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Dive brief:
- JE Dunn’s new pre-construction tool, Align, won the Fast Company Innovation Award for Design 2024 in the category of large companies in July, the company revealed on August 12.
- The Kansas City, Missouri-based builder created Align in partnership with hometown technology and consulting firm Crema. The goal of the tool is to help potential partners budget better and simplify the estimating process.
- Align leverages data from more than 1,400 JE Dunn projects, with which users can establish an accurate cost baseline, according to the company. Some of the data points include estimated costs per square foot and total project costs, combined with images of completed work. It provides estimates with a margin of error of 1%, according to Fast Company.
Diving knowledge:
With the tool, users can address the logistical issues of cost estimation and imagine what is physically possible, according to the company.
It allows users to create their own buildings with different elements and forecast the cost based on completed projects, a process the magazine compares to the Papa John’s Pizza Builder app. However, instead of add-ons, customers can choose from a menu of architectural styles, amenities and building facades, all within a what-you-see-is-what-you-get interface.
Align has been in use for about a year on one in five JE Dunn projects, Fast Company reported. Constructions include high-rise residential projects, commercial properties and higher education work.
“Instead of having challenging conversations where we have to overcome design and budget issues, we spend our time refining projects to be more efficient or add more sustainability,” said Jason Hickam, JE Dunn’s national director of preconstruction and estimating, in Fast Company.
“It enables our clients and design teams to establish a realistic foundation budget that reflects their project goals and provides certainty of outcomes tied to historical costs and visual representations, as well as live estimate updates,” Hickman added in a statement of press by JE Dunn.
Although construction has a reputation as an industry that is slow to adopt technology, contractors and technology companies are making great strides to close this gap. Earlier this year, there were eight adjacent companies under construction Fast Company list of “The most innovative companies in the world in 2024”.
