Successfully handling the complexity of construction projects usually comes down to prioritizing three key elements of your workflow — communication, coordination, and collaboration — simply put, the three Cs.
Bad communication compromises accuracy, poor coordination stalls progress, and subpar collaboration impairs your quality. From pre-planning to handover, firms that optimize these three Cs are closer to achieving project objectives while efficiently navigating the shifting dynamics and hierarchies of different teams and stakeholders.
But how do you initiate an efficient system that caters to each project partner’s needs, requests, and expectations? And what does having a digital jobsite have to do with it? Let’s dive in.
Communication
Communication: the most vital element behind every successful venture, regardless of industry. It might seem like a given, but even at the height of the industrial digital revolution, many construction firms still believe hand-drawn sketches, printed site photos, and paper floorplans are the way forward.
“Several firms we spoke to are still using these manual workflows and have yet to adopt a digital platform that can unify and simplify their work. For most of them, it’s a notion that moving toward digital jobsites means having to do more work, which is far from the truth.”
— Kyle Tarr, Product Manager, FARO Technologies —
Of course, there is nothing wrong with relying on hard copies of project documentation, but like most things, there are more efficient ways to do this. Leveraging digital jobsites as your primary means of communication eliminates the hassle of manually ensuring accurate information reaches the right stakeholder.
A cloud-based digital jobsite that only requires a compatible computer and stable internet connection democratizes your project data in one swift move. Whether you’re handling 360° or 2D photos, 3D point clouds or 3D modeling data, floor plans or markups — digital jobsites unify these different formats into an easy-to-use platform. The information and data you need are just a click away.
With limiters and defined permission settings, you can ensure those accessing your digital jobsite can only access data and files you want them to see. On the other hand, these user-friendly dashboards enable those less familiar with virtual workspaces to navigate the platform and find what they need with minimal technical training.
Coordination
Porous weekly site updates that raise more issues than they solve, inaccurate material dimensions delivered, and limited visibility into actual jobsite progress—sound familiar? As these issues surface and pile up within today’s projects, delays and poor construction quality become inevitable.
Digital jobsite platforms like FARO Sphere® XG help transform these weekly OAC meetings into immersive virtual site tours by leveraging 360° photos. Provide everyone in the room with a visual representation of your project and ensure they’re on the same page through high-definition imagery and a 360° perspective of current site conditions.
Procurement teams issuing purchase orders for building materials will gain a clear idea of items required through 360° photos; architects and designers are provided with inch-accurate site photos to ensure precision on execution; superintendents and project managers benefit from a birds-eye view into progress, jobsite status, and potential bottlenecks, all through a digital jobsite.
When all team members, trade partners, and stakeholders are aligned, accurate and relevant information is fed to the proper functions, promoting efficient execution and contractually precise work on projects.
Collaboration
It might appear as buzzwords, but efficient synergy through collaboration does wonders for project precision and timeliness. Collaborating with trade partners and stakeholders often regresses into staggered communication threads when not using the right solutions in your digital toolkit.
Ultimately, information gaps that fail to address or acknowledge the pressing issues begin to appear. In the long run, re-establishing effective communication and coordination efforts against the status quo becomes increasingly challenging, causing subpar work to be handed over and damaging your firm’s reputation.
With digital jobsites, achieving mutual project goals of high-quality construction and delivery standards no longer appears unrealistic but is instead viewed as delivery benchmarks. Digital jobsites equipped with industry-standard collaborative tools and broad interoperability enable you to manage entire aspects of your project throughout all phases with ease and accuracy.
Leveraging digital jobsites also means benefiting from their compatibility with conventional platforms such as Procore or Autodesk, where data can be unified and consolidated into multi-layered visuals on a single project. With defined permission settings on your digital jobsite, stakeholders can easily navigate the platform and access data from anywhere.
