Government pledges another £81m for cycle lanes
The government has boosted its “active travel” budget by another £81m to £338m.
The money will promote cycling and walking across the country and further increase the construction of bike lanes.
The government said: “This funding will help see the construction of hundreds of miles of new high-quality cycle lanes.”
A new version of the Highway Code is also being published which “ensures road users who can do the greatest harm have the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger they may pose to others.”
The new code will also give “guidance on safe passing distances and speeds and ensuring that cyclists have priority at junctions when travelling straight ahead.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Millions of us have found over the past year how cycling and walking are great ways to stay fit, ease congestion on the roads and do your bit for the environment.
“As we build back greener from the pandemic, we’re determined to keep that trend going by making active travel easier and safer for everyone.
“This £338 million package marks the start of what promises to be a great summer of cycling and walking, enabling more people to make those sustainable travel choices that make our air cleaner and cities greener.”
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Campaigners win court fight to block £1.7bn Stonehenge tunnel
Campaigners have won a court battle to block the £1.7bn construction of a road tunnel near Stonehenge.
Mr Justice Holgate has ruled that a decision to allow a dual carriage way road and tunnel to be built within the ancient World Heritage Site was unlawful.
The judgment effectively quashes development consent for the A303 improvement project which was granted by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
Shapps will now have to decide whether to appeal against the judge’s ruling that he had not properly assessed the risk of harm to the World Heritage Site
The judge further concluded that Shapps had made an error of law by failing to consider alternatives to the scheme, such as a longer tunnel, which may have been less damaging to the Stonehenge.
Highways England said: “We now have to wait while the Department for Transport considers its options.
“This is a setback, but we remain confident our project is the best solution to the ongoing issues along the A303 past Stonehenge and was developed after a long and extensive collaboration with our key stakeholders.
“We are hugely disappointed by the decision, and we know this will also dismay many people in the local community who have waited decades for a solution and all those who use the road to travel to work or on holiday in the south west.”
John Adams, Acting Chairman of the Stonehenge Alliance, said: “We could not be more pleased about the outcome of the legal challenge.
“The Stonehenge Alliance has campaigned from the start for a longer tunnel if a tunnel should be considered necessary. Ideally, such a tunnel would begin and end outside the WHS.
“But now that we are facing a climate emergency, it is all the more important that this ruling should be a wake-up call for the Government. It should look again at its roads programme and take action to reduce road traffic and eliminate any need to build new and wider roads that threaten the environment as well as our cultural heritage.”
Leigh Day solicitor Rowan Smith said: “This is a huge victory, which means, for now, Stonehenge is safe.
“The judgment is a clear vindication of our client’s tremendous efforts in campaigning to protect the World Heritage Site.
“The development consent for this damaging tunnel has been declared unlawful and is now quashed, and the Government will have to go back to the drawing board before a new decision can be made. Meanwhile, one of the country’s most cherished heritage assets cannot be harmed.”
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5 Reasons Construction Projects Fail
For commercial contractors, both GCs and subs, a successful project is one completed on time and within budget. The client is happy with the finished product and the contractor walks away with a tidy profit. Everybody wins. When a project fails, it’s typically due to conflicts and issues that cause cost overruns and delays in the schedule.
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Delivering a Major Vaccine Production Facility on Time, Without Compromising Quality
Blue Projects is a highly experienced project management company and a preferred strategic project partner for the world’s leading blue-chip companies. The complexity of multi-disciplinary projects inspired Blue Project’s founders to surround themselves with a highly innovative and flexible team of leading professional engineers that shared the same passion and commitment to project excellence.
The problem
Blue Projects is a project management company with a global footprint covering Romania, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Germany, Africa and North America. The team provides project and engineering solutions across industry sectors for a number of major global players. Their services include construction management, design and engineering, health and safety management, commercial management and production lines relocation.
During 2020, the global Covid-19 pandemic caused chaos across the globe. As the end of the year drew to a close, there was a collective sigh of relief when national health regulators began approving the use of a number of vaccines which provide immunity against the highly transmissible and potentially fatal virus. Nevertheless, the global demand for this vaccine far outstripped supply, and with a worsening picture during the winter months of early 2021, it was imperative that the construction of production facilities was stepped up.
“When it came to our project details, we knew that digital construction solutions could play an important role in ensuring communication and collaboration was seamless and smooth given we had to work to such tight timescales.”
Michal Zajac, Senior Architect and BIM Manager for Blue Projects was a lead partner in supporting the design and construction of a vaccine production facility to contribute to the global effort to provide vaccines to the most vulnerable people in our societies. Blue Projects needed to make sure this facility was built quickly; the design and construction phase would run in tandem but it was absolutely essential that safety and quality was not compromised.
“When it came to our project details, we knew that digital construction solutions could play an important role in ensuring communication and collaboration was seamless and smooth given we had to work to such tight timescales,” reflects Michal. The technology solution needed to facilitate several factors including coordinating teams across different geographies and time zones, improving the design process to aid collaboration between design and site teams as well as improving communication with supply chain partners.
“We needed to be able to work in a 3D environment on design models to better manage the project schedule, as well as track issues resolution and design changes,” says Michal. For Blue Projects, setting the project up correctly from the outset would be crucial as it would have a direct impact on contributing to the global health crisis.
The solution
Blue Projects’ client, a major healthcare manufacturer, specified that a common data environment should be used on the project to ensure communication between stakeholders was the best it could be. Many of the project team members were working remotely from different locations, so finding a solution that supports seamless collaboration in a virtual world was key. The team could not risk time being lost due to miscommunication or confusion about project data. Blue Projects started using Autodesk Construction Cloud’s BIM 360 solution from the start of the project as their single source of truth for project data and established a number of digital workflows using the technology.
“To deliver the production facility quickly, the project was set up with the design and construction phases running in tandem.”
“To be able to communicate effectively, we needed one central repository for all project documentation,” says Michal. “But to collaborate effectively and efficiently, we needed to set up a number of digital workflows.” The team used BIM 360 for review and approval processes with their client to quickly agree and communicate design changes. In fact, more than 700 design reviews were created on the project.
As well as this, Blue Projects partnered with Autodesk’s customer success team to apply enhanced design and coordination workflows. “Autodesk’s deployment specialists were on hand to support us whenever we needed help,” reflects Michal. “The customer success team also supported us to get our teams set up for success early. They offered project team and champion training. The training enabled us to kick off the project and get started with internal and external users straight away,” says Michal.
When it came to planning and executing, using BIM 360 as the single source of truth for the project team meant that design changes could be communicated amongst project partners quickly through proactive clash and issue detection. Michal comments: “To deliver the production facility quickly, the project was set up with the design and construction phases running in tandem. Our coordination team needed support in implementing workflows that would identify design clashes early and the customer success team at Autodesk supported us in connecting our design authoring tools like Revit and Navisworks into BIM 360 so all the data we captured could be reflected in our model. This meant we could detect clashes before these go out to the teams on sire. This ultimately saved us hundreds of hours of time.”
For Blue Projects, delivering to the project schedule was crucial to not slow down progress but quality could not be compromised either. “We needed to deliver to absolute precision as we could not afford to have any major reword or defects,” reflects Michal. Using the issues management feature in BIM 360 to report design clashes meant the team were able to avoid costly reworks that could delay project progress. As well as this, internal and external collaborators like supply chain partners had access to critical project information wherever and whenever they needed it.
Michal says: “Collaborating across geographies during a global pandemic where teams were working remotely and on-site is a challenge for any project. But working collaboratively in this way with extremely tight project timescales made it that much more difficult. BIM 360 allowed all project collaborators to have access to real-time project data from anywhere.”
The results
The design phase of the project was completed earlier than planned schedule based on the experience of similar projects, meaning that Blue Projects not only completed this critical stage of the project earlier than planned, but also gained time to focus on the construction phase and support the teams responsible for installing key production equipment. These time savings meant the execution phase started earlier and the onsite construction got underway quicker on certain milestones.
“If we had not used BIM 360, we would have needed…thousands more hours to dedicate to manually identifying clash and issues detection to avoid the need for re-work on site.”
By capturing issues early through proactive clash and issues detection using BIM 360, Blue Projects and their client were able to gain time which they could focus towards supporting other critical construction programmes. With 1700 coordination clashes detected during the design phase and over 700 reviews and approval workflows executed with their client, Blue Projects have been able to prioritise quality and safety through a more connected construction process.
“Reducing the number of hard clashes that would have happened on site has meant that the team were able to use technology to speed up the time it took to carry out key processes without risking the quality we delivered for our client. If we had not used BIM 360, we would have needed hundreds and thousands more hours to dedicate to manually identifying clash and issues detection to avoid the need for re-work on site,” says Michal.
Gaining valuable project time without compromising on quality and incurring additional project costs means Blue Projects have been able to work more effectively with their client to improve project outcomes like improved design solutions and materials. Not only this, but the project team have also improved remote communication practices and improved the way they collaborate in a virtual world. “With the major changes we’ve witnessed over the last year in how and where we work, it’s been fantastic to work on a project that has delivered valuable outcomes for our client and established better ways of working in a virtual environment,” states Michal.
Not forgetting, and most importantly of all, a major vaccine production facility has kept to its project schedule. This means much needed vaccines will be able to be produced, delivered, and distributed on time to countries and individuals who need them most.
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Guide to Construction Equipment Management: Everything You Need to Know
Construction only grows more complex each passing year, if not each quarter. As these complexities increase and timelines grow tighter, the management of resources becomes increasingly important. Equipment makes up some of the most valuable assets in this category. These items are not only expensive to purchase but also to maintain. Studies show that the maintenance of construction equipment plays a role in about 40% of total project overrun costs.
Broken equipment has a domino effect on projects, leading to downtime, additional expenses, and frustrated owners. Putting more effort into planning the management of your equipment and its maintenance can improve project and financial outcomes.
Fortunately, prioritizing construction equipment management has proven to pay off. Today, we’ll take a look at what successful equipment management looks like and the innovations to make the management process much more efficient.
What Is Construction Equipment Management?
As you probably guessed, construction equipment management refers to the administration of equipment used on construction projects. At a more detailed level, the practice encompasses the review of the equipment, its costs, and usage.
Construction managers want to ensure that the cost of the equipment pays off in the long run. Besides the cost of the equipment itself, there are expenses associated with operation, maintenance, usage, and storage. Construction managers study this information alongside upcoming and current projects to inform decision-making. Ultimately, the goal of these decisions is to generate the highest possible ROI.
Tips for Effective Equipment Management
Your construction equipment management system will vary depending on your needs. However, here are some key tips to making your system a success::
Determine the Right Tracking Workflows
To manage construction equipment successfully, start by establishing the right tracking workflows. This information should be used to drive decisions made by project managers, professional engineers, superintendents, owners, inspectors, etc.
Basically, you need insights to determine in real time if:
- The right equipment has been delivered
- The equipment has been installed
- The equipment has been inspected
- The appropriate data has been collected
With the right tracking workflows in place, this information can also be harnessed for more efficient handover and operations.
Set Up a Preventative Maintenance Program
Next, prioritize maintenance. Preventative maintenance is essential to extending the life of your equipment and avoiding costly repairs. As MacAllister puts it, “Preventive maintenance is more than regular maintenance like lubricating moving parts and changing filters. A proper preventive maintenance (PM) program is all-inclusive. It’s an intentional approach to equipment management from the time equipment is purchased until the end of its useful life.”
PM programs take action before wear and tear lead to major expenses or equipment failure. Through regular inspections, part replacement, testing, and analysis, you can improve the reliability, performance, and resale value of your fleet.
Create Collaborative Communications Plans for Equipment
Your frontline workers are the ones most likely to identify issues with equipment or delivery. For optimal usage, your team needs to be notified when equipment is on-site, on its way, or if any changes take place. By creating a collaborative communications plan, this information can get in the right hands at the right time.
The benefits of this type of plan for construction equipment management include:
- Proactively addressing damages, repairs, and delays
- Preventing people from using inoperable or damaged equipment
- Facilitating ordering of parts
Be sure to integrate cloud-based construction technology into your communications plan; that way, you can collaborate with stakeholders in real time and have a single source of information.
Monitor Your Equipment Smartly
Managing a fleet can make it difficult to know where your equipment is at all times. The same is true for scheduling maintenance across multiple items. IoT sensors can help to reduce the manual nature of monitoring equipment and planning maintenance.
According to Leverege, construction equipment managers can leverage IoT technology to:
- Track equipment status and utilization
- Identify the location and status of equipment in real time
- Get instant notifications when equipment is moved off-site
- Monitor engine runtime
Benefits of Successful Construction Equipment Management
Setting up an equipment management system takes time. You might be wondering, “Is it really worth the effort?”
The answer, of course, depends on the benefits received by the system. You can expect to achieve the following advantages from successful equipment management:
- Better visibility into where equipment is located, its status, and how it’s being used.
- Fewer delays and cost overruns. With real-time information at their fingertips, teams can make quick decisions about how to use equipment.
- Better safety standards as the equipment is kept up-to-date and maintained.
- Less downtime as equipment can be used as soon as it’s available.
- Reduced expenses in the form of costly repairs and project overtime.
- Cohesive data to help inform decisions about retiring, selling, or upgrading assets.
The Top Technology for Construction Equipment Management
As managers look for ways to improve the efficiency of their construction equipment, new innovations are coming to the forefront. Here are some solutions to keep in mind while building your system:
Intelliwave: With their SiteSense platform, you can manage all of your owned and rented assets in one single location. The software makes it easy to locate, maintain, and track the utilization of equipment.
Atlas RFID from Jovix: Atlas RFID is an award-winning Material Readiness application from Jovix. Atlas RFID provides real-time visibility to all stakeholders throughout the supply chain. Employing a combination of web-based server software, mobile devices, and smart RFID tags and barcode labels, Atlas RFID removes impediments to productivity and ensures workers have the materials they need to spend more time on tools.
Milwaukee OneKey: As the industry’s largest tracking network, ONE-KEY streamlines everything from tool tracking to maintenance planning for Milwaukee tools and products. The solution includes asset ID tagging, equipment trackers, barcode scanning, and geofencing capabilities.
Linxup: Linxup helps you track data points for visibility into your fleet’s location in real time, driver and operator behavior, maintenance, electronic driver logs, and more. Its devices use vehicle power, solar power, or rechargeable batteries to tell you where your assets are, where they’re going, and how they’re getting there.
TruckIt: TruckIt is a dispatching and electronic ticketing cloud-based platform. The dispatch side gives insights into owned and rented assets for optimal utilization. Its ticketing system automates paper tickets, time sheets, billing, and payments. This data can then be used for material delivery verification, driver performance insights, project yield, and ticket reconciliation.
Enhance Equipment Management Processes
Construction equipment management will help you reduce downtime and delays. In the event that you do encounter some downtime, you can use your time effectively based on the information gathered through your management system. That may look like scheduling maintenance, moving equipment into storage, or swapping out parts. As you refine your system, you’ll discover ways to optimize the processes around construction equipment management.
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IDH opens Bahrain office
Engineering design consultancy Independent Design House (IDH) has expanded with the launch of IDH Bahrain in the Middle East.
IDH Bahrain is based in the Gulf, and will also service markets in nearby Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
IDH provides both temporary and permanent works design, with full 2D draughting and 3D modelling services along with all BIM requirements. Clients include ISG and Laing O’Rourk.
The Bahrain office will be run by Hany Ibrahim who brings with him 20 years of industry experience.
He said: “Middle East is presenting excellent business opportunities this year and even more in the next few years. Mega projects are set to come live and some of these projects include those in alignment with Vision 2030 plans that Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have in place, which aim to help create a thriving post-hydrocarbon economy for the region.
“Our vision is not only to establish the business in Bahrain but to expand it to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE.”
IDH CEO, Tim Burt, added “I am extremely excited about the opportunities opening IDH Bahrain will generate for us, and I believe it will take us to the next level as a business. We foresee continued growth over the coming months as IDH North and IDH Bahrain come on-stream, and we are genuinely forming an international business.”
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Economic Heavy Lifting by U.S. & Canadian Homebuilders
Texas is in a League of its Own
Through the first half of 2021, the monthly average of seasonally adjusted and annualized (SAAR) housing starts in the U.S. has been +23.2% compared with January-June 2020. The one-quarter increase in groundbreakings warrants the ‘mini-boom’ description being applied to the U.S. homebuilding market.
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Leading Construction Teams are Increasingly Adopting Autodesk Build
Industry leaders such as APTIM, Barton Malow and Boldt are turning to Autodesk Construction Cloud’s project management and field execution solution to reduce risk, drive efficiencies and boost margins
San Francisco, Calif., July 27, 2021 – Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced that Autodesk Build, the project management and field execution solution of Autodesk Construction Cloud, is now being used on over 8,000 active customer projects across the globe since being made available in February 2021. Construction teams are increasingly turning to Autodesk Build to bolster quality, safety and cost management workflows, and connect project data across the construction lifecycle in a single solution that is easy to deploy, adopt and use.
Contractors and owners adopting Autodesk Build to connect their project teams, data and workflows include:
- APTIM – an industrial construction, engineering and maintenance firm specializing in complex government, oil, gas, chemical and power projects
- Barton Malow – a general contractor building commercial, institutional and industrial projects across North America
- Boldt – a construction management firm building in the healthcare, industrial, commercial, food and beverage and renewable energy markets across the U.S.
- Burns & McDonnell – an engineering, construction and architecture firm working in the critical infrastructure sectors globally
- Polytek – a Belgian construction project management and engineering building complex projects for pharmaceutical and food sector clients
- Pond – an engineering, architecture, planning and construction firm serving defense, government, corporate and private sector clients worldwide
- Robson Communities – a residential developer creating master-planned active adult resort communities across the southwestern US region
Autodesk Build unifies best-in-class features from BIM 360 and PlanGrid with powerful new capabilities to deliver a cloud collaboration environment where information sharing and workflows are both tightly-controlled and highly-configurable. The solution features collaborative workspaces for project, cost, quality and safety management, as well as field collaboration and project closeout, and ties them all together in a common data environment.
With the project management features available in Autodesk Build and its PlanGrid Build app, which is purpose-built for mobile field collaboration, teams can organize and connect on RFIs, submittals, meeting minutes and predictive insights, staying ahead of any issues that could result in project risks. Using the cost management toolset, teams can enhance collaboration with project owners and suppliers by bringing them into the system to review contracts, change orders and payment applications securely, with confidence that any of their sensitive information will be safeguarded.
“Managing information across various technology systems can be counterproductive, leaving our teams and data siloed and ultimately resulting in increased rework, delays and risks,” said Werner Herbots, CEO of Polytek. “To deliver our projects with excellence, it’s essential that we have a powerful construction management platform to stay connected and coordinated. Autodesk Build empowers us to manage all aspects of a project from one single location so our workflows for RFIs, submittals, change orders and other critical processes are all tightly connected, and the team can easily collaborate and track progress.”
“Cost management in Autodesk Build creates transparency by gathering financial activities in a central location to easily track status and see how a change order is progressing and impacting budget,” said Emily Rech, program manager at Pond. “With Autodesk Build, we can remove information silos and drive accountability across project teams.”
Autodesk Build empowers stakeholders across construction teams to stay in sync, enhance collaboration capabilities, mitigate risks and enable data-driven decision making by focusing on:
- Single source of truth – Autodesk Build centralizes document management so teams can rely on a single source of truth for the latest project information and manage discussions around potential quality, safety, cost and schedule issues. Users only need one login and project administrators can control permissions for the various team members, trade partners and companies involved.
- Connected data and teams – Project stakeholders from multiple companies can connect in Autodesk Build for more efficient collaboration, ensuring everyone is in sync to minimize miscommunications and rework, and keep projects moving along schedule. With the ability to store all project data in one place and build integrations, teams can also connect their workflows throughout the lifecycle of a project, from design to operations.
- Predictive analytics and insights – Centralized data collection initiates a strong foundation for analytics across all workflows. Stakeholders can gain visibility into project- and operation-level insights that uncover risks, drive efficiencies and further boost profit margins.
“Bringing the entire project team together in Autodesk Build’s common data environment keeps everyone on the same page to minimize errors and the need for anyone to wonder, ‘Am I getting this right?” said Jim Lynch, senior vice president and general manager, Autodesk Construction Solutions. “Significant adoption for Autodesk Build in the five short months since it’s been available signals that teams across the industry are making strategic technology investments to maximize their ability to deliver high quality projects within budgets and timelines.”
About Autodesk
Autodesk makes software for people who make things. If you’ve ever driven a high-performance car, admired a towering skyscraper, used a smartphone, or watched a great film, chances are you’ve experienced what millions of Autodesk customers are doing with our software. Autodesk gives you the power to make anything. For more information visit autodesk.com or follow @autodesk.
Media Contact
Niyati Desai
Autodesk
[email protected]
Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, Autodesk Construction Cloud, BIM 360, and PlanGrid are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
© 2021 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Construction Resource Management: Tips and Tools for Success
Staying on top of construction resource management is an absolute must. With today’s increasingly complex projects and tighter-than-ever timelines you simply can’t afford to misallocate the resources you have at your disposal.
There’s also the issue of labor shortages in construction. Research by the Associated General Contractors of America and Autodesk revealed that 80% of contractors are having difficulties finding qualified workers. As the industry continues to grapple with manpower challenges, you need to be smart about how you handle and assign labor resources.
This article will cover all that and more.
We’ll dive into the ins and outs of construction resource management, plus discuss best practices and tools that can help you ensure that all your resources are allocated effectively and are put to good use.
Let’s get started.
What is Construction Resource Management?
Construction resource management is the practice of planning and managing the use of construction resources, to ensure that projects are delivered on time and within budget.
Typically done by construction managers or project managers, construction resource management involves many tasks, including the following.
- Monitoring the amount of resources available — everything from time and manpower to equipment, materials, and facilities.
- Allocating and reallocating resources based on project needs and timelines.
- Tracking and optimizing the use of resources.
The goal of construction resource management is to maximize the utilization of resources and reduce waste, ultimately meeting the project’s objectives in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.
Why Workforce Planning is Essential
Workforce planning — which is a key component of construction resource management — involves monitoring and allocating team members across projects.
Effective workforce planning entails monitoring schedules, team bandwidth, and jobsite capacities. Managers need to balance all these components to ensure that each project is well-staffed and that team members aren’t over- or under-allocated. It also involves reviewing the company’s manpower resources and forecasting workforce needs, so the firm can recruit accordingly.
Workforce planning is critical, particularly amidst issues like labor shortages. When you have limited manpower available, it’s even more important to keep a tight handle on your workforce.
There’s also the matter of labor logistics. The world is starting to open back up and everyone is eager to put the pandemic behind us, but some of the issues brought about by COVID-19 will linger well into 2021.
Some jobsites may continue to have limited capacity, so it’s essential to map out how teams are distributed in the field. Being mindful of capacity limits will keep construction sites safe and ultimately prevent any pandemic or health-related issues and delays.
Benefits of Construction Resource Management
Now that you know the fundamentals of construction resource management, let’s discuss the benefits that you’ll gain from the practice.
Lower Construction Costs
When you don’t have a handle on how much resources you need for your projects, you may end up allocating either too much or little to certain activities. This leads to double-work, wasted time, and delays — all of which add more costs to the project. For instance, the mismanagement of equipment or materials can result in excess spend that can be better used elsewhere.
Proper construction resource management can prevent such issues from happening. When you’re closely tracking the use of resources and reallocating them based on the project’s needs, you can ensure that time and money are always well-spent.
Higher Productivity
By implementing construction resource management, you can see to it that team members are assigned to the right place and they have what they need (i.e., equipment, materials, and supplies) to do their jobs well.
As such, teams are able to be more productive. There’s less downtime or waiting around, plus they can do their best work because they have the necessary resources at the right time.
Increased Visibility into Your Resources
Construction resource management gives you better visibility into your resources. The practice involves closely monitoring resource utilization, so you always know what you have at any given time.
This, in turn, helps you make well-informed decisions on how to use and allocate construction resources.
Ability to Be More Agile and Adaptable
It’s not uncommon for projects to run into sudden changes. If you’re not prepared, you may end up with inadequate resources to cover unexpected needs.
You can avoid these situations by implementing proper construction resource management. When you constantly stay on top of how your budget, manpower, equipment, and materials are used, it’s much easier to re-evaluate and reallocate resources to cope with unforeseen project changes.
Creating a Resource Management Plan
One of the first steps to effective construction resource management is mapping out a plan for how resources will be allocated and used. While the specifics of this process will vary depending on your teams and projects, here are some general steps and considerations to keep in mind when crafting your construction resource management plan.
Determine the project timeline and all activities associated with it. Iron out all the necessary details involved in the project. Itemize the tasks and activities that need to be completed and specify the deadlines for each milestone.
Determine the resources you need and the right allocations. Use the information from the previous step to figure out the right resource allocations for the project. At this stage, you’ll need to calculate the amount of resources required, assign them to the appropriate activities and project phases, and indicate when you’ll need them.
One thing you could do at this stage is to tap into your experience as well industry standards and previous project data to figure out the best allocations.
Secure the necessary approvals. The next step is to get approval for the resources that you’re planning to use. Coordinate with the necessary parties and decision makers and ensure that you have the authorization to use the resources at the appropriate time. Be sure to complete this step before the project kicks off.
Optimize and retool your plan when necessary. Your construction resource plan shouldn’t be set in stone. Keep an eye on it, even when the project is underway and don’t be afraid to pivot or launch a plan B if unforeseen issues arise.
Top Innovations for Construction Resource Planning
Construction resource management shouldn’t be done manually. Equip yourself and your team with construction technologies that streamline the process of planning and allocating resources.
Consider the following.
BIM 360 Plan
BIM 360 Plan offers robust capabilities to help you view and monitor supply chain and jobsite resources. The software’s customizable project views enable you to see work plans in List, Ganntt, or Swimplane view, so whether you’re looking for an itemized list of resources and activities or prefer to get a high level view of the project, you can do so easily with BIM 360 Plan.
Bridgit
Bridgit is a leading workforce intelligence solution for construction pros. An excellent tool for planning and allocating manpower resources, Bridgit makes it easy to view which project roles are unfilled, so you can plan accordingly. It also has detailed reporting that offers insights into workforce utilization and project pipelines, enabling you to plan for your manpower needs.
Triax
Construction sites have many moving parts—including workers, equipment, and other materials—that need monitoring. However, the dynamic and fast-paced nature of jobsites make it difficult to do so. Enter Triax’s IoT solution designed for rugged working environments, Spot-r Mesh provides real-time visibility into all the resources you have on site. It’s low power requirements and easily deployable hardware give you actionable insights into your workforce and equipment on the construction site, making it simple to know resource location, utilization, and more.
Kwant.ai
Need detailed insights into workforce activities? Kwant.ai has you covered. The solution uses AI and IoT to monitor worker location and activities, giving you powerful intel for planning and allocating manpower. With Kwant.ai, you can easily see how workers are spending their time, which then helps you identify inefficiencies or areas that need to be optimized.
SkillSmart
SkillSmart’s compliance reporting and tracking software has excellent data and analytics tools to help you plan and manage project resources. SkillSmart InSight not only lets you track labor and compliance, it also provides real-time reports that cover payroll, contractor wage rates, and supplier tracking, among others.
LaborChart
Another useful tool for labor allocation, LaborChart has several features for managing your construction workforce. One particularly helpful tool is the software’s Labor Allocation feature, which gives you a visual representation of your labor pool based on projects, trades, regions, and more.
Proper Construction Resource Management is a Must
You can’t complete projects without the right workers, equipment, and facilities, which is why it’s critical to plan and allocate your resources effectively. So, take the time to understand each project’s needs then figure out the right resource allocation. To make things easier, use technology to automate various tasks and generate the necessary reports.
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Plans go in for £48m Derby arena
Developer St James Securities have submitted a full planning application to Derby City Council for a new 3,500 capacity entertainment and events venue at Becketwell.
The £48m venue will be located on the site of the former Pink Coconut nightclub and Laurie House offices at the heart of the wider mixed-use Becketwell development.
The purpose-built venue will be a fully flexible, scalable space capable of staging concerts, stand-up comedy, family shows, musical theatre, conferences, and exhibitions.
The main auditorium will have a maximum capacity of 3,500 and offer a range of different event configurations including a fully seated layout for up to 2,100.
Subject to planning consent being granted at a meeting in October, construction is set to start in early 2022, with handover to the operator in 2024.
The new performance venue will be owned by Derby City Council and run by operator ASM Global.
Oliver Quarmby, managing director of St James Securities, said: “A new large-scale venue is a key component of Derby’s masterplan for the city centre which has been developed collaboratively between the public and private sectors and we are tremendously excited to be working on this ambitious scheme to bring an outstanding, modern performance venue to the city.
“We have created a great scheme which will fill a significant gap in the city’s cultural landscape. This flexible venue will cater for major music and comedy acts as well as theatre content. The conference and events capability will support the growth of the region’s business community.
“The performance venue is set to ‘turbocharge’ the entire Becketwell scheme, allowing us to bring forward a new multi-storey car park and hotel and will be key to the future reinvigoration and repositioning of Derby city centre.”
Work is already underway on the £30m phase one of the scheme, which includes the construction of 259 build to rent apartments by GMI Construction.
Future planned phases of the scheme include up to 25,000 sq. m of new grade A offices and commercial space, a hotel and a multi-storey car park.
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