Monitoring progress
Plan
“Project Planning meetings produce ten days of work, this solution could save 80% of this time. However, the system and project team will need to be flexible and resilient.”
Ian White, Planner, Pearce
“We use a lot of effort pulling data together, sharing it, and updating it.” Hear more...
Nick Regan, IS Manager, Pearce
“The solution will combine several technology applications and lean construction practices.”
Richard Scott, MD, Mobile Computing Systems
Background
Pearce has been successfully reducing their project delivery times by applying Lean Construction techniques but find that there is a lot of administration time. The mobile IT solution is designed to streamline project control and reduce the construction time.
They have good top level support, with enthusiasm from both site managers and staff.
Problem
Construction projects are planned collaboratively using 'post it' notes in a workshop with key subcontractors. However it can take 2 weeks to turn the workshop output into a plan that all parties can review and confirm.
Once on site, all subcontractors must produce actual and 4 week forecasts for each weekly progress meeting. This is time consuming and if not done, devalues the weekly meeting.
Proposed solution
Barcoded 'post it' notes will be used for the planning workshop and scanned to produce a first draft programme.
On site, the system will generate subcontractors' forecasts from the master plan for them to amend. Actual progress will be captured using PDAs on site.
Pilot
“The software looks good so far and the reaction from Pearce staff has been very enthusiastic.”
Nick Regan, IS Manager, Pearce
“We have a better understanding of the Pearce business processes having been to watch their people on site.”
Richard Scott, MD, Mobile Computing Systems
“I had little training and the software is easy to use.”
Ian White, Planner, Pearce
Pilot information
MCS delivered the software in June and provided training in the use of the Affinity solution. The development of the planning part of the system has been done iteratively with close communication between MCS and Pearce. This has resulted in a good fit with the Pearce collaborative planning process and reduced the level of training required. The progress monitoring part of the system has also been delivered but there has been less time for users to get involved in the development. This was because Construction Managers are site based most of the time and move quickly from one project to the next. It is much easier to get input from Office based staff e.g. planners, than site based staff.
Development notes
Testing revealed a few errors in the software - moving tasks in the project programme, and printing the programme to the right size. These were quickly addressed by MCS. Ian White was then able to load an initial programme for his Waitrose Cobham project into Affinity. The Cobham project will be launched with a collaborative planning workshop in July so testing has concentrated on the processes required for the planning workshop. If we were doing this pilot again, we would spend more time fully testing and training staff in all parts of the system.
Internal changes
During the software development, we have realised that Pearce's own processes are applied at different levels of detail and rigour depending on the nature of the construction project. This has been apparent in the views of Construction Managers on how much detail to record about actual progress and planned activity from one week to the next.
As a result, we have decided to try to keep the Affinity solution fairly simple and not require the site teams to record too much information. This means that the solution will use bar coded labels on the wall to show the project team what activities need to be completed, where, by whom and when. This wall chart will then be kept up to date and progress recorded by moving the labels where activities have slipped or been brought forward, and by scanning the labels to update the master programme.
We will not use PDA's on this demonstration project to record completion of activities on site, although this is a feature of the system that we could try on a subsequent project.
Deployment
“This system has improved our planning process. Unfortunately we have yet to fully implement it for monitoring progress.”
Nick Regan, IS Manager, Pearce
“It is good to have a system that the planner and construction manager can both understand.”
Jerry Sims, Construction Manager, Pearce
“MCS have been responsive to our needs and helped overcome some early problems.”
Ian White, Planner, Pearce
Implementation
The implementation of the new solution has been in two stages:
Stage 1: Affinity has been used to produce a 50ft long draft programme and bar coded activity labels. These identify the daily tasks required to complete a 5 month project to extend and refurbish the Waitrose supermarket in Cobham. The programme and labels were used in a collaborative planning workshop in July attended by Pearce, Waitrose's designers and all major subcontractors on the project. The planning day did not significantly change from the point of view of the sub-contractors. For Pearce, the task notes were now bar-coded and the Pearce Planner has used the system to set-up the schedule. New notes were printed during the meeting as the trades changed their tasks and details about the tasks were written on the notes to be included in the schedule. After the meeting an hour was spent scanning the schedule, synchronising the scanners to the pc and putting the walls back to normal. Excel and Pdf versions of the schedule were mailed that week to the sub-contractors. This was at least a week quicker than had been possible with the old system.
Stage 2: Affinity has been used to produce a visual construction programme that is stuck on the wall of the site office. This is still printed as a set of daily activities but only showing 6 weeks at a time. (You don't get 50ft walls in site offices!) There have been two major design changes since Pearce started on site and the programme has needed to be revised significantly. This has been done successfully by the planner and construction manager working together with the visual plan, and rescanning activities to create a new programme. Unfortunately this re-planning has meant that subcontractors have not been able to get as involved in reviewing progress and maintaining the plan as we had hoped.
Site Issues
Initially the Affinity software was slow to update from site, over a broadband line. The software has now been speeded up by MCS.
Even a 6 week view of the programme was too large to fit on the site office wall using the standard post-it sized labels that were using in the collaborative planning workshop. MCS were able to find smaller 'address sized' labels that could be used instead.
The short timescale between delivering the software and starting the Waitrose project has not given enough time for training the site team and subcontractors on using Affinity fully. The re-planning required at site has meant that the Pearce construction manager has not had the time to give this training either. It is working successfully for maintaining the construction programme but is not being used to monitor detailed progress and planned activity each week.
Solution
The construction programme is saved on the Pearce main server, and all site networks have ISDN or broadband access to it. A plotter is used on site to print sections of the programme on A0 size paper. The activities are printed on special labels which enable removing and re-application. These were difficult to source as normal post-it-notes lose their stick too quickly. It was agreed that the gun shaped scanners would be easier when scanning all tasks on an 18 week schedule.
Evaluation
“Some parts of this project were great, others were frustrating. The potential is there if we can implement it.”
Nick Regan, IS Manager, Pearce
“Next time around, I would start using the system for planning much earlier.”
Jerry Sims, Construction Manager, Pearce
“Affinity has made a big difference to my job.”
Ian White, Planner, Pearce
Evaluation
We have seen savings in developing and maintaining the master construction programme. These alone show a ROI of 12 months. Due to time constraints at the start of the project, we haven't managed to implement the weekly monitoring processes we envisaged. These could generate further savings on future projects. However we would need to do more to educate Pearce staff and our subcontractors in lean construction processes first to make the implementation easier. Further savings and improvements are expected from in-tangible benefits that can't be accurately measured at this stage.
Lessons
- There are several key lessons we have learnt from this demonstration project: In adopting new technology, ensure that it will perform quickly at site as well as in the office.
- Ensure you have an enthusiastic champion and user for the pilot of the new system.
- Make sure your champion and pilot project team fully understand the solution before implementing it.
- Start using the system and enter all your data before using it on site.
- Don't expect site teams to fill in missing data as well as managing a construction project.
- People like to see things on paper; the system must be able to produce high quality paper output.
Costs
A total cost of £41.8k to develop and set-up the solution, and an annual cost of £19.32k is expected. Development and management has cost £12k, ongoing management is expected to be £4.8k annually. The Affinity software was £26k and circa £5.2k annually. Scanners and Post-It-Notes for seven concurrent projects are £2.8k and circa £1.32k annually. The existing Pearce network is being used and the software technical support is within the annual £5.2k mentioned above.
What next?
Pearce have seen some clear benefits in producing a collaborative construction programme and will explore this further on other projects. The system also has the potential to improve the monitoring of progress and short term planning on projects but has been harder to implement for us. We need to think first how to create the right environment on our sites to allow the system to be implemented successfully for this.