By AJ Waters
Team sports—whether soccer, basketball, or football—depend on combining individual assignments into a common plan to create success. By doing so, the goal is for that effort to become something more than the sum of its parts. However, if just one person misses their assignment, the consequences can be disastrous. In the same way, construction is a team sport. It requires crews to be engaged, committed, and disciplined to put “points on the scoreboard.”
It’s no wonder then that we hear more and more that 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 football season, let us look at how to attack your own scoreboard with today’s best real-time progress tracking solutions.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 jobsite. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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!
6. 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.
CLOSING THOUGHT
Much like the yards gained or lost on every down, construction can be summed up in daily wins and losses. Rather than the siloed point solutions you’ve grown accustom to, today’s best progress-tracking software helps your team keep an eye on the game play by play, so that gains can begin to out-weigh losses.
About the author:
AJ Waters is vice president, industry solutions for InEight, a construction project management software company. For more, ineight.com.
Modern Contractor Solutions, December 2020
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