Project Management on the Move with iPad Construction Apps

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In business as in life, organization is the name of the game. With so many tasks to complete during the course of an average day – and many more as a particular deadline approaches – keeping an account of them is the first step to actually accomplishing these task. Project management software has taken off these days, because of their ability to sync information between team members in real time, as well as their particular utility in construction-oriented jobs.

Construction Apps Make Collaboration a Breeze

On a construction site, there are a million things to do – and different people handle fractions of the collective task. There are construction apps for the iPad that allow large-scale collaboration on such projects, from onsite workers, to offsite project managers viewing specifications and drawings at the same time. The utility of status updates and timelines are fully realized with the emergence of these apps, where only a username and password is required to log in and contribute.

Naturally, the tendency to stay consistently on schedule is a by-product of using construction apps. As the quintessential project management software, the project manager can gauge onsite progress, then amend individual task completion dates as he sees fit. Indeed; he can alert the client of the changes well in advance, and connect with the onsite team leader via the app to show the client the benefits/necessity of adjusting a milestone or deadline. Or, for hard-and-fast terminal dates, everyone involved in the project is aided by the collaborative time management features of the software. In sum – it increases productivity and helps you stay on schedule.

Project Engagement and Punch Lists

A natural byproduct of the enabling abilities of a construction information app is the ability to keep track of the project. You can be alerted vital changes as the project progresses, or notified of the completion of specific tasks by the onsite team leader as they are finished. The collaborative nature of the app then eliminates cross-talk between different parts of the team, since they all have access to the app and everyone is updated at the same time. Essentially, construction apps optimize efficiency – which leads to better results, lower costs and has benefits for your reputation.

Keeping Clients In the Loop

This crucial aspect was touched on a bit earlier, but bears mentioning again. In the past, it would have been unwieldy trying to appraise a client of everything going on mid-project; for example, what if you needed more time for a task to improve upon an expected result? Trying to explain this looked unprofessional, and had an adverse effect on your reputation.

With many of these construction apps for iPad, you can keep the client in the loop throughout the project – without drowning them in the details. Their ability to access project data files explains to them more completely than you ever could, the benefits of adjusting milestones or approving funds for better outcomes.  It never has to be complicated, especially when the right app can simply provide a simple issue identification and resolution for reference.

Project management software is the collaborative app of the future, and it’s already here. Make sure your organization isn’tleft behind with help from FASTTAC. Our construction project collaboration software ensures that everyone on your team – from contractors to clients – is on the same page all project long.  Make sure your construction management works at maximum efficiency from start to finish with help from FASTTAC.

5 Traits of Successful Facility Managers

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Taking on the responsibility of building facility management is a highly demanding, and also highly rewarding position. It is a role that requires you to have industry insight, mechanical expertise and business acumen – but there’s more. Developing or building upon the five skills below, will help you improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your daily operations.

1. Superior Communication Skills

While it is fair to say that superior communication skills are required in any management position, the ability to provide clear, specific and timely communication is a must for all building facility management professionals. In fact, poor communication can result in costly mistakes and a multitude of safety and security concerns.

2. Technologically Savvy

While all facility managers must have the mechanical knowledge required to effectively manage their school, hospital or building, they must also be technologically savvy from an electronics standpoint. Not only are more and more facility management solutions electronically automated, but understanding the crucial role facilities management software plays in your success is essential. Facilities management software will help you to identify areas of opportunity, to stay organized and can even be customized for your specific needs.

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3. Both Proactive and Action Oriented

To be successful in building facility management, you must be both proactive and action oriented. Proactive enough that you are able to troubleshoot and identify areas of opportunity above and beyond what your facilities management software suggests. Action oriented in that you must be able to quickly identify the best solutions for the inevitable emergency and unforeseen situations that might arise. This could include your response to in-house mistakes, mechanical failure, power outages, or weather related emergencies. You must also be able to reevaluate your facility management solutions on at least a quarterly basis, with the intent of evaluating compliance and searching for more effective solutions.

4. Motivational

Whether your team is large or small, working in building facility management requires you to learn how to motivate your team to get their job done. There are many ways to motivate your team, a few of which include: recognizing a job well-done, communication clearly, ensuring your team has what they need to succeed, and providing the appropriate ongoing and recurrent training.

5. Fiscally Responsible

If all that’s not enough, you must also have the business acumen required to be fiscally responsible. This means that you must be able to accurately project your spending, to stay on budget, and to renegotiate vendor contracts in a matter that help you meet or beat budget for the line items you are responsible for. This means you must also invest time in exploring new short-term and long-term cost-saving solutions.

Building facility management is the ideal position for anyone with the traits above, who also enjoys a job that will present them with a multitude of daily challenges. While challenges will always arise, successfully managing each challenge—and implementing the changes required to reduce the likelihood of the same challenge in the future is highly rewarding.

Make sure your building’s facilities management is prepared to handle the present and the future with help from FASTTAC. Our facilities management software solutions keep all of your documents where you need them, allowing you to easily store and save all of your building’s information to keep your team on the same page. Discover what how the facility management solutions from FASTTAC can help you build your business and request your demo today!

Measuring Your Construction Project Management Efficiency

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Regardless of the size of the construction project, contractors and project managers alike must take a proactive approach to measuring and managing their efficiency. Managing your project properly is not only essential for keeping your clients happy, but is also essential for staying on budget—and for breaking ground on your next project in a timely manner. Turn to the tips below to measure the efficiency of your current and future projects.

Create a Plan of Action with Clearly Defined Benchmarks

First and foremost, you must create a plan of action that includes a detailed workflow. Within your plan of action, you will need to set measurable benchmarks – supported by daily, weekly and monthly goals. You will need to identify the KPIs that will help to determine your progress, and as the inevitable roadblocks arise – you will need to modify your plan of action as needed. Project document management software will help you to create an organized workflow, which is also easy to share with your team. It will even help you to determine areas of opportunity. While every construction project will need to be adjusted and revised along the way, you must have an initial plan to work from – and modify this plan as needed.

Turn to Software for Real-Time Updates

Project document software will not only help you stay organized, but investing in iPad construction apps allows your team to access real-time updates throughout your project. The construction collaboration software is intuitive and easy enough for your non-technologically savvy members to update. This way you can manage your project remotely, or see the progress of multiple projects at once. This will also help you to identify areas where you can scale back to cut more costs along the way.

Provide Clear, Concise and Timely Communication

Another benefit to construction collaboration software, is that it allows you the ability to identify bottlenecks and other areas of opportunity sooner rather than later. This allows you the ability to provide timely communication. However, you must master the art of providing clear and concise communication. Do this with a combination of verbal communication and electronic communication. Don’t forget to encourage your team to ask questions, and provide feedback so that you can adjust your plan as needed.

Walkthrough Daily or Weekly to Assess Progress Firsthand

As helpful as your project document management software and iPad construction apps may be, there is nothing that can replace a live walkthrough. Depending on the scope and scale of your construction project—this will need to be completed twice daily, daily or at less active projects a weekly basis. This will help you to determine any project-specific challenges, as well provide you with invaluable insight that you can turn to for the remainder of your current project—as well as insight that often transfers to your future projects.

Managing the efficiency of your construction project is not only essential for the success of your project, but is required for further developing your project management skills. The reoccurring theme, is that you must stay one step ahead at all times—and construction collaboration software will be one of your greatest assets in achieving this goal.

When it comes to construction, time is money. Don’t let poor communication derail your project and reinvent the way your team stays on the same page with the construction documentation software from FASTTAC. Our cutting edge project management technology transcends the traditional workflow to help streamline communication and accelerate access to up-to-the-second information. Learn more about how FASTTAC’s construction documentation software can take your business to the next level and request your free demo today!

Where is Your Data?

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Facilities range in age from just constructed to the completion of the pyramids!  Many studies around indicate that the time it takes to perform maintenance and repair on facilities is as much as 33% longer per repair due to the lack of access to information about these repairs.  Much of the time the information is available, just not accessible, and some of the time the information is just not available.

You have two things to consider with this information; first, if it is the former, how do you permit “rank and file” to have simple access to it, and if it is the latter, how do you capture it so that you have it and can find it the next time it is needed.  We will address the first consideration in this writing.

Most facilities departments have received at the conclusion of each project completed specific drawings, documents, Operations and Maintenance manuals and various and sundry product information about the installation just completed.  In the past, it came in rolls of paper and in boxes upon boxes of files.  Today it can still come in this paper format as well as on CDs and DVDs, portable drives, in proprietary electronic formats that require many different types of programs to access, shared FTP sites and the list goes on.

Also, most facilities departments have a “place” where this physical and digital information is stored for safe keeping.  The larger the facility, the larger and more complex the storage place can be.  A complication of this is when the facility also has a bit of age, not quite the pyramids, but sometimes going back 50 to 100 years.

The most important thing to do with this information is, make it available to rank and file so that you can begin to attack the problem that is currently consuming 25% to 35% of your facilities budget!  Balancing the “keep it safe” and “make it available” is the challenge.  Most times facilities departments err on the keep it safe instead of making it available.

You must make drawings and O&M manuals available to rank and file to reduces this time which consumes 35% of your personnel maintenance  budget…the question is…how?

Instead of answering with what, we will discuss key considerations:

  • Having a place to store the files is not enough; you must make it “bullet proof” to protect the images from accidental acts of overwriting by competent technology users, malicious acts of disgruntled workers and random actions by your technology challenged users.
  • You must have a tool available to mark up those drawings with markings that do not change the authorship of the originator of the drawing nor modify the original file
  • Everyone using the system must be tracked and notes left behind identified with each user
  • The data should be accessible connected or disconnected from the network
  • The solution must be as simple to update as it is simple to use

 

Now that you have decided to do something to make available the hundreds, most likely thousands and very likely, hundreds of thousands of pieces of facility information…the question is…what?  It is like eating the proverbial elephant, one bite at a time.  Consistent organization of facility information across all of your facilities whether handling content or in the capture of user inputs that keep that content current will make it valuable immediately and into the future.  Focus on these considerations will bring about the answer that is right for you.

Are You Needlessly Consuming Your Valuable Time and Money?

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One major university has calculated that it takes six hours to complete the average work order with two of those hours searching for information regarding its completion.  The NIST has indicated that, “…the total costs to facility stake holders due to inadequate interoperability and communications to be $15.84 billion (2.84% of operating costs) annually for U.S. facilities…”.  And common knowledge is that at least twenty-five percent of all facilities management time is spent gathering information to accomplish the task…in the end, it is all your time and money.

We already know why the information you need to manage your facility becomes old before you actually need it.  Now we can begin to discuss the benefits of accessing your information if you had it.

I will use information from an institution has told me that they have about 40 work order requests per day.  Using some o f the parameters above, that is about 30 workdays of effort to complete them.  Also using the same parameters, about 10 workdays or 80 work-hours are consumed searching for information to complete these tasks.

Many of these same institutions have told us that the time it takes to get the maintenance personnel to the work site just to find out that they took the wrong part or did not have the proper tool for the work order with them is a large contributor to their overall time and cost.  The 15 minutes back to the shop and 15 minutes back to the work site begins to add up.  They report that mostly this is caused by the inaccessibility to the right information.

Portable information, accessible information, organized information and updateable information all seem to lend themselves to the needs of the maintenance worker.  Being able to access this treasure-trove of data at the shop and at the work site will save a significant portion of the time that is calculated to be consumed for each work order.

A well-organized dataset, that an average technician has the IT capability to access, that provides simple markup tools to update that dataset without the need of a powerful desktop PC or years of training, is what technicians need to be more efficient and reduce the time and cost to complete work orders.

Imagine if you could reduce the time it takes to search for information by about 50% (that would be one hour instead of 2), you would be able to complete 8 more work orders or, in a better scenario, you could have reduces your staff by 5 technicians, electricians , or carpenters over time saving a significant amount of money annually.  It is your time and money, how are you spending it?

The One Year Hurdle For All New Facilities

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Some of the biggest challenges today in the facility maintenance arena are the availability of critical information and how to access it.  Once a construction project is completed, the facility information is turned over from the building team to the maintenance team.  There are  many forms that information is both submitted and received such as paper, notebooks, binders, clip boards, drawing racks, rolls of drawings, FTP sites, CDs and DVDs, CAD files, BIM Models, PDFs and the list goes on and on.  The most critical element of the information turnover comes down to, “…can the information in its current format be utilized by the rank and file maintenance technicians and workers?”

There are other impediments to the utilization of this information.  The first hurdle is the typical “one year” standard warranty for construction work.  After the training is completed and the information is turned over, the facilities staff will spend a lot of time in that first year making warranty and guarantee calls.  The information obtained at turnover is now one year old.  Chances are the facility will only have PMs completed for the first five years of operations since unscheduled maintenance only begins as the facility ages.  That turn over information is now several years out of date.

In the sixth year of operation, the facility is now beginning to experience unscheduled maintenance or “emergency calls” to replace worn or broken parts.  This is the time that the organized information kept current during the “honeymoon” period of the facility occupancy comes in handy.  Studies at USC which captured the time of the average work order takes 6 hours to complete with nearly 2 hours being spent trying to find information about the subject of that work order.

Facility information for maintenance (scheduled and unscheduled) is a long term effort, the longer it is invested in, the more it returns…the only thing to ask now is…how much does it have to cost?  Well, you don’t have to spend a lot to obtain “a lot more” in benefit!  Careful understanding of your staff and how the information that is turned over to you is going to be accessed makes all the difference in how accessible it is and how much it will cost you.