Yukti Arora, Co-Founder & CPO of Buildsys Software Pvt Ltd, explains how a streamlined construction process can reduce paperwork and enable effective field-to-office communication. Buildsys is a construction productivity application that reduces paperwork and makes field-to-office communication faster, trackable, and mobile. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from Ohio State University. She has over seven years of experience in industrial, service, and digital design, as well as user research and business strategy. She is passionate about storytelling, design strategy, visual thinking and creating experiences that make technology human and emotion centred.
Today, productivity in the construction industry is lagging behind most other industries. The cause of this productivity lag? Technology – or a lack of it. In contrast to other industries, construction processes still rely heavily on paper to manage essential deliverables, such as blueprints, design drawings, procurement and supply chain orders, equipment logs, daily process reports, and punch lists. Lack of digitization limits and delays information sharing, so owners and contractors are often working from outdated documents. Many construction companies still rely on their version of snail mail today – paper blueprints. This isn’t surprising given that more than 32 percent of employees and 28 percent of managers in the construction industry are still reluctant to adopt technology. Despite this reluctance, construction professionals can experience substantial benefits from adopting technology.
The Benefits of Going Paperless
Going paperless isn’t just about saving the environment – it is about realising a dramatic increase in productivity for business. By making the switch to a digital construction solution, construction professionals will be able to save time, eliminate rework, reduce costs, protect their plans and improve accountability. Construction professionals will no longer have to waste time going back and forth from the site to the trailer or waiting for revisions to get distributed. Time is a primary cause of project delays that result in cost overruns. But digital tools, such as construction productivity software, can reduce time waste, allowing builders to focus on their task.
A good digital construction solution helps you dramatically reduce rework because every member of the team always has the most current set of documents on hand. With digitisation, you can also easily overlay any two sheets to view changes, identify clashes, and review constructability. By going paperless, you can also experience dramatic savings and eliminate unnecessary costs with the right software as printing costs continue to be one of the major expenditures for construction projects.
With paper, it is difficult to locate and access documents and important documents are often misfiled or lost. Paper is also easily destroyed, but the cloud is always secure. When documents are stored digitally, you can rest easy knowing your data and files are protected by SSL security and regular back-up. By digitizing your plans, you won’t ever have to worry about damaged, ripped, or missing plans again. Construction software also timestamps and dates all actions and lets you see who did what, where, and when. You can easily recall information in case of litigation instead of trying to decipher handwriting to figure out who marked up that sheet.
The Road to Success
If you’re still using paper, but you’re ready to switch to a digital construction solution, it is important to do it right from Day One. The lack of investment in technology within the industry and a systemic reluctance by both employees and managers to embrace new innovations has caused construction productivity to remain flat for decades. However, adopting new technology will allow owners to save time and money as well as free contractors from paper dependencies that threaten their competitive advantage.
The construction industry is experiencing a digital renaissance that has the power to influence how construction is managed for the next 100 years. Going digital will help reduce risk, increase ROI, and boost productivity. By transitioning to paperless Construction Management with Buildsys, one can experience the benefits of a digital world as well.
About Buildsys
Buildsys is a construction productivity application that reduces paperwork and makes field-to-office communication faster, trackable, and mobile. It helps project managers, contractors, owners, designers, and architects collaborate easily from their mobile devices and desktop computers, managing drawings, meetings, tasks, files, photos, RFIs, and submittals.
