In the high-stakes and fast-paced construction industry environment, minor delays or errors in communication can easily cost thousands of dollars or more in construction rework and quickly eat up profit margins. Often, solutions to these problems need to be simple to make communication of issues quicker and more effective without tying it up in procedural red tape. That’s where technology comes in to help revolutionize business processes and improve communications from the field to the office. Improving communication with the field helps to reduce construction rework, saving time and money.
In a world with squeezing margins and workforce scarcity, who can afford a field that doesn’t have the tools to make quick decisions based on real-time data? Twenty years ago, it was the norm to live in a non-real-time world where workers filled out timecards manually and it took two weeks to get job cost reports back. It was another wait to get invoices (and payment) from subcontractors before being able to calculate their cost impact. Plan sheets were outdated. Safety talking points weren’t always relevant to the current project. All of these were problems kicked to the foreman leading the crew—the one person who daily makes decisions that will either keep the job on a budget or not.
But today, technology is driving a timelier approach in the field: streamlining workflows, saving time for the foremen and giving them information they need to make the right decisions to get the job done on budget and on time. This technology improves real-time communications from the field to the office, helping deter challenges and mistakes that cost the company bottom-line profits.
Six Tips to Improve Communications Between the Field and Office
1. Use digital plans that can update in one click for everyone.
Everyone in the field and the office can avoid rework due to outdated information when they receive updates within minutes of any new plan change, revision or annotation. Older plan versions are available in history for a quick reference for the team.
2. Document and communicate notes from all phases of the project.
If notes are documented in the estimating or preconstruction phases, then the estimate notes can be automatically shared with foremen on their daily timecards. Supervisors can use the notes to understand how the estimator planned the work and can notify the project manager ahead of time if they can tell actual production won’t match the estimate.
3. Track progress for same-day identification of errors to avoid costly rework.
Daily data lets the office virtually walk the field with photos, timecards, plan updates, production quantities and job costing. Errors can be caught early and fixed before they become costly. Over time, this can help create a culture of accountability and communication driven by real-time tracking issues.
4. Empower project managers with advanced job management tools.
Change tracking and documentation is easy when all job data is viewable and searchable online in seconds. Timecards, safety data, RFIs, submittals and owner and subcontractor correspondence are tracked with notifications on when key items are due. If a company’s managers and executives are actively viewing daily field data and collaborating with each other and the field, then that sets a precedent that collaboration is promoted at all levels of the company.
Digital tools cut data entry time in half, allowing users to finish their daily tracking in 10 minutes or less a day, including crucial pieces of information like crew hours, equipment hours, materials, quantities, cost codes, weather conditions, quick notes, daily log and photos. Once foremen submit their data for the day, it’s automatically sent to the project manager for approval. Foremen also can get instant feedback in the app that shows them if they hit their productivity goals for the day and where any variance from the estimate happened in each cost code.
5. Give information access options to the entire field on the phone, tablet and web.
Team members need the ability to see critical decision-making data or communicate with others, even in harsh conditions that require offline access. Mobile and web access to the same system is crucial for delivering jobs on time and within budget. Periodic training sessions (with or without vendors’ implementation teams) can help keep employees updated on newly released features that help the company gain a competitive edge.
6. Crew time tracking, inspections and more.
Companies can speed up the field tracking process with mobile technology that allows their crews to improve communications with management. Instead of verbally communicating with the foreman, crew members can directly clock in or submit their own time and information about what they worked on that day. Once submitted, the data is automatically sent to their foreman for review and editing in today’s timecard. Crew members can do more than submit their time; they’re able to log inspections, maintenance requests and safety observations quickly.
Technology in the hands of the right people can drive valuable change to a business. Often, the field is overlooked even though it is precisely the location where money is made or lost. Give the crew mobile solutions and technologies that communicate back and forth between the field and office to reduce rework, improve operations, manage budgets and keep projects on track.
