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Managing a construction project is no joke. With all the competition in the market, any slip may turn out to be a steep fall. Moreover, cost-cutting is the seems to the focus of every project manager.
Gone are the olden days involving traditional approach towards managing construction projects. Today’s construction world is full of technological advancements to tackle the challenge of sky-high construction expenses. Here are some items that will help you know more about how technology can help you with managing expenses.
Building Information Modeling
Effectively planning and managing any given construction project is not everyone’s cup of tea. However, you can steal the show if you play it smart. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is something specifically designed to assist you with all that you need for your project – from the planning aspects to the later stages including maintenance after construction is completed.
BIM is acts as a centralized resource for all employees to work on in unison. You can find a great list of Building Information Modeling software titles here.
Smart Enterprise Resource Planning
Do we even need to remind you how important it is to keep track of all materials and equipment used during a construction project? Gone are the days when you needed to update the latest stock of all the essentials manually. ERP has been simplified a lot – thanks to the introduction of several automated mechanisms.
Offline processes may not give you an accurate picture of the stock, but real-time handling does. Forget about running behind people to share updates; relax, have a sip of coffee and let your automated tool do the job for you.
You can find ERP software packages made by a variety of companies, there’s even a WordPress-based one available.
Technologically Advanced Safety
Measuring the safety of construction workers is something that must not be compromised. Technology can be extensively used for providing a safer and better working environment for construction workers. For instance, site sensors must be installed so that the workers do not get exposed to harmful materials. Apart from that, drones can come in handy for site surveying. Workers can be trained using virtual reality devices so that they do not commit any errors while taking up the actual job.
Robotic Process Automation
Want to reduce your burden at the construction site a bit? Call robots to your rescue! Robots can do the job for you brick by brick (yes, we mean that literally!) and let you save energy for more challenging stuff.
With the introduction of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in construction, even impossible seems possible. Robots can be used for the demolition of existing buildings as and when required. They have been extensively used for constructional purposes like bricklaying and lean constructional practices. Rather than employing a manual workforce, robots can do the job much faster. Also, it is safer with robots.
Smart Communication
Remember the gruesome days of communicating through smoke signals? Ok so maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you probably remember communicating through paper files, faxes and so on. The technological aspects of communication have improved a lot these days. People these days can communicate quickly using smartphones, tablets or electronic gadgets.
If you are a construction contractor and are tired of being physically present at the site all the time to make sure that everyone is doing their job correctly, you can merely install audio and video tracking devices on the site and attend to your other engagements. This will save a lot of time, and you can expand your business by being able to pay attention to multiple projects simultaneously.
Hardware Tools
Technology has not just taken the software by storm but the hardware as well. There’s an entire world of fantastic equipment that can assist you in transporting and dumping materials required for your construction quite quickly. Yes, we are talking about dump trailers or a rendering trailer.
Gone are the days when these just used to be dull, boring trucks. Dump trailers these days are quite advanced and work reliably. The market is flooded with options for you to choose from – starting from the capacity of the equipment, the process involved in lifting the material, intricacies of the tires and so on. However, before investing in it, make sure that you abide by expert advice to ensure a prompt return on investment.
Cloud-Based Tools for Better Management
Managing projects has never been as easier as it is these days. With the advent of new cloud-based technologies, management is a walk in the park. Specialized software tools hosted on the cloud are a real savior when it comes to tracking project activities.
Tools such as Dropbox and Google Drive can really help keep things together. For larger companies, options such as Microsoft SharePoint will scale no matter how large the project.
The main advantage of integrating these tools into your project is that they are accessible in a centralized manner. This helps to put an end to those instances where one person holds the keys to everything, or when multiple people have their own copies of things that aren’t in sync. Management is always about finding optimal solutions, and that is what these tools are designed for.
Integrated Software to Ingest Success in your Project
Just as humans need to work in an integrated manner to be more productive, tools also need to be integrated for better results. For instance, say your ERP tool that handles the stock levels does not have the option to publish the stock levels to a reporting tool.
What is the fun of having set up such a system? This is equivalent to not having an ERP tool in the first place. The idea can also be extended to other aspects of project management such as managing, tracking issues, etc. Remember that if data is not integrated, it is lost. Even worse, it may have to be duplicated in multiple systems causing problems with redundancy in workloads.
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t matter how hard you work on a given project; if you are not working smartly or taking the long route, you are bound to get mediocre results. Also, all the construction projects need to run on a budget, and any lapses may prove very costly. It is high time you leverage the virtues of technology to save money you can use for other projects.
William L. Vinci is the content manager at warrentrailers.com which specializes in making the best and long-running bodies for trailers and dump trucks. By using the most modern methods and technology they have the best results in the service of steel dump trailers, aluminum dump trailers, and hydraulic fifth wheels.