Forging New Ground | The Ultimate Guide to Taking Control of Your Construction Jobsite

Construction management software is about to look a lot different. With technology converging in new ways and workflows being connected across the jobsite, more power will be restored to site supervisors, fleet managers, and equipment managers alike. 

Construction leaders are looking to data-driven software solutions to help build a flexible foundation for scaling their businesses. Being able to proactively plan for changes in supply chain constraints or volatility in the market gives an operation more stability as well as gives a competitive edge. In a survey conducted by AberdeenGroup, Trimble customers reported significant impacts after implementing construction management software, from a 22% reduction in fuel consumption to a 25% reduction in idle times and a 32% improvement in vehicle and asset utilization. This only scrapes the surface when it comes to what the potential productivity impact is when a construction operation’s systems are connected and seamlessly passing data between each other.

1 - Predict Construction Downtime 

Manage necessary maintenance and repairs

Construction management software acts as the analytics engine behind any jobsite, it is the brain and the command center of the operation. In a perfect world, it is also automating the scheduling of routine tasks such as maintenance, and should also connect to or include asset-tracking capabilities. Telematics insights like these give you a complete forward view of the health and status of your fleet.

Equipment Maintenance Scheduling

Being able to understand when planned equipment maintenance should be scheduled, based on the actual usage of an asset keeps equipment running reliably. It will also lessen the risk of unplanned outages, which are a major source of delays. Utilization reports generated by construction software management systems with asset-tracking provide this information. When an asset does break down, real-time intelligence gives you the ability to locate the asset and schedule it for service immediately. At the same time you can also locate the nearest available asset to send in its place, minimizing unexpected downtime. 

Virtual Collaboration and Remote Equipment Maintenance

Augmented reality solutions enable construction operators to minimize unnecessary travel, avoid repeat visits, expand training and improve collaboration for their service technicians when it comes to equipment maintenance and repairs. Augmented reality apps enable a worker in the field to easily connect with a “remote expert” for AR assistance and collaboration using video, audio, and spatial annotations in real-time. Using augmented reality technology, experts can provide visual guidance through markups and text instructions that are blended with the real world equipment being serviced in the field.

2 - Maximize Jobsite Uptime

Connect the vehicles, equipment, people, and tasks on your construction jobsite

Construction projects combine the efforts of both heavy equipment and vehicle fleets and count on the effective use of both to maximize uptime. To get the most out of every hour on the construction job site, it is important to consider uptime as its own unique strategy with a special focus on integrating data across your mixed fleet.

Focus on the Uptime

Predicting your downtime will play hand-in-hand with maximizing your uptime, but it does deserve an additional focus. Construction equipment telematics data can indicate when an asset is no longer in use and available for delivery to another site, and vehicle telematics data can help determine the closest available transport vehicle to move it. The ideal scenario is that your equipment is in the right place at the right time doing the right thing with the right people assigned to it, resulting in maximized efficiency in every working hour of the construction project.

Connect On and Off-Highway Vehicles and Equipment

By coordinating equipment needs for each job site with equipment and transport vehicle locations, companies can more effectively plan to have the right equipment delivered to each job site for every phase of a project. Equipment telematics data can indicate when an asset is no longer in use and available for delivery to another site, and vehicle telematics data can help determine the closest available transport vehicle to move it.

3 - Breaking Ground on Productivity

Connect the office and field with accurate data

Having financial data married with accurate real-time project and equipment data is a challenge experienced across construction jobsites. Leaving project managers with many a blindspot to contend with as work continues and deadlines come into view. Being able to connect on and off-road equipment data with financial metrics gives a holistic view of your business.

Day-to-Day Informed Decision Making

Ensuring the office and field are receiving the most accurate and up-to-date information about what’s going on at the jobsite is critical for informed decision making regarding resources, materials, and the project.  By having your construction ERP integrated with the right sources of data, site supervisors and project managers can monitor daily production quantities, labor/equipment hours, and equipment maintenance schedules to adjust daily work targets and ensure work is progressing to plan as expected.

Long-Term Planning with Office on Job Site Visibility

Project managers can ensure they are accurately charging the right job with equipment and resource expenses, and always have an accurate picture of construction productivity for cost projections and estimating. With integrated telematics data and real-time visibility of cut, fill, volume and compaction data, they can ensure a project is on schedule based on live daily volume calculations, compaction quality metrics, and visibility into which machines are working.

Construction Management is Changing

Increase Uptime. Minimize Downtime. Maximize Productivity.

Looking at the complete construction workflow, each phase from pre-construction to build, to maintenance informs the next. Project managers have to evaluate each phase and connect the successes and shortcomings of each to influence future decisions. They do this today, often manually connecting data and information from one system to the next. The future will include a construction operating system that connects this for them, pulling the power of software solutions like telematics and 3D productivity solutions together. We’re leading that vision with Trimble WorksOS.