is invaluable. Project teams need to be able to spot potential problems as early as humanly possible to minimize the impact and keep everything on track.
That’s where work in progress tracking comes in—it’s in the name. Using technology that quantifies progress all the way down to the subcomponent level allows stakeholders to catch an issue and course correct as soon as (if not before) it happens. This prevents mistakes from becoming costly and provides insight for better business decisions in the future.
4. Increases predictability
While catching issues early on is one thing, being able to predict a project’s future is another. With the right AI-powered progress tracking, companies can track project performance for deviations from plan and forecast a more accurate estimate at completion.
Knowing where your project is heading before you get there means you can plan accordingly and get ahead of costly trends. WIP tracking data gives project teams the ability to confidently manage the schedule and predict delays.
See the future with WIP
At the end of the day, work in progress reports give a true and accurate view of the financial health of a project. However, they require accurate project progress data to be effective.
Companies that leverage technology with AI-powered progress tracking can truly reap the benefits of WIP reports—and ultimately keep their projects on track and profitable.
