Manage field activities digitally

- I just got done discussing the advantages of using digital drawings instead of paper drawings. Again, all you have to do is ask for the drawings in PDF format. That has really become the industry standard for sharing 2D drawings and information. You can view these digital drawings in any application that will open a PDF file. Some of these applications are even specifically made for the construction and AEC industry, like Bluebeam Revu. The Bluebeam software is used by the AEC industry all over the world to view and mark up digital construction drawings. In fact, I have extensive courses on Bluebeam here on LinkedIn Learning, and I even have a weekly tips and tricks series here as well. But if you take it a step further, and you use one of the readily available construction drawing management apps to view and manage those drawings, you can gain some additional advantages. In construction management, most things are centered around the construction drawings and the project specifications. This is where I tend to differentiate between construction management software and project management software. To me, construction management software, like Fieldwire and PlanGrid, make the drawings front and center, and all other information can be referenced or tagged from those drawings. By the way, there are certainly others out there, like Procore, and a whole field of other emerging players around the world. I just happen to have extensive courses on using PlanGrid and Fieldwire, so I can really show you what they can do. Now, I showed you some of the features in the last video, and like I said, I have entire courses on those additional features, but I want you to understand their overall use and the advantages that you can realize. The main benefits to these types of construction management applications are the built-in collaboration and information sharing features. Now, this might sound similar to my discussion on the benefits of using building information models, and it is. Collaboration and information sharing among construction project team members has always been a pain point, so having multiple solutions is a good thing. BIM files tend to facilitate information sharing among project principals, and it does that at an office level. That information can then be shared with the field and the project management personnel. Construction management apps, on the other hand, tend to facilitate information sharing directly at the field and project management level, and then push it back up to the project principals when needed. These applications have come a long ways, and they'll continue to evolve. They can be used to manage the request for information that I discussed earlier, along with managing things like field submittals. Some of them also handle scheduling tasks, and manage punch or snag lists. They locate the issues directly on the shared construction drawings, and you can assign it to a specific trader person right in the app. Some of this software is being created by startups, and some by long-time industry participants. There are general construction management applications, like the ones I've already mentioned, and there are specialty applications that focus on one thing, like tracking employee time in the field, or facilitating construction scheduling. Some long-time applications, like Microsoft Project, have been commonplace in the construction industry for years, and I would not ever try to schedule a project by hand anymore. As we see more adoption of the technology in the construction industry, we're also seeing long-time companies, for example, Bosch Tools, developing applications like Refine My Site, which is specifically made to facilitate lean construction and pull planning in a digital virtual environment. Again, the goal here is to just simplify collaboration and the sharing of information. In this example, I can use Refine My Site to bring all of the information that used to live only on the whiteboard in the construction trailer, and instead push it in a digital format directly to everyone who needs it, so that they don't have to take the time to come to the construction trailer. Like I said earlier, as construction continues to adopt technology, the applications we have available to manage field activities will continue to grow. Don't adopt technology for the sake of adopting technology, though. Research it. Look for technology that will solve a problem or simplify a process. If you haven't started looking into this, I think you might be surprised as to what is out there.