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Keeping project data straight can be a mammoth task in itself. Every build is by definition a moving target, with specifications and progress status changing daily. This is where technology can help.
Here are six recent announcements from software manufacturers and other technology providers to help keep project information flowing in a useful way, without interrupting the work at hand:
Buildots
On Wednesday, Tel Aviv-based construction technology provider Buildots announced the launch of Dota Plain language chatbot that provides up-to-date answers on project detailss.
The new tool leverages Buildots’ comprehensive dataset and generative artificial intelligence to provide instant insights in response to direct questions, according to the press release.
Powered by OpenAI’s latest GPT models and trained by Buildots to work for the construction domain, Dot cross-references multiple data points to provide in-depth analysis, making it easy to measure progress, track implementation and the visibility to solve problems before they escalate. , says the firm.
“With Dot, we’re enabling a whole new way to access project information, like talking to a colleague, getting accurate information when you need it,” Roy Danon, co-founder and CEO of Buildots, said in the release.
Users can ask Dot about progress percentages, task completion, or trade-specific updates using everyday language. They can follow up on these questions to dig deeper and gain invaluable information that would otherwise be difficult or time-consuming to obtain.
Superintendents can use Dot to guide subcontractors by cross-referencing conditions and ensuring various prerequisites are met before starting new tasks. For example, a superintendent might ask, “Give me a list of apartments where drywall has been completed but bathroom tiling has not begun,” which allows them to prioritize the appropriate tasks and assign the resources efficiently, the company says.
“With Buildots, not only can you track progress, but now you have this AI assistant that allows you to ask questions about the progress of your project and drill down,” said Trent Nichols, national director of BIM at Kansas City, Missouri. Dunn, in publication. “It’s a no-brainer.”
Kojo
Materials and inventory management platform Kojo recently announced the launch of Kojo Prefab, designed to help contractors connect their prefab shop with the rest of their business.
The San Francisco-based company says that more than 60% of commercial contractors incorporate some form of prefabrication into their construction processes, according to the press release. Kojo Prefab addresses the growing demand and underlines the needs of contractors to improve productivity, quality control, safety performance and cost predictability associated with prefabrication.
With the tool, field crews can order assemblies from the prefab store and track the status in the Kojo mobile app. It also allows prefab workers to upload custom images and communicate production updates between teams, according to the release.
“As our prefab shop grew, we turned the Sharpie drawings into digital PDFs, but no one was using them and they were impossible to maintain,” said Danny Blankenship, manager of prefabs for Baltimore-based United Electric , in the statement. “Not only is Kojo prefab digitized, the goal is for our teams to use Kojo to communicate what prefab materials are available, create purchase orders and track deliveries, just like ordering a pizza.”
Prefab is now available as part of Kojo’s expanded feature suite, which also includes procurement, inventory management, tool tracking, and accounts payable.
Highwire
Highwire says it has made submarine hunting easier than ever. The Boston-based company presented its new prequalification solution to assess the breach and security risk posed by subcontractors earlier this month, according to the press release.
The technology platform, that was developed at Harvard to ensure safety of your students, teachers and contractors while reducing insurance costs for construction projects, streamlining the vetting process for subordinates while eliminating irrelevant questions that drive contractors crazy considering the scope of work.
“We designed our new prequalification solution with subcontractors in mind,” said Don Fornes, president and CEO of Highwire, in the statement. “At every step, we’ve tried to remove the friction that has characterized traditional prequalification.”
The tool looks at everything from financial viability to past project experience, security performance, insurance and bond tracking, and litigation and breach history, Highwire said.
The introduction of the solution comes at a time when 70% of respondents to an Associated General Contractors of America survey reported has increased the distress of subcontractors or defaults.
Customers include Rosendin Electric and T5 Data Centers, according to the firm.
Trimble
More data, more problems. This is the topic Trimble’s new Reality Capture platform address
With more devices collecting information about workplaces today than ever before, the Westminster, Colorado-based tech giant says making sense of geospatial data has become increasingly complex.
The solution brings together data sets captured with 3D laser scanning, mobile maps and drones and securely shares them for more effective collaboration, Trimble said in a press release. The service is available as an extension of Trimble Connect, the company’s cloud-based data platform that has supported more than 30 million users to date.
Trimble Reality Capture provides a secure and intuitive web-based solution for point clouds and 360-degree imagery, the firm said, enabling professionals in construction, surveying, transportation infrastructure, utilities and others industries to work on complex reality capture projects while maintaining data integrity. and accuracy
Trimble integrated Microsoft Azure Data Lake Storage and Azure Synapse Analytics into the platform to reduce time to ingest, store and process massive datasets.
“This new service applies cloud technology in a new way to large data packages, enabling users to significantly scale performance and maximize data value,” said Boris Skopljak, vice president of geospatial at Trimble. in the statement. “With this release, we are one step closer to making living digital twins and artificial intelligence applications at scale a reality.”
DroneDeploy
DroneDeploy says it has developed an eye for detail that leverages artificial intelligence to detect security risks. Earlier this month, the San Francisco-based aerial reality capture company announced the launch of Security AI to automatically identify security risks in the works with the help of Google and OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, according to a press release.
Safety AI automatically analyzes thousands of images already captured on construction projects to detect all visible OSHA safety hazards. The AI then ranks them based on severity and notifies the security team automatically.
“With Safety AI, your most experienced safety managers can monitor safety practices on every project, every day,” James Pipe, chief product officer at DroneDeploy, said in the statement.
The company said beta customers leveraged the technology to reduce the occurrence of unsafe conditions by up to 89% within three weeks. Leveraging large multimodal models, the technology, which the company said was “almost impossible just 12 months ago,” reports on visible security risks with a 95% accuracy level.
Troy Nichols, assistant director of safety at Ogden, Utah-based contractor Wadman Corp. and a Safety AI user, said in the statement that he likes the extra set of eyes. “I’m not on the project every day, so when I get the Safety AI reports, I can reach out to the project team so we can discuss the activities that are in progress and determine what we need to do to achieve them . the security risks have been taken into account,” he said.
The company says Safety AI is available to all customers of DroneDeploy’s current ground solution and can be activated instantly. It can also run on historical data, ensuring past risks are identified and addressed, the firm said.
MOCA systems
MOCA Systems Inc. has recently improved its touch plan digital production planning platform to enable synchronization with Oracle’s project management and scheduling system, Primavera P6, according to the press release.
The Boston-based company says the joining of technologies eliminates the problem of schedule drift, where P6’s master schedule in the office is out of sync with live workflow events in the field, resulting in increased budget and schedule risks for large and complex. construction projects.
It combines the time-oriented P6, which follows the critical path method, with the action-oriented features of Touchplan, which is based on the Last Planner system. By working together, they keep jobsite workflow and contract calendar continuously in sync, but the systems have different logic, data formats and end users, making automated integration problematic.
Touchplan’s latest enhancements provide a new solution to this problem, the firm says.
“Some planning software vendors have attempted to automate the translation of data and logic between the CPM system and LPS tools, resulting in an unsatisfactory loss of control and autonomy for users of both systems,” said Brett Adamczyk, head of MOCA’s software division, in the release. . “In contrast, with Touchplan we took a different, human-in-the-loop approach to keep experienced CPM and LPS experts in control of data selection and logic translation, while eliminating the task of manually reformatting data and move them between systems.”
The new Touchplan features have been successfully used by a panel of experienced P6 and Touchplan users who have collaborated with the Touchplan engineering team to develop the most effective way to unify the systems.
“Combining the systems in this way is a boon to our planning productivity. It allows our experts to spend more time managing project complexity and less time managing project data,” Layne said. Hess, corporate director of planning and planning for Utah-based Jacobsen Construction, a client of P6 and Touchplan.
The new features are available at no additional cost to current and new Touchplan customers.
