Touchplan’s Insights allows owners, construction executives, project managers and superintendents to review accurate, real-time project metrics all the way down to the field level, enabling them to proactively manage and mitigate scheduling risks for a single project or across a portfolio of projects. The data measured provides a fantastic opportunity to identify areas for improvement and head off problems before they get big.
More specifically the data that is captured via the Percent Plan Complete (PPC) feature in Touchplan makes it apparent to all the members of a construction project team that various elements are being tracked allowing all to see any trends or issues and make changes to mitigate them.
Right & Wrong Ways to Utilize Data
PPC can also serve as a reminder to all the need to update their completed work in Touchplan. Prior to technology tools like Touchplan, construction teams would do a great job planning their work, they would promise their work and then do the work. But come to the end of the project there was no “formal review process”. Think back to your college days. You would spend an enormous amount of time researching, writing, and editing a term paper but then imagine if you did not have it graded. How can one expect to understand what is going well and what needs to be improved?
The construction teams that take data analysis to the next level want to get the grade back on the paper and then understand where they can improve. They pay attention to the variances; they pay attention to the why’s and they make adjustments that will improve the overall work moving forward. One of the benefits of this process is that making small changes can remove similar mistakes in the future. Again using a simple analogy of walking out your door, and having to step over a bunch of the kids’ toys every day. If you make the simple adjustment of moving the kids’ toys to a designated spot or give them a bin to put them in then you no longer have to step over them and avoid things like tripping and spraining your ankle.
Construction teams that use PPC data incorrectly, use it as a battering ram, or, a ruler to reprimand their trades for things like incomplete work. They don’t see the data for what it truly is – a diagnostic tool and improvement metric. Also, they are not looking deeper for the real answers, the whys? A trade may have fallen short due to delays beyond their immediate control not because they are slow. It’s important to peel back the onion or ask yourself why? By doing this you will be able to identify the real causes that can be found through accurate data. If construction specialty trades see PPC as a watchdog looking to spring upon incorrect work then they will not invest the time to use it the way it is meant and valuable information is lost. In actuality, the trades and especially the foremen can be one of the biggest benefactors of PPC. The more comfortable they become with PPC the more it will allow them to bid and run future projects more effectively.
Measuring PPC Can Lead to Better Reliability
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that measuring PPC does not automatically lead to working faster or more efficiently. It provides access to multiple reports within one dashboard and it is also customizable, providing users the opportunity to remove unforeseen factors such as weather, early finishes, or uncontrollable delays. Think about it like not just looking at one gauge that says you have half a tank; you need to look at all of your gauges and absorb that information, and then your overall knowledge is increased twofold.
What is important for construction teams to realize is that if you measure PPC and take it seriously and try to improve your processes from the data, the entire construction team is going to become more reliable. It’s more important to keep the mentality that slow and steady not only will win the race and get you there on time; it’ll also reduce stress, headaches, and avoid a lot of people scrambling around to meet the deliverables at the end of a project.
Learn More About PPC & Insights at our Webinar
If you would like to learn more about how to best use PPC to improve jobsite productivity, sign up for our webinar Using Real-Time Analytics to Maximize Productivity which will be taking place on June 22.
