Case Study: How Two Contractors Improve Project Management by Connecting to The Field

Project management software allowed project managers and crew leads to communicate changes to the field, identify mistakes, and avoid costly rework.

How Digital Field Documentation Tech Improves Project Management
Ed Bell Construction

Software that provides instant and accurate job costing by connecting your office with digital timecards, diaries, quantities, project notes, and other documentation from the field helps you stay on time and on budget. With no double entry and no time wasted driving in paperwork from the field, productivity is increased and access to the data is immediate.

Digital field documentation is ideal for working foremen for whom every minute used on paperwork is a minute wasted. Entering their crews’ time and production rates on an iPad with easy-to-use software saves them time and also gives instant feedback on whether their projects are on track, saving precious time by identifying and fixing problems early.

When the field is entering data well digitally, project managers don’t have to worry about accuracy issues or delays. Software connecting the field to the office also allows them to immediately communicate changes to the field or identify mistakes before they happen so there’s no rework and no need for project managers to be on-site to manage the project well.

How Digital Field Documentation Tech Improves Project ManagementFailures to communicate on a construction job can lead to costly mistakes, rework, and delays.Adobe Stock Images | By greenbutterfly

Project & Drawing Management

One company in Phoenix uses HCSS HeavyJob for project management and HCSS Plans to manage drawings in the field. Using these solutions, the company can communicate better with the office and with customers.

Crew leads can use HeavyJob in the field, either on laptops or mobile devices, to enter time for their crews each day. Crew members can also enter their own time each day using a clock-in/clock-out app for mobile devices. Crew hours are then electronically delivered to the crew lead in HeavyJob, minimizing phone calls and miscommunication between jobs and crew members.

Surveyors, drivers, and other single-employee crews can now enter time using the mobile app, eliminating the need for supervisors to chase down individual employees who are not part of their crews but did work on their jobs for that day.

Ways to get time collected in HeavyJob:

  • Foreman/crew leader can enter time for the crew.
  • Crew members can clock in or out, and the foreman can allocate the hours.
  • Individual employees can enter and allocate their own time.
  • Hourly office employees can enter time for both billable and non-billable time.

One company manager said every aspect of a job is run using HCSS in the field, like overseeing the budget, communicating progress to job owners, and managing safety and skills. HeavyJob works for long or short projects but offers quick turnaround, which can sometimes pose a challenge in general for reporting and time entry.

Real-time visibility for most jobs is essential. The budget is up, you can see it as they're posting it, and you can see the job analysis as the team is applying the quantities on that day. It's beneficial for the foremen who manage the job and those in the office who are watching the budgets and financials.

How Digital Field Documentation Tech Improves Project ManagementEd Bell Construction

Communication for the Office & Field

HCSS Plans are used as a job folder and communication tool between the office and the field. HCSS Plans manages all project documents, including permits, takeoff packages, drawings, and more, and foremen do their redlines and communicate about needs and changes in the field. Most companies submit bids as close to the budget as possible, but often job and cost codes have to be added, quantities go up, or things are removed and added. The ability to mark the drawings up and then adjust the budget in HeavyJob, then send to the foremen means the work will progress on time and within budget.

Ed Bell Construction offers concrete paving, bridge structures, earthwork and grading, concrete retaining walls, cast-in-place concrete retaining structures, and concrete traffic barriers and railings, which means working with many plans, including incorporating updates to the plans and managing version control. Seeking to reduce costs incurred from reworkcaused by delays in moving updates to paper-based plans in the fieldEd Bell Construction looked to HCSS Plans to help them eliminate rework caused by plan versioning errors.

Using HCSS Plans, Ed Bell Construction has eliminated rework caused by plan versioning errors that used to occur when plans were corrected in the field, but this information was not communicated to management.

Additional benefits:

  • Ability to create takeoffs, reducing work by a person who spent 30% of their time doing takeoffs
  • Easily update plans and compare revisions
  • Calculate feature will outline an area of a plan and perform automated calculations to determine how much concrete is required and the estimated time to complete
  • Upload documents that are helpful in the field, from industry specifications to repair manuals.
  • Photos and notes can be attached to plans, including videos for instant access to additional information
  • Produce precise as-built plans

How Digital Field Documentation Tech Improves Project ManagementEd Bell Construction

By replacing paper plans with digital ones, plans are always in-date in the field. Previously paper-based change orders were delivered at the last minute, and the work had already been done out in the field. For one client where the firm laid down traffic barriers for safely re-routing traffic on a large interstate highway project, the plans had changed, but this wasn't communicated to the field. They put down three miles of barrier six feet off from where it was supposed to be, costing the company $41,000. Since implementing HCSS Plans, the company has not had any rework cost expenses.

The solution has proven popular with the foremen at Ed Bell Construction. When foremen were involved with multiple projects, they drove around with a big plastic tub filled with plans. Now instead of a tub, they move around with HCSS Plans on their iPad.

Failures to communicate on a construction job can lead to costly mistakes, rework, and delays. Communicating with the field offers many improvements in project management, from eliminating rework because plans have changed and it wasn’t communicated to the field to collecting timecards on iPads versus paper cards, which can often be lost or unreadable. Improving communications between the field and the office removes silos from your business and helps everyone involved on a project to deliver the job on time and on budget. 

About the author

Tom Webb is the VP of Product at HCSS.

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