Suffolk’s innovative technology piloting program identified OpenSpace as a high-impact construction solution after evaluating the platforms usability and value proposition in 2019. As an early adopter of OpenSpace, Suffolk became an industry leader in challenging traditional practices for documenting progress. Project teams have seen tremendous efficiencies compared to manual captures in the field. For example, a Suffolk team used OpenSpace on a project to help ensure that a window wall system on the critical path was completed on time. With a solid foundation of using OpenSpace, Suffolk became interested in leveraging the documentation for improving an existing onsite process: progress tracking.
The challenge
Tracking the progress of trades is a cornerstone to a Superintendent’s work. Site Superintendents are ultimately responsible for keeping a pulse on daily project activity and effectively planning for tomorrow. The accurate progress tracking of specific materials has many potential use-cases on a jobsite: lean planning, flow and material management, verification of work, and so much more. Typically, team members meticulously walk the site with a set of plans and a clipboard, estimating progress visually and recording percent complete. Automating this process with accurate data capture would prove to be a gamechanger.
The solution
Suffolk began using OpenSpace’s automated progress tracking features on its Estates at Acqualina project in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, which consists of two 827,000-square-foot luxury towers. Through Artificial Intelligence (AI) classifiers, the feature recognizes the various components of a system of work; for example, drywall is captured as top track, bottom track, framing, insulation, and sheetrock. The progress tracking module ingests the captures from day-to-day and compares the documentation to generate accurate measures of installed work, producing precise percent complete values. For the Acqualina pilot, Suffolk has been primarily utilizing the tech for drywall installation tracking.
What makes OpenSpace so great is it lets you speak to facts instead of opinions.
The results
OpenSpace has been delivering considerable efficiencies in the field for the Acqualina project to date. Field team members Javier Contreras and Javier Varela have found multiple sources of value for the technology. “I love this tool because it makes daily progress pictures so much easier,” says Contreras, a project engineer for Suffolk. Through seamless daily progress tracking and the housing of data in a collaborative, cloud-based platform, there is a single source of truth. Varela describes his ability to reference the platform when there are questions around installed work to date. This promotes an environment of increased transparency and accountability on the Suffolk site. “What makes OpenSpace so great is it lets you speak to facts instead of opinions,” notes Contreras.
OpenSpace has always had the ability to track progress on a jobsite through photo documentation, but the addition of granular, detailed information on quantities and materials introduces a new dimension of value
Suffolk has been leveraging Lean scheduling and planning for years. However, tracking accurate work in place values across the entire project has been a challenge. OpenSpace’s progress tracking capabilities were highly useful in understanding the current Planned Percent Complete (PPC) of each trade partner. Meaning: how each trade partner is currently tracking against their “promises” or “commitments” for that week. With highly reliable work in place values, the “Javiers” can adjust variables, such as manpower. If a specific trade were noted as falling behind the weekly work plan, they could be notified and supported to make up for the lost time. This allows for quick course-correction onsite and ultimately drives production.“OpenSpace has always had the ability to track progress on a jobsite through photo documentation, but the addition of granular, detailed information on quantities and materials introduces a new dimension of value,” said Kelsey Gauger, Suffolk’s National Construction Solutions Director. In addition to increased transparency onsite and reliable work in place tracking, Suffolk is seeing value in the following areas:
Time savings with automation
Contreras anticipates that automation will yield significant time savings. For example, after recently getting a bill for masonry work, he had to visit the area with the trade partner and verify the installation of work by literally counting the units of material–of which there were roughly 50,000. With automated progress tracking, verifying the percent complete would be instant. “It would have saved a whole day of work,” Contreras said.
Quality control with trade partners
OpenSpace provides clear insight into the quality of the work in place and makes it much easier to assign outstanding work to trades. For example, the Acqualina project features very high-end condo units, which require the utmost attention to detail. The most minor details cannot be overlooked, including scratches on doors, marks on the walls, etc. With additional features on the platform, such as Field Notes, it is easy to take pictures of defects and have them automatically mapped to the floor plan and flagged to relevant trades for instant notification and rework. It is also possible to identify housekeeping issues faster, and clearly direct the responsible party to clean them up.
Increased transparency with owners and design team members
Owners today expect a detailed account of work installed daily. Instead of having to visit the relevant floors, take manual pictures and organize them, we used OpenSpace to show where we were, Contreras said. Its a good card to have in your hand, especially since OpenSpace captures are time-stamped. With the onset of COVID-19, many project collaborators were unable to make frequent visits to the site to review the progress, such as ownership and design team members. OpenSpace provided a portal for a view into site progress, a virtual jobsite walk, for project stakeholders that were working remotely, keeping everyone on the same page.
We see consistent, accelerated adoption of the OpenSpace platform, as project teams are forced to adapt to the changing environment of today. OpenSpace provides a seamless solution that generates value without interfering with day-to-day site operations. Suffolk expects both progress documentation and automated progress tracking to continue to scale, especially as additional systems of work become available in OpenSpace’s progress tracking module. The opportunities to gain efficiency and transparency on each construction site are endless.
