Dynamic management of the activity log: time savings and improved collaboration
Every morning, Mr. Hermiet, a works supervisor at the Construction & Sons company arrives at his site. Because there is always something going on, he dutifully logs the activities. This allows him to monitor the progress of the site on a day-to-day basis and to notify unforeseen events. For the past two weeks, Mr. Hermiet has given up his traditional spiral notebook for a smartphone equipped with the Finalcad solution. Since then, he has worked faster in this time-consuming task, which has also taken on a much more collaborative dimension.
A necessary but time-consuming activity
To enter his activity log, Mr. Hermiet used to record all site events in his small notebook. He would also take pictures with his smartphone. Back at the site facilities, he would then re-enter this information into his software and upload pictures before emailing or phoning the people who might be affected by a particular event. On a construction site, every minute counts and optimising this time-consuming task had become necessary. Since his company adopted the Finalcad solution, Mr. Hermiet has saved 1 hour a day for entering his log and sharing this information with his colleagues.
Towards real-time collaboration
If an event on the site requires the intervention of a third party, Mr. Hermiet can now just tag the competent person in his log, who receives instant notification. For example, when he was doing the rounds of the site this morning, he noticed that a guardrail was missing on a potentially hazardous portion of work. He immediately took a photo, entered the information in the app and tagged his safety officer, so that he could intervene during the day.
To further facilitate this collaboration, Mr. Hermiet has created categories in his log. "Safety" therefore, but also "Progress", in which, every day, he puts photos of the site taken at different times of the day to track progress. In "Weather," he reports weather conditions that hold back the work. Finally, in the "Additional Work" section, he notes events that require additional, unbudgeted intervention.
Stronger on- and off-site communication
Every day, at 5 p.m., Mr. Hermiet's branch manager logs into the Finalcad app from the company's headquarters. He consults all the events that occurred during the day, and then generates a report that he transfers to his customer in one click. His customer is very satisfied with this communication. They are not used to such transparency and responsiveness so this consolidates the choice of provider.
As each event is geolocated and time-stamped, the reports generated are very accurate and offer a consolidated view of the site. The contractor can therefore draw conclusions and implement best practices that will be very useful for future projects.
By gradually digitising his tracking tasks such as the activity log, as well as inspection management, Mr. Hermiet saves precious minutes in his day. He can devote this time to other more strategic tasks with the goal of achieving the best cost/quality/time balance.
