5 minute read
Are VR and AI the future for scaffold management?
Despite growing IT investment across the board, reported at $10 billion*, the construction industry still lacks an integrated solution for scaffolding work management
Fragmented digital tools, such as CAD software for design, inventory software for asset management and procurement, and accounting tools for finance, often result in data silos. This scattered environment makes it difficult for you to compile and share project information to all stakeholders.
For scaffolding firms, data management is extremely critical to align all project stakeholders, especially between field and office teams, throughout the project phases.
According to a recent Construction Disconnected report** by PlanGrid and the consulting company FMI, poor data and miscommunication account for 14+ hours of productivity loss per person every week and $31.3 billion of rework in the US alone.
On the bright side, having a cohesive digital platform can help firms collect and exploit valuable project data to improve productivity and profitability.
THE PROBLEM: DATA SILOS IN SCAFFOLDING PROJECTS
From design and execution to handover, every scaffolding project requires a collaborative effort from all disciplines to ensure build quality and achieve the delivery timeline. To do this, it’s essential to collect and manage all the data points to coordinate the project among stakeholders. That’s where challenges arise. Many scaffolding businesses are losing money due to inefficient workflows.
Designers and engineers rely on technology like computer-aided design software to create scaffold blueprints. However, the counting of materials is often done manually using a paper-based system and documented in the back-office data repository. Such tedious design and counting processes can put contractors behind in the bidding race. Or worse, errors in materials management can directly affect estimates and quotation accuracy.
There’s another problem. Even minor design modification can bring significant changes to the bill of materials. Due to the disconnected data between design and material management, these changes can easily fall through the cracks. Miscalculations
inevitably result in change orders or rework, increasing costs and timelines.
Not only does the procurement complexity delay construction, it also reduces field productivity. For instance, without access to back-office data, job site crews are forced to use inefficient practices like phone calls to request equipment or materials, which can take hours or even days for approval. These manual and disconnected processes, in turn, mean that accounting teams struggle to keep track of changing scope and material requirements when the time comes for billing and invoicing.
When it comes to scaffolding hire, data management can make or break your business. Without real-time insights into inventory records, it’s extremely time-consuming to manage equipment utilization. Failure to accurately track your equipment fleet can hurt your profit margins, as you can’t bill customers for missing or damaged items that don’t get accounted for.
With an integrated system built for a scaffolding business, you can automate design and estimates while ensuring data accuracy through all project phases.
BENEFITS OF CONNECTING TEAMS ON A UNIFIED DATA PLATFORM
The key to successful digital collaboration is having a centralized data platform for all inputs into a project. This gives everyone from crews to facility owners complete visibility into the project plan and expected outcomes.
By bringing advanced data capabilities to the job site, you can empower teams to work smarter and faster, rather than searching for project information or dealing with change orders and rework.
A unified data platform significantly improves the following areas:
1. Project visualization and inspection To communicate the value of your proposal, you need supporting data that customers can understand: how the design fits with the unique requirements of the building structure, the arrangement of materials, and how everything looks like in real life. This information is also critical to facilitate execution on the job site.
Presenting complex scaffold designs on paper is not easy. With an integrated digital platform, you can visualize scaffold models in a powerful new way, and even walk-through them in 3D, virtual or augmented reality.
Visualization capabilities allow for early identification of potential obstructions and unexpected constraints, so that designers can update blueprints instantly. With the right software, any modification implemented will automatically generate a new bill of materials. That way, teams always have access to the latest project scope, making it easier to coordinate work across sites.
2. Field productivity With immediate access to back-office data, foremen and other team members can track and locate materials, and initiate purchase orders directly through the software. Once approved, the updated materials list will be reflected in the inventory management system. There’s no need for manual data entry.
This is where design, bid estimates, and materials management intersect.
For procurement, connecting on-site and back-office data also makes it easier to track all the equipment moving in and out of the field. If you manage rental equipment, having real-time records of stock levels is crucial to optimize utilization and avoid downtime.
3. Digital collaboration Alignment on project scope helps all stakeholders to co-author the scaffolding plan with ease, whether in the boardroom or on-site. With data compatibility in multiple formats and platforms (for example, between design software and mobile applications), teams can communicate changes or requests for information anytime. Visibility into project data helps to identify potential risks, coordinate changes on the fly, and make necessary adjustments to ensure safety.
Scaffold Designer for design management, Scaffold Viewer for visualization, and Quantify for inventory management.
Scaffold Designer is developed to automate the design and counting of scaffold models. By integrating Scaffold Designer with Quantify, you’ll have a complete inventory control solution with automatic equipment calculation, shipments, and invoices. With Scaffold Viewer, a free download for both desktop and mobile, you can visualize and walk through scaffolding models in virtual and augmented reality.
Avontus’ integrated design system offers a turnkey platform for connecting your project data from initial planning and execution to completion. This support gives your scaffolding business a competitive advantage in the digital age. Get in touch with the Avontus team to learn more. www.avontus.com ■
References: *Jose Luis Blanco, Andrew Mullin, Kaustubh Pandya, and Mukund Sridhar (2017). ‘The new age of engineering and construction technology,’ McKinsey. **Eric Thomas, Peter Schott, Lynn-Kai Chao, Jay Bowman, Jay Snyder, and Natalie Spare (2018). ‘Construction Disconnected: The High Cost of Poor Data and Miscommunication.’ FMI Corporation and PlanGrid.
HOW TO REINVENT YOUR SCAFFOLD MANAGEMENT THROUGH A UNIFIED DATA PLATFORM Scaffolding firms are increasingly adopting design software that features automatic bill of materials to cut down time wasted in preconstruction. This is the first component of an integrated scaffolding project management platform.
While construction technology is gaining momentum, few solutions focus on the scaffolding market. To solve the pressing problems in data management within the industry, Avontus Software has built a complete suite of products that unify the disparate fields of scaffold management:
BELOW: A digital platform can help firms collect and exploit valuable project data to improve productivity and profitability
