Construction Planning for General Contractors
Delays are a persistent problem in the construction industry – without proper software for construction planning and with little project certainty. You need to get your project completed— on time the first time.
Construction Planning Challenges
Delays are a constant problem in construction–you must meet your deadlines.
Everything Keeps Slipping
- Labor shortages, material availability, and rework cause your schedule to slip
- Reliable promises are difficult to come by
Hard to Collaborate
- Among subcontractors
- Between subs and material suppliers
- With other stakeholders – owner and architect
No Project Insights
- Lack of visibility of problems building on the jobsite
- You can’t improve what you can’t measure
- Reliable promises are difficult to come by
Wasted Time… Waiting
- Jobsite not ready
- Missed handoffs
- Rework
ALTERNATIVES
100+ Calls by Lunch
- Taking hours to make dozens of phone calls and texts to coordinate between multiple teams, suppliers, and contractors
Multiple Spreadsheets
- Hours spent building and communicating
- Look-Ahead schedules
- Working in silos to create and adjust specific spreadsheets
Time in the Office
- Walking back and forth to the trailer to review the plan and make adjustments
5 Reasons for General Contractors to Consider Touchplan
BEST SOFTWARE FOR CONSTRUCTION PLANNING
There are five main reasons to consider Touchplan:
1
BEST Planning and Daily Recovery
Touchplan has collaborative pull planning, with weekly work planning, milestone dates and look-aheads.
Digital Pull Planning
- Transform your spreadsheets to a collaborative plan
- ALL stakeholders are involved in the process and updated in real time on everyone’s phone, tablet, or computer
- Project templates and bulk ticket functions make it easy to plan and re-plan
Master Schedule Alignment
- Align your master schedule easily
- View your project plans side by side with your master schedule
- Ensure that milestones are reached and that the project is moving forward
Look-Ahead Planning
- Create custom Look-Ahead durations instantly
- Enable team members to accurately sequence tasks, keeping members aligned, accountable, and project delivery on time
Real-Time Updates
- Real-time updates for ALL stakeholders are made easier with Touchplan’s mobile interface
- Easily view tasks, updates, and the overall plan to stay on track in the field
Variance Reasons
- Track reasons why a task was not completed on time
- Help you re-plan and proactively adjust on the fly
2
BEST Project Data and Analytics
Touchplan provides actionable insights to proactively deliver projects faster.
Actionable Insights
- Review accurate, real-time project metrics down to the field level
- See problems in advance and make timely decisions to avoid future delays (like Waze for traffic jams, Touchplan is your project GPS)
Dashboard Views
- View all of your data in a simple, visual dashboard
- Easily understand project status
Top Performers
- Track promises made vs. promises fulfilled
- Easily identify which trades/suppliers need attention
Reliable Promising
- Calculate a reliable promise date for milestone/project completion
- More accurate forecasting to keep projects on or ahead of schedule
Time Overrun
- Track where and how much a project is going over time to identify areas that need attention to prevent budget overruns
3
MOST Collaborative
Touchplan combines the benefits of pull planning with best-in-class digital collaboration tools – to build better together.
Collaboration Tools
- Team members can collaboratively edit, view, and develop daily, weekly, and look-ahead plans
Unlimited Users
- Easy enough for everyone on site to use
- No per user fee
Mobile Access Anywhere
- Users can access Touchplan from anywhere on any device
- Team members can modify, change, and view project details remotely from the field
Team Participation Tracking
- Display the participation history of team members
- Help managers understand performance and to drive improvement
4
EASIEST to Use
Touchplan’s interface “looks like sticky notes,” and is the easiest planning tool to use.
Intuitive Look and Feel
- Familiar look and feel to planning on a whiteboard with sticky notes to reduce learning curve
No IT Required
- If you can use your email, you can use Touchplan
Cloud-based
- Enable team members to access projects from anywhere via the Internet
5
BEST Customer Service
According to our customers, a dedicated support team is paramount. That is why our Customer Success team remains with you throughout your construction project so your team comes in on time and under budget.
Dedicated Support Team
- We solve pain points and facilitate onboarding to ensure your team gets full value from Touchplan.
Help Center
- Transform your spreadsheets to a collaborative plan
- ALL stakeholders are involved in the process and updated in real-time on everyone’s phone, tablet, or computer
- Project templates and bulk ticket functions make it easy to plan and re-plan
User Onboarding
- More than 100 how-to articles on all of Touchplan’s features.
- Dozens of videos describe detailed and general product features.
- Ensure you get the most out of the product.
Live Chat
- In-application live chat response time of only 36 seconds.
Touchplan Academy
- Touchplan Academy allows customers to take Admin and Basic User courses to get trained up on their Touchplan skills and receive certifications that can be added to a LinkedIn profile.
Before Using Touchplan
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.
- Vice President | Northern California Regional Director, Sundt Construction
After Using Touchplan
Using Touchplan allowed us to identify these issues months ahead of time and adjust our work to keep the project on schedule.
