Tablets and iPads are becoming common tools for site superintendents and even foremen as the age of electronic data spreads from the office to the building site.
The owners of mform Construction Group, a Toronto-based contractor that specializes in high-end and technology-focused commercial interiors, know that well.
Jason Shapiro, one of the company’s owners and its head of business development, says mform has put tablets in the hands of its superintendents to tackle punchlist deficiencies via PlanGrid, mobile construction software that offers electronic drawings and documentation in real time.
An electronic deficiency punchlist minimizes legwork for site supers and foremen running back and forth from the site trailer.
“The whole set of drawings is (on a tablet) in their hands,” he states.
It also improves relationships between superintendents and subs by providing real-time information, he adds.
“It allows site supers to be more involved and proactive, instead of reactive,” says Shapiro, adding some designers have conducted final deficiency walk-throughs, logging changes on tablets.
“The old-school approach is by populating an Excel sheet for punchlists and the site super crosses it off with a highlighter as he or she works through it. But what happens if someone loses that master list?”
Keeping a paper masterlist updated and circulated can be cumbersome, Shapiro adds, noting of mform’s 40 or so employees about 15 to 20 use PlanGrid.
Technology buildouts are a mainstay for mform and it has completed a number of large head office contracts, including Facebook, Microsoft and Scotiabank’s award-winning Digital Factory.
Technology is taken seriously by many clients and builders can’t escape that growing trend.
“We need to embrace it ourselves,” he says.
While mform only uses some of the features of PlanGrid, it hopes to gradually bring on more features as the comfort level grows with its staff.
“Time will tell if this is going to be the solution for us, but right now it seems to have the features we need,” Shapiro states. “We just need to give our team (fieldworkers) the time to embrace it…keep training them and I think eventually it will be a part of our DNA.”
John Donahue, regional vice-president of sales for PlanGrid, says paper is probably the company’s “most formidable competitor. It’s not the most efficient way” but many contractors still conduct business with it.
He says an example of where paper drawings can be a problem is when a worker onsite needs to quickly review drawings on a wall installation.
“Sometimes there might be a set of (paper) drawings near him but how does he know that they are the current set?” he says.
Working off old drawings can result in costly mistakes that can back up other contractors in the chain, Donahue says.
On big projects, $1 billion or more, rework can run into the millions of dollars, he says.
Companies like PlanGrid provide electronic drawings that are current.
“As long as someone receives and uploads that set, it automatically distributes to anyone on that project,” he says.
Donahue says the convergence of technologies — the iPad or tablet, the cloud for storage and high-speed wireless Internet access — has opened opportunities for work efficiency improvements in the construction industry.
“But if software companies expect an easy sell, think again. The software must be easy to use and eliminate interface issues that could hamper a worker’s ability to call up current drawing details quickly,” he says. “We partnered with Apple to keep the interface easy.”
Donahue says while a lot of software for construction has been geared to engineers, architects “and people who sit at a laptop,” PlanGrid was built for the end user, “the field worker because that is where all the inefficiency occurs.
“Most people that use it say it saves them a minimum of three to four hours a week. Construction productivity software is going to help make you build more efficiently, more effectively, reduce errors and deficiencies.”
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