By AJ Waters, InEight vice president, industry solutions
I’ll admit it; I love football. It’s the ultimate team sport with a select group of people working to achieve one goal. Do your job as planned and glory awaits. Take a short cut, however, and it could mean catastrophe. And just like no game can be played (or won) without a goal, strategy and scoreboard, construction, like football, is team sport.
It’s no wonder then that we’ve been hearing more and more about how crews are becoming actively “engaged in the game of being profitable” thanks to enhancements in construction progress tracking software.
Today’s construction software helps promote this engaged team mentality fairly easily – if you know what to look for. In the spirit of the season, let us look at how to attack your own scoreboard with today’s best real-time progress tracking solutions.
The game plan: Integrated project planning
Understanding the playbook is step one for a winning team. With advancements in holistic planning for construction, gone are the disconnects of critical path method schedules and work packages. Integrating the daily game plan of work to be completed (tasks, quantities, goals, etc.) allows the seamless transfer of work packages to the crew in the field.
The kick-off: starting the operation right
The last thing you want to do is turn the ball over on the opening drive. Starting an operation off right sets the entire day up for a successful result, which is why a fundamental part of the plan is daily tool box talks on safety, quality and environmental risks. Mastering the first drive by ensuring everyone knows their assignment and the risks allows for proper execution before the game gets out of control.
Moving the ball: True mobility on the field
Of course, what good is planning if you are unable to take it to the field? By now, it goes without saying that mobile solutions are no longer a nice-to-have on the job site. With a direct line of communication back to the office as notes, issues and activities are collected, the team is kept up to date on their progress in real time.
In-game analysis: Adjusting on the fly with real-time productivity
The best teams are those that make the best in-game adjustments. By connecting the plan and budget with the field-captured times and quantities, crews gain access to immediate performance insight. This real-time productivity analysis allows for in-operation adjustments to continue on the path of success.
Touchdown: Trading guess work for accuracy
The end goal of every operation is to mark each activity as complete. Knowing where that end zone is, by utilising detailed quantity tracking rules, provides the confidence teams need to finish a drive successfully. And who knows, they might even throw in a little touchdown dance after checking that final step as complete!
Post-game wrap up: Eliminating extra paperwork
Nothing beats the satisfaction of returning home after a job well done, especially if you can shorten the day by making quick work of administrative tasks to complete the shift. This helps to ensure timeliness and accuracy of payroll while also providing the final operational comparison of plan versus actuals. There is no better way to prepare for tomorrow, than to review the game film of today, validating performance against your goals.
Construction is a true team sport summed up in daily wins and losses. Far different from the siloed point solutions you’ve grown accustom to, today’s best progress-tracking software helps your team keep an eye on the scoreboard of profit, so that wins can begin to out-weigh losses.
Ready to find out more? Please visit http://ineight.com/.