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See Touchplan’s Construction Collaboration Software in Action: A Webinar Recap

Touchplan recently hosted a webinar that took an in-depth look at its construction planning software.

Head of Pre-Sales George Hunt gave attendees insights into how Touchplan enhances construction project certainty by delivering approachable, progressive jobsite data and analytical solutions that transform construction into a more collaborative, transparent, and predictable process.

Guests also got a peek at some of Touchplan’s newest features, including Custom Fields, Image Attach, and our enhanced Mobile option, and how to best align Touchplan with the master schedule to keep all parties on a construction project aligned.

Some key takeaways from the webinar include:

  • At Touchplan, we believe that structuring data at the jobsite level and having collaborative planning tools drives our success and delivering projects on time and on budget enhances project certainty.
  • With unlimited users, a cloud-based solution on desktop, tablet, or mobile device, Touchplan is unique because it allows you to plan at different levels in a certain time frame that your team is looking into, in real-time.
  • You can view a high-level look at your phase plan and then transition it down into a more detailed look to plan in different levels of detail as you get close to performing the work, and while that is happening, and as constraints, or “roadblocks,” are being logged, Touchplan is tracking everything on the backend to alleviate additional administrative tasks and providing insightful data and reporting.

Watch the webinar here.

Get a look at Touchplan’s enhanced mobile planning option.

Consultancy & Technology: A Recipe for Success

Touchplan recently formed a collaboration with Project7, a leading Lean transformation & leadership consultancy, to work together to collaboratively challenge the performance culture within the construction industry and address the imbalance in construction productivity. We sat down with Partner Daniel Shakespeare to learn more about Project 7 and the value of partnering with Touchplan.

Tell us a little more about Project7? What are you all about, and what is your value to the market?

One thing that stands out for us is that we understand Lean as a ‘thinking way’ first and foremost, and everything we do is grounded in the core principles founded through the Toyota Production System over many years. Over recent years, Lean consultancy has almost become a commodity service. Larger consultancies have latched onto Lean as a trend, but in my experience, they often lack the deep domain knowledge required as they see Lean simply as a set of tools & techniques.

What’s unique about Project7 is that we’ve earned our stripes delivering transformational change for businesses globally and understand what it takes to embed and deliver real impact for our clients.

We have deployed our Lean ‘thinking way’ and its tools and techniques on the ground on construction sites, manufacturing plants, and complex operational & transactional environments and influenced the people who make the actual change. We often have clients come to us, and they want an ‘out of the box’ Lean transformation and don’t understand the components involved to accomplish such heights. We like to think of ourselves as consultants with teeth, as we work closely with our clients to help them understand that Lean is not a two-year transformation but a never-ending journey of Continuous Improvement.

So what’s the reaction from Project7 clients to this kind of real, grounded approach?

A large part of our legacy is that our clients continue to reach out to us to either seek further support for a different part of their business or reach out to share the progress they have made in their Lean journey since working with us. The majority of the work we’ve generated is from engaging with prominent organizations with big reputations and sizable business challenges and doing excellent work for them. We often find that our business relationships will naturally move on in their career, perhaps to another company or to a different country within that same organization. These relationships repeatedly come back to us because they know we do a fantastic job and recognize the benefit of applying our ‘thinking way.’

What resonates with clients is that our results are sustainable. We strive to deliver the most significant ROI in the shortest possible lead time, with a minimal amount of invention.

We understand that organizations already have the talent and power to impact change in their business; it just needs us to unlock it for them.

We enjoy helping clients find that spark for Lean. We do this via our P7 Thinking Way, a structured methodology designed to create the habitual behaviors, systems, and processes required for a sustainable Lean transformation. Our model allows us to leave our clients to become self-reliant. We don’t want clients to be dependent upon us in perpetuity, we want to hand over the responsibility of their Lean journey to them, and I think they like that.

So, it’s like you are giving them their Lean independence?

Absolutely! Lean independence is what we want for them. You’re never going to become a Lean organization if you’ve got a group of consultants on-site permanently coaching your teams. We want to work with an organization and embed the foundation principles, systems, and behaviors, enabling that organization to flourish independently.

A recent example, we worked with a large-scale aerospace organization. We helped them establish their Lean Operating System and Organizational Maturity benchmarking at one of their European sites, experiencing poor productivity and system performance. After we had finished, they became one of the highest performing air operators in continental Europe. The turnaround had folks in Germany and France looking over continental Europe, saying, “what’s happening over there?” so it’s a great success story.

Since then, we’ve been invited back to see how they’ve continued their journey since we’ve left and how they’ve still taken the same principles that we deployed, but they’ve evolved and continuously improved over time. The improvement is what we love to see. It affirms the value of establishing those founding principles, coaching Leaders and teams, and building the foundations step by step so they achieve Lean independence and continually improve thereafter.

You mentioned how when contacts move on to another organization, they reach back out to you, but do you feel that perhaps there is an appetite in the market where organizations will start seeking you out directly?

We certainly recognize that relying solely on referral business is not entirely sustainable. We’ve generated an excellent reputation so far; however, we want to build upon that success and share it with new clients and markets. Project7 has generated more than £414 million of client cost savings, and we want to share that good news story with new clients so they can benefit from our expertise.

We grow our reputation across different industries and different clients. While our success has primarily occurred with the Manufacturing and Operational sectors, we have had some notable success in Construction, namely, on the renowned major programme, Crossrail in London. There are undoubtedly growth opportunities in the Infrastructure market. With the challenges the industry is currently facing with Brexit, Covid-19, and the climate emergency, to name but a few, we want to position ourselves well to support and impact real change.

Talk to me about the motivation and the value Project7 saw in partnering with Touchplan?

I have been fortunate enough to use Touchplan as a frontline worker, Lean Coach, and now as a Partner. Because of that, I’ve seen first-hand the value Touchplan brings to construction sites in terms of increased transparency, visibility and productivity improvements, reliability improvements, and ultimately transferring ownership and accountability from schedulers and Project Managers down to the teams.

From my perspective, ‘those who do the work have to be able to plan the work.’ To create candid performance dialogue and integrated high performance, I want teams to embrace a digital system that connects them with the correct information daily and drives the right performance behaviors.

At Project7, we believe that supporting ordinary people to operate a robust process delivers extraordinary high-performance levels. The 3P model is the foundation of much of what we do, and I think Touchplan tries to achieve precisely the same thing. I think Touchplan connects with people. It digitizes an already industry-known process [The Last Planner System®], seeking to create high performance. We both work with and coach people to achieve exceptional performance. For that reason, Project7 and Touchplan couple together nicely. I’m excited about the value we can bring to our clients. Touchplan’s ability to digitally augment our existing capabilities and for Project7 to trust and rely upon software such as Touchplan is a marriage made in heaven.

Do you think your clients outside the construction realm could benefit from using Touchplan?

Absolutely. Project7 has three primary Market Verticals. We have our Infrastructure [Design and Build] Vertical headed up by myself. We have a Manufacturing and Operations Vertical, led by our CEO, Gareth Lewis, whose background is with the Toyota Motor Corporation. Finally, we have our Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul Vertical, led by one of our Partners, James Purse. James similarly has a background in Automotive and recently led major Rail service transformations and manufacturing operational excellence.

We deliberately designed those Verticals to have a degree of synergy across the piste. For example, we want to support an Owner organization in the efficient and productive Construction of a new asset. Equally, we are geared to help their extended downstream manufacturing supply chain to bolster manufacturing throughput and enable Just In Time production. Finally, we would want to engage that same organization during the lifecycle of that asset through optimized process efficiency, asset reliability, and reducing operational waste. We aim to deliver through-life value for our clients and achieve an end to end Value Stream optimization.

Regards deploying Touchplan in other environments, manufacturers, operators, and service organizations constantly need to plan and schedule workflows. They need to be an effective mechanism to connect with their teams and plan in real-time. There’s absolutely value that Touchplan can bring to those environments. Ultimately, what we do with our performance management approach is create a social mechanism for candid performance dialogue, visual performance management, and leadership coaching. We can plug Touchplan into any environment as long as we have that honest performance dialogue. There’s a real value there for sure.

From your perspective, what does five years down the road look like for Project7?

For me, I want to establish a foothold in the infrastructure market. I’m incredibly confident that we have value to bring this sector and unlock the productivity challenges many organizations face. I think there is a considerable opportunity more broadly across all of our Markets for Project7 to be the household name that clients can trust to take them on their Lean journey.

For more information on Touchplan’s partner program, please visit our Partner Progam Website.

To be Effective Coaches, We Should Focus on Being Effective Learners

If we are going to be effective at coaching others, do we need to be effective learners first? This thought popped into my head the other day when I was speaking with a team and reflecting on a comment from someone who reported being a slow learner. It got me thinking about how learning is just like any other skill: the more we practice it, the more efficient we can become.

So how do we become better learners? There is a lot of research that has been done over the years about learning and capability development. Here are four strategies that have made a difference in my own continual practice of learning to learn better.

Have a Growth Mindset

Some of you may already be familiar with the idea of having a growth mindset. This concept was introduced to me a number of years ago and I think it is fundamental to becoming a better learner. If you’ve never been introduced to it, I would recommend looking into the research of Dr. Carol Dweck and read her book Mindset. At its core, a growth mindset is the belief that our basic qualities are not set in stone, but rather can be cultivated and grown. This is needed to be a good learner. Changing your mindset can help shape the way we learn. By focusing on our ability to develop our capabilities in everything we do, we turn our failures into learning opportunities.

When we take this mindset with ourselves, we can then take it towards others. When we are coaching teams on a new process, there will always be setbacks. Framing those setbacks as learning opportunities can mean the difference in a team giving up early and persevering through to better outcomes.

Get outside of your comfort zone

When you were younger, there is a good chance that you were told that you were more of a “visual” learner or maybe even a “kinesthetic” learner. This tends to make us fall into a comfort zone for how we learn. While this may make it feel easier to learn when the situation is right, it may be leaving opportunities for learning on the table when the situation is different. To take advantage of every learning opportunity we can, we should purposely try to find opportunities outside of our comfort zone. The first couple of times may feel uncomfortable, but eventually, we adapt. That is learning! If our minds become used to learning in every situation, it will allow us to change every situation into a learning opportunity.

We should consider this same idea when we are coaching. Understanding how others may learn more comfortably can let us introduce topics in a way that is less threatening. As they progress with the ideas, we can start challenging them more by bringing them out of their comfort zone.

Engage with your network

The people who we regularly interact with can be an amazing source of learning. As we see what other people in our network are learning about, we can benefit as well. If you have ever been involved in a masterclass, you probably know this concept well. While the “master” and student might be the ones who are directly interacting, everyone who is attending the class learns from observing. Engaging with your network can have a similar effect. Talking to and seeing what others are learning can give you opportunities to learn from what they have done. Recall some of the times you’ve heard others ask questions that completely change your own perspective on a situation—these types of learning moments are possible when reaching out to your network.

If we are coaching a team of people, they can become their own small network of learning. Encourage them to share their learnings and insights with each other. Then, encourage them to look outside of their own team and find others who might be trying to learn similar things. They can quickly create their own network of learners that will become a valuable resource to them throughout their journey.

Use the data and information that you have

Many of us don’t realize that the data and information around us, especially those in our immediate surroundings, can bring us insight that leads to new learning. Before we had pedometers and trackers on our mobile devices to tell us how many steps we took, we probably didn’t realize how much we moved (or didn’t). Something like our steps feels like background noise—what we overlook and take for granted. However, it presents us with the opportunity to revisit what else we might be overlooking in our normal day-to-day life.

This is why teams who utilize tools like Touchplan are able to learn from their data without taking the extra steps of compiling everything. Much like our phones do with our steps, Touchplan is automatically tracking and presenting the data from the planning you already do every day. The data that comes from our daily planning routines can be examined and analyzed for the purpose of finding areas of improvement. It is also possible to spot bottlenecks before they become larger issues.

Conclusion

To conclude, becoming a better learner can absolutely inform one’s coaching. For those of us who have been instructing others for a long time, we can become distanced from what it’s like to be in the shoes of those who are trying to build their capabilities. Remembering to focus on our own development will always result in a positive outcome as we lead and influence others.

To see how some of our clients are learning from Touchplan check out our recent webinar, The Risk of Using Spreadsheets to Management Project Planning. If you would like to see how to learn from data take a look at our video on Touchplan Insights.

 

Some of the Best Things Work In Pairs – Touchplan & Reality Capture+

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place” – George Bernard Shaw.

Planning is excellent, but it is useless without effective communication. Think about a time when someone tried to explain something to you, and in return, all that person got was a glazed-over stare and a slow nod. If you did come around to understand what they were talking about, what made it possible?  I would venture to guess they either found a commonly understood phrase, location, terminology, or most likely a visual aide was involved.

I remember being completely lost in the lingo when I started working in construction. It made me feel pretty dumb. I had a technical background and had built several things on my own, but it took a while to get up to speed. In addition to a vast array of construction terms, each jobsite is typically broken up into areas corresponding to a particular work sequence.

For example, the main foyer of a high-rise might be ‘Area A,’ and the second-floor office spaces ‘Area B.’  I once worked on a construction site broken up into 16 separate areas for utility installation because ‘Southwest of the Building’ could mean a hundred different things.  If I were to tell a random person on the street that we need to finish installing the storm line in area 12 before moving on to sanitary sewer in area 15, they would look at me like I was crazy.  When it came to the utility crews I was working with, however, that was clear and concise communication.

How did that become possible? Trade leadership knew what I was talking about because I had posted a large, laminated map of the jobsite with an overlay of the work areas in our meeting room. The map worked just fine to assign areas of work, but I used drone footage almost exclusively for detailed coordination and planning future work. Despite the drone footage being updated bi-weekly, we all found that somewhat outdated drone footage with minimal clarity was far better than a laminated map and no comparison for discussion without a visual aid.

Photographic Memories Are Not Enough

I know a few superintendents who have photographic memories. They can give a detailed account of everything installed on a particular day just by walking the site.  For the rest of us and most of our trade partners, having a way to track daily progress with photos automatically is not only helpful but necessary.

It can be dangerous when two parties think they understand each other but are out of sync in reality. Having an updated visual representation of the jobsite is the best way to avoid this and give understanding to the whole team. Two of Touchplan’s technology partners, Oculo and OpenSpace, do this exceptionally well.

Above is a screenshot from OpenSpace. Imagine what you could bring to a planning meeting with up-to-date imagery at your fingertips. It is something that I would not run construction work without, especially on a large and complex project where even minutes of standby time due to poor communication can quickly snowball into significant schedule and budget impacts.

Don’t be that guy in the middle. I’ve certainly been guilty of it. Make informed decisions from common ground based on up-to-date and accurate information.  You won’t have to worry about buy-in when we are all speaking the same language.

“The less people know, the more they yell” – Seth Godin.

A New Look at Mobile Planning

Please give us an overview of Touchplan’s updated mobile feature and the greater value that it will deliver to Touchplan clients?

The mobile site of Touchplan is designed and built to seamlessly complement the Touchplan web version. The smartphone-optimized user interface lets you bring your project plans everywhere in your pocket for reference and status updates while on the jobsite. You can take photos in the field and attach them to your tickets to keep everyone on the same page with status and field conditions.

What are some of the new enhancements to Touchplan mobile planning that users would find interesting?

We have certainly packed a lot into this upgrade but some of the things that users will find particularly interesting include:

  • Familiarity – navigate your projects and plans just like Touchplan on the laptop
  • Visibility – everyone can see a plan’s tickets to know handoff status (just like Touchplan web). Also, like laptop-based Touchplan, you can only update tickets for which you are responsible.
  • Customizability – filter ticket lists to show only what you want, and Touchplan remembers your settings.
  • Immediacy – update status in the field and attach photos to instantly inform all Touchplan users (mobile & web) about changes.

In your opinion, why was it important for Touchplan to add this feature?

Being able to see the plan and make updates in the field helps communication across the project team and keeps information from getting forgotten between the construction site and the trailer. We have gotten feedback from some of our key customers that mobile access to their Touchplan production plan on their jobsites is very valuable.

What are you most excited about this new feature as a product developer?

We made Touchplan mobile planning to be expandable and scalable to add more features while still being easy to use. We are using the same building blocks as the web version of Touchplan, so we’ll be able to keep the customer experience in sync and build new features more efficiently.

Will there be additional updates to the mobile feature in the future?

Absolutely! We’re excited by the foundation this gives us to expand on the current features (like image attach) and add more capabilities so Touchplan users can do more with tickets and other field workflows as we go forward together. We have a bunch of ideas we’re working on and welcome your input too – let us know what you think!

Top Stories of 2021: Voices of the Industry, Extreme Collaboration, Enhancing the Construction Process, & More

The Touchplan Podcast Network Released Three New Shows 

Voices of Construction 

Hosted by our very own Noah Baker, Voices of Construction peels back the perceptions and gets to know the passionate people behind the titles in the construction industry. Check out one of our recent episodes where Noah speaks with a Senior PM who worked on a project in Antarctica! 

Build. Lead. Succeed.

Brought to you in partnership with the National Association of Women in Construction, Build. Lead. Succeed. is a podcast that is dedicated to having real conversations about what it’s like for women in the construction industry.

Upping Your Game

Our newest podcast launched in November and is hosted by George Hunt. In this podcast, George discusses a range of topics surrounding one of the foundational elements of Lean: capability development. From operations methods to new technologies, Upping Your Game takes a look across the AEC industry and beyond to bring you how others are improving the way they work as well as helping develop others around them.

Voices of Construction, Build. Lead. Succeed., and Upping Your Game are available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. Be sure to check them out!

A Look At Our Client Case Studies 

Lee Kennedy & Touchplan Help Teams Increase Productivity and Accountability with Partnership

Lee Kennedy Company is a full service construction firm providing feasibility analysis, pre-construction, construction management, and general contracting services to the Academic, Interiors, Healthcare/Life Sciences, Commercial Development, Historic Restoration, Hotel/Residential, and Retail markets.

“The relationship with Touchplan is outstanding. Our teams have worked well with Touchplan’s customer success team, and they have done a great job on how to best use the product while being extremely receptive to our feedback on how to make the product better,” says Joe Breen, Project Executive at Lee Kennedy.

ANDRES Construction – Helping to Build a New Downtown Dallas Neighborhood

Touchplan is being utilized by ANDRES Construction to build a new 650,000 SF20- Story #residential tower with 335-units including penthouses on the top two floors, a pool overlooking the city, a private bar for tenants, and a rooftop deck. ANDRES is already complete with and ready to turn over the 180,000 SF of #office space and 25,000 SF of retail space. The residential tower is slated for completion in July of 2022.

Hoar Construction – Contributing to Urban Revitalization

Hoar Construction is a national GC primarily working in the Southeastern part of the US. They are also a mandated Last Planner System® (LPS®) company that sees significant value in using the Last Planner System®, and because of that have used it on every project across Hoar Construction.

“Our use of Touchplan on this apartment project allows us to have a good connection with everyone on the team and foster collaboration while not taking away from the value of pull planning the traditional way,” said Hoar Superintendent Andy Shonnard. “The Touchplan customer success team supports our projects on the front end and quickly gets the whole team onboarded. I knew I could count on them to get us up and running as fast as possible and make sure it was an effective tool for us to use.”

XL Construction – Building Better for Their Community

Touchplan was recently utilized by XL Construction on a very special project that created a new transitional housing facility for LifeMoves that will provide assistance for 100 displaced residents in Silicon Valley. 

“Helping our communities is so important, especially during these trying times, and what XL Construction along with LiveMoves is creating will truly impact a lot of people,” said Milenko Dugorepec, Project Manager.

The Demo Company – Taking Human Capital Management to the Digital Space

Our friends at The Demo Company needed a digital option to organize their project teams and foremen, and they found the solution with Touchplan! Chase Resentes explains how they are using Touchplan to keep track of their projects and people.“

We wanted a software that was a quick visual, and we wanted something that could be organized according to project teams (headed up by a foreman that runs each project), and we wanted whatever it was to be super simple,” says Chase Rezentes, The Demo Company, LLC.

Sundt Construction – New Housing In Time for the Fall Semester

Touchplan was proud to be utilized by our clients at Sundt Construction as they built Hornet Commons, a new, 6-building, student housing project at California State University at Sacramento, and had it completed in time for the start this fall semester. You can read about the project in our latest case study. Congrats to Sean Falvey and the team at Sundt.

“We started with a rather detailed Excel program, but the challenge was that it became rather complex to use, and only the person who created it knew all of its inner workings,” said Falvey. “Touchplan was a great fit for this project as we have a lot of production work, and Touchplan makes it much easier to track all of it,” said Sean Falvey, Project Executive at Sundt Construction. 

Orbiz – A Partnership to Further Construction Technology

Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, and London, UK, ORBIZ is a specialist consulting firm that provides a broad range of performance improvement, project management and advisory services across the public and private sectors.

“We quickly realized that very few projects in Australia were using Last Planner®, never mind, a digital version like Touchplan. We saw an opportunity in the local market, to firstly, educate people on the power of the Last Planner System®, and using a tool like Touchplan to deploy it,” said Ross Sterland, CEO, ORBIZ. 

McConnell Dowell – Helping to Bring Safer Roads in Australia

McConnell Dowell is the constructor and leader of the Western Program Alliance, delivering part of the Victorian State government’s ambitious level crossing removal program. The Alliance brings together the Level Crossing Removal Project, MTM (network operator), and Arup and Mott Macdonald as design partners.

“Occupations have to be planned to the “nth” degree, even before the project is awarded. We have thousands of people whose journeys are disrupted through road detours or needing to take replacement buses in-lieu of the train. Touchplan has allowed us to be better prepared,” said Phil Hendy, Innovations and Continuous Improvement Manager, Western Program Alliance.

Webinars Catered to Industry Professionals

The Risk of Using Spreadsheets to Manage Project Planning

In this webinar, George Hunt, met with a panel of seasoned industry professionals to explore the risks associated with using spreadsheets to manage project planning. The team discusses the issues they’ve experienced when using spreadsheets to manage their pull planning, look-ahead planning, and detailed production planning and the transition to using construction planning software.

Extreme Collaboration: Improvisation Meets Planning

Take a look at our webinar “Extreme Collaboration: Improvisation Meets Planning” below and hear Touchplan’s Andrew Piland explain how construction leaders can take ideas from “Getting to Yes and: The Art of Business Improv”  to build buy-in and consensus across a team. Andrew presented this webinar to the LCI community as part of our LCI Congress 2021 promotion. 

How Combining Technology Can Help You Lead a Jobsite

In this webinar, team members from Touchplan and OpenSpace meet to discuss how using a digital twin of your jobsite and collaborative production planning tool can help you become a more impactful leader.

It’s All About The Schedule: How Operationalizing Your Schedule Can Radically Improve Margins

While the fundamentals of Project Production Management (PPM) closely align to the reality of construction projects and the risks associated with them, PPM is far from being “the norm”. Understanding PPM can help teams effectively identify the often-overlooked risks that put projects and schedules in jeopardy. Practices, such as the Last Planner System® or Takt planning, are used by teams to better see the effect of the production laws on the flow of work, but are still underutilized throughout the industry. Learn more here. 

Using Real-Time Analytics To Maximize Productivity

Jobsite productivity happens best when leadership can visualize analytics created in real-time by the daily plan. This type of detailed information, that is provided by Touchplan Insights, allows teams to receive reminders on project progress, quickly see which team members are keeping promises, and more easily diagnose the bottlenecks that cause variances in the schedule.

Why Your Master Schedule Needs Alignment With the Field

Without an integrated solution that connects the master schedule to field plans, most teams resort to inefficient workarounds.This leads to the risk of human error and poor communication between the field and the office, incurring delays, cost overruns, misaligned expectations, and less safe work environments. Check out the discussion here. 

Quick Reads

What the World Needs Now: More Women in Construction Please

If you are looking for answers to the construction industry labor shortage, women can not only help you solve the problem, they very well could be the answer to it.

Revisiting the Five Big Ideas Transforming the Design and Construction Industry – A Blog Series

By 2010, the Five Big Ideas became the basis for a new kind of contract based on the relationships of the parties designing and building the project. So much has been learned since then.

Touchplan’s New Master Schedule Alignment Feature – A Product Manager’s Perspective

Hear from Sr. Product Manager Mary D’Arrigo about the development of the master schedule alignment and the value it will deliver to clients.

Touchplan Announces Record Growth, Executive Appointments

Capitalizing on record growth in 2020, Touchplan announced several appointments to its senior executive leadership team with an eye on global expansion.

So You Want to be a Superintendent…Thoughts from a Touchplan Team Member Who Worked in the Construction Industry

Andrew Piland takes us back to days as a superintendent for a major contractor and talks about how structure, with some added flexibility, can make the most of a jam-packed day on a construction site.

Tracking Progress for Repetitive Scopes Made Easier

Custom Fields is a great next step for teams who want to be able to stack up their planned throughput versus work in place.

How Make Ready Planning Can Make—or Break—Your Project

Invest the time and thought to get your schedule on track and you’ll see the results you want.

New Industry Alliances Working to Improve the Construction Industry

Nearly 40% of ENR 400 Contractors Rely on Bridgit and Touchplan for Their Construction Planning Needs 

Bridgit, a leading construction workforce intelligence technology company, and Touchplan, an award-winning collaborative construction planning software platform that digitizes collaboration, planning, tracking, and communication on the jobsite, announced an exclusive partnership that will empower construction firms to better manage risk using a data-driven approach to project and workforce management, enabling greater productivity and profitability.

The Fastest Way to Create a Digital Copy of Your Construction Site

Touchplan recently formed a technology partnership with Oculo, a company that uses 360 cameras, state-of-the-art computer vision, and artificial intelligence to give a single source of truth for onsite construction progress. We sat down with Founder Tom Kotecki to learn more about the company’s technology and its impact on the construction industry.

Enhancing the Construction Process Via Next Evolution of The QR Code

Touchplan recently formed a technology partnership with BitRip, an adhesive tape that holds hundreds of ‘rippable’ codes that can store any cloud-based information on the spot. We sat down with CEO Nicholas Dimitruk to learn more about the company’s technology and its impact on the construction industry.

Touchplan’s Lean Coaching Affiliate Program Launched in October

Touchplan’s new affiliate program is designed to serve its customers’ needs and quickly connect them with high-quality Lean construction practitioners that can help with their transitions to managing construction projects with a Lean Mindset.

New Alliance to Assess Workflow and Reality Capture

Oculo, a leading AI and deep-tech company, and Touchplan, an award-winning collaborative construction planning software, announced a partnership to work together to assess a workflow that combines look-ahead planning with reality capture.

How Combining Construction Technology Can Help You Lead a Jobsite

Experts from Touchplan and OpenSpace discuss the value of combining contech to help lead a jobsite with insights provided by Corrie Neuens and Sarah Tenpas from The Boldt Company.

Managing Schedule Risks and Their Ripple Effects

Lauren Lake, COO and Co-founder of Bridgit, spoke with Andrew Piland about minimizing the ripple effect of schedule risks. Andrew is a former superintendent and is currently the Strategic Partnerships Lead at Touchplan, a leader in risk management technology for construction. Lauren and Andrew discussed how using the right tools can help mitigate schedule risks, and help improve your bottom line.

A Look at Touchplan Features & Testimonials 

Real-Time Construction Project Insights

Owners and construction executives have the ability to review accurate, real-time project metrics all the way down to the field level, enabling them to proactively manage scheduling risks on a single project or across an entire portfolio.

Ease of Use Improves Efficiency During The Construction Process

We believe that learning from data is the key to making a construction process more efficient and it all starts with an intuitive, easy-to-use platform built with trades to owners in mind.

Long-Range Planning Maps Project Expectations Efficiently

Before the work begins, Touchplan’s virtual planning wall allows you to efficiently map out, see, and capture a full, long-range picture of how you and the team will meet the expectations of the project.

Look-Ahead Planning Aligns Your Team and Provides Accountability

As projects progress and plans change, look-ahead planning keeps all team members aligned, accountable and able to deliver on time as expected.

Maintain Alignment Between Overall Construction Project Expectations and Day-to-Day On-Site Activity

Touchplan construction collaboration software enables teams to maintain construction project alignment and eliminate the negative outcomes that come from the disconnect between the master schedule and detailed look-aheads.

Touchplan’s Customer Success Team: Best in Class Strategic Consultation

The Customer Success Team at Touchplan is here to help onboard and support customer teams and their companies throughout their Touchplan journey.

Thank you for checking out our top stories for 2021. We are looking forward to continuing to bring you new content all next year!

The Risks of Using Spreadsheets to Manage Construction Project Planning (A Webinar Recap)

Touchplan recently hosted a webinar discussion on the risks associated with using spreadsheets to manage project planning for construction.

Touchplan’s Head of Pre-Sales/Sales Engineering George Hunt was joined by a panel of construction industry experts including Dennis Pack from Jacobsen, Aaron Matkin from Relevate, and Sean Falvey from Sundt Construction.

The team discussed the issues they’ve experienced when using spreadsheets to manage their pull planning, look-ahead planning, and detailed production planning. They also discussed the transitions they have all made from planning via spreadsheets to using construction planning software.

Some of the key takeaways from the discussion included:

  • Communication and collaboration have greatly been improved when switching to a digital platform like Touchplan. You didn’t have that sort of communication with using spreadsheets and the process becomes much more effective and efficient when you use a tool like Touchplan.
  • One of the best parts about switching over to a tool like Touchplan is the fact that everyone can see the schedule in real-time. You are not relying on emails being sent or phone calls with updates, everyone has the ability to see where they are on the schedule and get an accurate understanding.
  • With spreadsheets, there is little to no participation and one person (usually the Super) owns the spreadsheet. The super is the only one who updates it, it’s personal, and everyone relies on that person to be there all the time (no sick or vacation days) and to have all the answers of what needs to be done and what has been completed. Touchplan takes the burden off that one person and allows subs, trades, and more to have control over their tasks and update activities themselves. It makes it more efficient in the end.

You can also find some interesting soundbites below:

Get all the details and interesting insights from our outstanding panel by watching the full webinar.

The Fastest Way to Create a Digital Copy of Your Construction Site

Touchplan recently formed a technology partnership with Oculo, a company that uses 360 cameras, state-of-the-art computer vision and artificial intelligence to give a single source of truth for onsite construction progress. We sat down with Founder Tom Kotecki to learn more about the company’s technology and its impact on the construction industry.

Tell us a bit about Oculo and the motivation for starting it?

Oculo is the simplest, fastest way to create a digital copy of your construction site. It’s an entirely comprehensive visual documentation. In terms of the motivation for the company, the original inspiration – look, my background is not from the construction industry, it’s in the tech industry. The original inspiration came from visiting my first big construction project in central London and seeing that back then (2019), a lot of processes were still being done with pen and paper, with pictures shared via WhatsApp or manual production workflows. Being a tech guy, I knew there was a much better way to do this. Then as we got started, we quickly realized that the problem wasn’t that there weren’t any tech tools available, nor was it the common stereotype that the construction industry is technologically backward. In fact, we met many incredibly progressive and tech-savvy people in the industry. The real problem is the tech tools they are offered are just so bad, it wasn’t surprising that they were not using them. Oculo is here to fix this problem. We’re here to provide tools that help people do their jobs, and which are as easy as possible to use and naturally fit into their workflows. So instead of folks having to take manual photos, fill in long forms, and organise them manually – we just allow them to fully passively capture every single square inch of the site, effectively vacuum in all the data from the site, and make it available on a virtual canvas on which you can then unlock a whole bunch of workflows.

What has been the reaction to Oculo from the industry so far?

Really positive! We’ve seen great enthusiasm and growing usage across the board. General contractors, developers, and asset owners are all using it. There is quite a lot of adoption on projects, small and large. We’re already working on some of the most significant projects in Europe, and there have been a lot of benefits our customers have realised.

What is the value that all these users see from Oculo?

Oculo is being used to track progress and align the construction team around the shared version of reality. Oculo eliminates the discussions based on opinions and human memory, and instead presents the facts, allowing everyone on the team to see the same thing. It’s also used to eliminate unnecessary travel and enables remote work, which in COVID times, in particular, was a huge pain point. But even post-pandemic, we are seeing that those new patterns of behavior are here to stay – why wait a week for somebody to arrive and approve a change when it can be done remotely the same day? Also by allowing our users to easily go back in time, we’re giving them perfect recall and making it really easy to assess what happened whenever there is an issue and ultimately, significantly reduce the cost of claims or rework. If there is an issue and you need to rework something, identifying where to do this begins with knowing who did what and when. Being able to narrow down the scope of that work is a huge benefit and cost saver to our customers.

 

So how is all this reality being captured? Is it folks using cameras on Helmets? Drone footage? A little bit of each?

We use off-the-shelf 360 cameras which are mounted on hard hats – then all you need to do is press the record button and just walk your site. It requires close to zero training; anybody can do it. It’s hands-free and completely passive – there are no QR codes, no beacons to install, no extra buttons to press, nothing else required whatsoever. You just walk the site at your normal speed, and that’s it. We take care of the rest and map it all for you automatically.

What was the motivation for partnering with Touchplan?

Our companies clearly share the same vision. We’re both interested in providing best-of-breed, customer-centric tools for construction teams and enabling them to work in a transparent and collaborative fashion. That’s the common thread here. Our part is bringing the reality on the ground and making it accessible to everybody on site, and together with Touchplan, we can jointly allow people to plan their work that much more effectively.

So within the users like GC’s or Developers, is there one super heavy user?

Honestly, it’s an ever-expanding set. It starts with the project manager or a project director, for whom initially it’s about having this digital backup, which is available should anything go wrong. The PM starts using it, but then so does the person who captures the data, and soon the rest of the site team. Then there’s value for health and safety people and quality control people who want to ensure work can be done more effectively. We’ve seen meetings with 30 plus people, all dialing in remotely, and all looking at the same reality to review and plan their work. So it goes pretty wide.

So what does life look like five years down the road for Oculo?

There are so many teams within a construction project that can benefit from our technology, and there are so many more workflows that we could enable – we’re just getting started. You can think of Oculo as a virtual canvas on which you can build a lot of those different workflows. We allow our users to capture and organise a wealth of information in 3D, and then if you consider the long-term value of this, there’s lots more to it still. Ultimately, we are passively backing up your entire construction site with a full history of who did what and when, all the asset information, and all the documentation in a single place.

Where can people go to learn more about Oculo?

All you need to do is go to https://oculo.ai or reach out to us directly. Getting started is really simple – all you need is an off-the-shelf 360 camera, which you can buy off Amazon. There’s very little training required, and then off you go! Then as far as the output is concerned, it’s a web tool which means you can access it from any device, anywhere in the world. The tech is inherently accessible and that’s at the very core of our ethos.

Top Stories From November: Building Resilience, Honoring Industry Vets, New Industry Alliances

Get the LCI Perspective

This is the first of two episodes that were recorded at this year’s Congress Conference hosted by the Lean Construction Institute. (LCI) George sits down with attendees Felipe Engineer-Manriquez, Adam Hoots and Brian Winningham to discuss key takeaways from this year’s conference and advice for first time attendees.

Continue to Hear From Your Lean Enthusiasts

George continues his recap of the 2021 LCI Congress Conference and chats with Jason Schroeder from Elevate Construction, Kate Simons from Shawmut Design and Construction, Cade Keyes from Columbia Construction, and Darcy DeGeorge from Stantec. All discuss their experiences at LCI and advice for first-timers except those who are first-timers.

Building Resilience From Injury & Illness

This episode is all about resilience. Angela chats with Terri Michalak and Andrea Ward about managing their careers while overcoming severe illness and injury. They also talk about the support they received and provide advice to those facing their own challenges.

Meet NAWIC President Doreen Bartoldus

In this episode of Build. Lead. Succeed., Angela Highland sits down with new NAWIC President Doreen Bartoldus to discuss her experience as a woman in construction and her plans for NAWIC over the next year.

Sandy Hamby Inducted into the National Academy of Construction

MOCA/Touchplan CEO Sandy Hamby was recently inducted as part of the class of 2021 to the National Academy of Construction (NAC). Hear her thoughts on joining this elite group of construction industry leaders.

What’s In The Code?

In this episode of Voices of Construction, Noah Baker speaks with Nick Dimitruk founder and CEO of BitRip. Nick and his company have created the next evolution of the QR Code connecting the digital and physical worlds of construction. Nick is extremely passionate about his company and how they are impacting the industry, and he is a former Marine Corps Harrier pilot, so he also has some fantastic stories to tell. You absolutely want to tune in.

Veterans In Construction

In honor of Veteran’s Day, we released a special episode of Voices of Construction. Noah chats with Andrew Piland (a Captain in the US Marines reserves) and Aaron Matkin (a former US Army Green Beret) and current Lean Consultant for Relevate. The two discuss their careers in the military and the comparison to working in construction.

Enhancing the Construction Process Via Next Evolution of The QR Code

We announced earlier this month that we formed a technology partnership with BitRip Digital Tape by Nastro Technologies, an adhesive tape that holds hundreds of ‘rippable’ codes that can store any cloud-based information on the spot. Check out our blog for an interview with their CEO Nicholas Dimitruk.

New Alliance to Assess Workflow and Reality Capture

Oculo, a leading AI and deep-tech company, and Touchplan, an award-winning collaborative construction planning software, today announced a partnership to work together to assess a workflow that combines look-ahead planning with reality capture. Read more about this partnership here.

Subscribe to The Saturday Shift – Your Weekly Source of Industry News & Entertainment

As always, if you are interested in seeing more updates like the ones above, be sure to sign-up for The Saturday Shift! The Saturday Shift is meant to educate AND entertain you about a variety of topics in and around construction. Its purpose is to make your “weekend shift,” whether it is on the jobsite or just doing what you do in your downtime, a little bit more enjoyable.

We hope you enjoyed our top stories from November! We know there are a ton of places to get construction news, blogs, podcasts, and more out there, so we wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you for checking us out.

Sandy Hamby Inducted into the National Academy of Construction

MOCA/Touchplan CEO Sandy Hamby was recently inducted as part of the class of 2021 to the National Academy of Construction (NAC). The NAC is one of the nation’s esteemed construction industry institutions characterized by its extensive and diverse expertise, proven leadership, and trusted judgment.

The mission of the National Academy of Construction is to share its unmatched reservoir of expertise in service to the nation so that transformational improvements are made in the industry’s capability to create a built environment that is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable

We sat down with Sandy to get her thoughts on joining this elite group of construction industry leaders.

What does induction into the NAC mean to you?

The National Academy of Construction recognizes individuals for their contributions to the industry. The goal is for its members to share expertise as a service to the nation. As a long-time construction industry professional, I am honored to be a part of this illustrious group of professionals and to meet the commitment of sharing my experience and ideas with future industry giants.

How do you think this honor reflects on MOCA/Touchplan as a thought leader and innovator for the construction industry?

The National Academy’s mission of sharing knowledge is a natural platform to share innovative ideas related to essential construction business solutions. As a member of NAC, I am in a position to share ideas and insights on new collaborative solutions that impact effective project delivery.

As a woman in construction, how do you feel that this honor helps raise awareness for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within the construction industry?

NAC supports diversity, equity, and Inclusion. I am one of many women honored by NAC for their contributions to the industry and I am excited by the opportunity to be a member of the NAC allows me to share experiences and mentor future generations to become the next leaders in construction.

As a newly inducted member, how would you like to contribute to NAC to help further the growth of the construction industry?

The work we are doing at MOCA & Touchplan is revolutionizing the construction industry. I am excited to share the intellectual resources of all of us here to contribute to the creation of white papers, infographics, and other kinds of thought content designed to share new and innovative ideas with others.

Sandy Hamby has demonstrated outstanding leadership in program and construction management. She is a strong advocate for women in construction and truly a giant in design and construction. These qualities strengthen the Academy’s efforts as we broaden our outreach in collaborative efforts. We are excited to welcome her as a member of the National Academy of Construction.” – Wayne Crew, General Secretary, National Academy of Construction

You can learn more about the National Academic of Construction and Sandy’s induction by reading the press release from the event. You can also read Sandy’s insights on women in construction on our blog.