Team and stakeholder communication is vital for any construction project. Much of that communication depends on construction drawings that are put down on paper. With the constantly evolving nature of even simple projects, though, changes get made and paper piles up. Inevitably, valuable information gets lost in the shuffle, prompting construction teams to outsource this mundane task and reap the productivity benefits.
Project manager, Gary Cummins, at John Hyland Construction Company (JHC), sat down with the ARC® team to speak about this challenge and share insights on how JHC has improved the way they communicate using mobile technology. (Read the full story)
Siloed Information and a Lack of Transparency
As project manager at JHC, Cummins was seeking a solution that would help him and his colleagues ensure accurate communication as construction plans changed.
The lack of transparency into drawing variances has serious implications for the process of requesting bids. For example, when Cummins bid out his drawings, any differences between plans had to be visible. Moreover, he needed unlimited capacity to share the huge files that held these plans.
The variations in drawings also complicated the change order process. Since subcontracts were based on the 95% bid set, there was confusion when several changes had to be made in the 100% permit set. Without a solution, this challenge would lead to costly project delays.
With siloed information and a lack of transparency, contractors risk cost overruns, project delays and time-consuming reworks.
Centralized Communication for Every Phase of the Project Lifecycle
JHC experienced multiple transformations and benefits from using the ARC Mobile Projects Dashboard:
- An overlay process that allowed JHC to publish multiple versions of the same drawings in one viewable overlay.
- Hyperlinking between sections of construction drawings, construction details, RFIs and ASIs gave team members the ability to quickly navigate project documents.
- Unlimited file sizes eliminated clunky file sharing processes for internal and external team members and stakeholders.
- Digital drawings combined with hyperlinking made meetings and collaboration more productive.
- Invite tracking allowed project managers to share and control access for anyone involved with the project.
Readily Accessible Information Throughout the Construction Lifecycle
“ARC Projects is the way to do it. There can be so much confusion with different version of documents–which ARC Projects solves.”
Simplified bidding process, OAC meetings and file sharing
One of the challenges JHC faced was maintaining transparency between multiple plan versions during the bid process. The overlay process enabled JHC to publish a set that clearly showed changes between versions. This simplified the change order process because every subcontractor could quickly see drawing variations.
ARC Projects also ensured that every subcontractor was bidding on the same set of documents.
Similarly, during OAC team meetings, communication was vastly improved. Current plans, RFIs and ASIs were quickly shareable and accessible to everyone. The capability to send unlimited file sizes also meant JHC didn’t have to use FTP sites or other inconvenient file sharing methods.
Easy access to drawing sections and construction details
During a project, team members and stakeholders didn’t have to sort through bulky drawings. The ability to quickly jump to linked sections and details in a digital drawing improved productivity for JHC and their subcontractors.
“Our project engineers, foreman and subcontractors love having access to updated, hyperlinked drawings in the field. It saves time and frustration compared to taking several pages with you, just to find that you needed one more print or that it was the old version.”
Every drawing and detail was accessible for JHC and other stakeholders with the ability to send and track invites within ARC Projects.
“ARC Projects is the way to do it. There can be so much confusion with different version of documents–which ARC Projects solves.”
