Photo: Spence Construction
Medium and small-sized businesses are working harder this year to reduce the current level of rework, according to Procore’s recent How We Build Now report. Large businesses, on the other hand, are moving slower. This year is seeing them spend over a fifth of their time re-visiting work they have already completed. And the result of this? Rework continues to add significant cost pressure in terms of both raw materials and labour.
A Game Changer with Real-Time Visibility
For Spence Construction, transforming its construction management platform into a real-time centralised system with Procore has been a game-changer. It has helped the company address and overcome a broad range of construction management issues, especially solving the challenge of rework.
Before implementing Procore, Spence Construction relied on a spreadsheet-based, single-use entry documentation system. For Spence Construction’s Business Manager Tim Hassett, technology seemed a primary channel to unlock productivity and profitability. His mandate was clear: Improve document management processes throughout the broader business and create an easy-to-access central system.
Technology seemed a primary channel to unlock productivity and profitability.
“Manual data entry was increasing the risk of errors for the firm,” he noted. “A lack of automation meant administration took more time than it should, resulting in bottlenecks each month and a lack of visibility across the business.”
Data Capture Will Improve the Bottom Line
Businesses polled in the recent How We Build Now 2020 report estimated they could reduce project costs by 12% if data is captured more efficiently. The findings would then help inform business decisions.
With this goal in mind, Spence Construction planned its move to a cloud-based system to deliver robust data capture, standardisation and integration. It implemented Procore Project Management, Incidents, Observations, Defects and Quality and Safety. The firm is also incorporating Procore Analytics, Project Financials: Real-Time Labour Costing, as well as the Correspondence management tool to enhance its productivity.
“Procore lets us collaborate across a central platform from wherever we are, and this gives us real-time data to make more informed decisions every day. With Procore Analytics, we can better measure the data, meaning we can better manage positive outcomes,” said Tim.
Now, with everyone in the business using Procore on a day-to-day basis, Spence Construction is collaborating more rapidly and effectively than ever before. It allows the company to administer more projects with the same amount of time and effort.
These results align Spence Construction with findings from the How We Build Now 2020 report. Fifty-three per cent of large and 48% of medium businesses believe investment in data capture, integration and standardisation will deliver better productivity outcomes. Forty-five per cent of all businesses think it will improve knowledge management and help with increasing regulatory compliance.
Meeting Customer Needs With Better Use of Data
Spence Construction believes it now has a competitive edge as it can share every project’s progress with architects and owners. It can accurately report on the project status while real-time updates facilitate pricing a project accordingly and avoid significant overruns.
“The bottom-line benefit for us is a halving of errors which inevitably lead to rework. This, in turn, translates into a 50% uplift in efficiency for on-site project management,” Tim explained.
For Spence Construction, the double down on technology will see it integrate Procore Analytics to enable further process efficiency.
“We need to find ways to support continued growth without stretching our internal resources,” said Tim. “The Real-Time Labour Costing tool will help us analyse and understand our true cost of construction on every project. This will power informed decisions from a tendering and job management perspective.”
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