The power of real-time monitoring and planning in construction industries

Traditionally, construction companies used manual methods to track progress.

However, as the world moves towards automation, it only makes sense to utilize useful technology to enhance monitoring and tracking capabilities in the construction industry. By adding a real-time approach to the monitoring and progress tracking of construction projects, companies can actually stay on top of all the chaos and dynamism of hectic construction sites. This means that all the changes are reflected in real-time and all issues that occur can also be dealt with then and there.

In order to establish a working real-time monitoring system, companies can utilize tools that easily integrate into the daily workflow. Form increased visibility, and reduced delays to better decisions, tools, and platforms that help real-time monitoring and tracking come with a host of features and benefits that are hard to ignore. For construction companies that want to make a mark, adopting real-time monitoring tools is the best option.

Sustainability Goals and Targets Set by the UN for Construction Organizations

Achieving operational agility and responsiveness isn't just about introducing operational efficiency but ensuring that sustainability targets for consumption and production are thoroughly met. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs has outlined a number of objectives for large-scale organizations that need to be considered when pursuing agile and adaptive business processes.

Creating Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure

To promote economic growth and human well-being, construct excellent, dependable, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, with an emphasis on affordable and equitable access for everyone.

Encouraging Sustainable and Inclusive Industrialization

Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and, by 2030, considerably increase industry's contribution of employment and GDP, in accordance with national conditions, and double its share in LDCs.

Improving Access of Small-Scale Organizations

Increase small-scale industrial and other firms' access to financial services, especially inexpensive loans, and their integration into value chains and marketplaces, particularly in developing nations.

Upgrading Infrastructure and Enhancing Capacity

Upgrade infrastructure and refit industries to make them more sustainable by 2030, with better resource efficiency and expanded use of clean and ecologically sound technology and industrial processes, with all nations acting in line with their particular capacities.

Investing in Innovation and Scientific Research

Enhance scientific research and upgrade industrial sector technological capabilities in all countries, particularly developing countries, by 2030, including encouraging innovation and significantly increasing the number of research and development workers per million people, as well as public and private research and development spending.

• Enhance financial, technological, and technical assistance to African nations, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing states in order to facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries.
• Assist developing nations with domestic technological development, research, and innovation, especially by establishing a favourable regulatory environment for, among other things, industrial diversification and commodity value addition.

Why is real-time monitoring important in construction?

The average construction project is an amalgamation of several moving parts that have to function harmoniously for the project to be a success. However, due to the complexity and fragmented nature of these projects, progress tracking and monitoring often become highly challenging. Without progress tracking it can be impossible to surmise whether the project is on schedule and within the budget. Staying on top of the progress also allows teams to adjust their strategies and optimize them to reach goals faster. For this, real-time monitoring tools are the ideal solution.

With real-time monitoring and progress tracking, construction teams can:

• Reduce delays
• Enhance visibility
• Make better decisions 
• Improve accountability and sense of ownership to boost team engagement

How do you monitor and control a construction project?

Monitoring and controlling a construction project can be challenging due to its disjointed and dynamic nature. Despite the challenges, modern monitoring and tracking solutions can help you come up with a sound strategy. Here are some useful tips to establish a real-time monitoring mechanism for your construction projects:

Create a Single Source of Truth

In construction projects, documents and information is spread across different departments and workers. This means data is heavily siloed and it can be difficult to bring it together. It is essential to establish a single source of truth that integrates and connects multiple technologies to ensure data consistency. It’s also beneficial to correspond over a single channel to keep everything in one place instead of spreading it out over multiple channels. This can help gather all the documentation in one single platform, making effective monitoring and controlling possible.

Track your Workflows

Tracking workflows and automating them with the right technological tools can help you monitor and control construction projects. This includes processes like submittals and RFIs which can often cause a lot of delays.

Utilize Task Tracking

You can get added control over the construction project with a clear view of how individual construction tasks are progressing. Task tracking also allows you to set up workflows that make work highly visible to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Use Schedule Tracking

Keeping track of the schedule is one of the hardest yet most important aspect of monitoring and control in a construction project. You can utilize a number of tools to optimize schedules and track them to ensure that the project is moving in the right direction.

Establish Field Productivity Tracking

After the planning stage is done and construction begins, field productivity tracking becomes important to keep an eye on how well the plans are being executed on the field.

Is real-time monitoring and planning in construction effective?

The construction industry is plagued by many difficulties such as process invisibility, data silos, and fragmentation which make it even harder to track progress. Through real-time monitoring and planning tools, construction companies can finally reclaim some of the control over complex projects to steer them in the right direction.

Here are some reasons why real-time monitoring can prove to be highly effective for construction projects:

• Real-time monitoring allows teams to stay up to date with the project status and issues that may arise.
• Identifying issues earlier on allows teams to adjust their plans to resolve issues before they cause real damage.  
• Monitoring can also help teams learn from patterns and optimize workflows to get the best possible results.
• The data gathered through real-time monitoring can be utilized to derive useful insights for future growth.
• It ensures all team members are on the same page regarding the progress of the project, making communication more effective.

What is a real-time monitoring system?

Real-time monitoring systems allow you to constantly track progress and keep updated regarding the issues that arise on-site. Since construction projects are prone to many different types of issues, it can be useful to identify them as soon as they occur. The real-time aspect allows you to adjust your strategies and workflows on the fly and view the impact of these changes.

Here are some other uses of real-time monitoring system:

• Easy sharing of information across team members and stakeholders
• Deep integration tools that connect with various other management tools and software
• Bridges gaps between the site and the office, allowing workers to communicate effectively at all times
• Ensure staff security on-site with real-time alerts

In what situations might real-time monitoring applications be needed in construction projects?

Here are some scenarios in which real-time monitoring applications can help with construction projects:

• Monitor when materials and assets arrive on-site and ensure their optimal utilization  
• Save photo documentation and save records in one platformy
• Completely remote monitoring capabilities to bridge the gap between the office and the field
• Understand personal workflows along with productivity and efficiency
• Ensure safety compliance by reviewing incidents
• Monitor accidents and security and resolve issues with real-time updates
• Perform security diagnostics without the need to be on-site

How your organization can use real-time data for construction projects?

KanBo is a work management software that provides construction companies the unique opportunity of real-time monitoring and progress tracking through a suite of robust features. Here are some ways in which your organization can use real-time data for construction projects using KanBo:

Real-Time Broadcast

Monitoring is made easy for your construction project with KanBo’s real-time broadcast of all activities and recent developments. You can monitor all happenings at three major levels:

Card Level

Upon opening a card that represents a task or work context, you can easily see all the recent actions, people who performed those actions, and all the involved documents in their latest versions.

Board Level

For board-level monitoring, you can simply open up boards and view all the activity in real-time. As team members collaborate over boards, each one can see how the cards have progressed through the lists and their current status.

Board Collection Level

Board Collection monitoring can be done by keeping an eye on the counters displaying the important happenings within boards in a consolidated way.

Card Relations

On the construction site, complex work processes lose visibility faster than anything. As you breakdown the construction process into smaller tasks and work items, different teams and departments will be made responsible for them. Card relations allow you to link cards across different boards to build a relational network that keeps these work items connected. To view the progress of a work item that is spread all over the organization, all you have to do is visit the main card which will let you see the overall progress of all smaller workpieces instantly.

Card Activity Stream

One of the ways KanBo makes real-time monitoring a piece of cake is through the card activity stream. From finding out what work was done to figuring out who did it, the activity stream is much like a newsfeed that keeps you updated on all activated. This records all actions and communications, providing full traceability.

How KanBo ensures a real-time approach for the construction industry?

KanBo makes it possible for the construction industry to embrace the real-time approach with easy-to-use rea-tie capabilities that transcend physical location and presence. Here are some of the most notable KanBo features that foster a real-time approach:

Activity Presence

In order to determine whether someone is available to collaborate or now, KanBo provides the ability to view activity presence. The status of a person is denoted by specific colors. For example, green means the person is currently available while black means unavailability.

Current Visitors

KanBo ensures that you can see your colleagues working along with you. With current visitors, you can easily view how many colleagues are on the same card and working on the same work context as you. This not only provides a higher sense of transparency and connectedness but also allows for knowledge sharing and better collaboration.

Action Indicators

Action indicators truly make it obvious that you are working in real-time in KanBo. Whether you’re editing a note, typing a message, or adding a task to a list, KanBo shows an indicator for these actions to let others on the board know what you are up to.

Read Receipts

Read receipts show how many team members are on the same page and are up to date with the latest developments. KanBo allows you to see who has read which portion of the Card Activity Stream in real-time. This increases the team’s morale and confidence, saving everyone precious energy spent on low-quality team synchronization meetings.

KanBo Facilitates Construction Companies at All Levels of Management

Any organization that wishes to increase operational efficiency, embrace planning and monitoring, and go big on data and digital requires a multi-level infrastructure. When infrastructure is divided across teams, it becomes more difficult to monitor work and information, resulting in inefficiency and redundancy. KanBo's basic building blocks help managers, executives, and employees develop and optimise their work processes and project plans in a similar way. Whether you're an executive or just a team member, KanBo offers all the building blocks you need for all kinds of hierarchical arrangements.

As a C-Level Executives -  Digital Headquarters

Top-level management values a broad picture of the firm and a bird's eye view. KanBo provides customers with the digital headquarters they need, including quick access to strategy, tasks, projects, information, knowledge, documentation, internal communication, and the organizational community, as well as critical applications. Instead than having to plan meetings and video conferences every day, they can make key decisions on the go.

Citizen Developers as a Low-Code Platform

Low-code platforms are a visual approach to software development that allows for quick application delivery without the need for manual coding. Low-code platforms were created to make app development more accessible to the general public, especially citizen developers, who are basically business users with no professional coding experience. These personnel include project managers and business analysts, for example. KanBo's low-code platform allows users to make a big difference in a number of ways, such as reducing IT department backlogs, eliminating shadow IT, and taking control of BPM workstreams.

Citizen Developers as a No-Code Platform

NCDPs (no-code development platforms) enable non-coders and coders alike to create application software utilising graphical user interfaces and configuration tools. They don't use standard computer programming, which might be tough to master. KanBo and other no-code development platforms, like low-code development platforms, promise to speed up the application development process. These platforms have gained in popularity as businesses deal with the concurrent trends of an increasingly mobile workforce and a limited supply of trained software developers.

Work Organization Platform for Information Workers

A process is a procedure that involves a series of steps that must be completed in order to produce a certain outcome. A project, on the other hand, is a short-term plan with the purpose of providing a one-of-a-kind product, service, or result. KanBo provides a single location with all of the tools employees, managers, and executives need to manage many processes and projects with ease.

Conclusion

The world of construction, like any other business, is becoming more fast-paced than ever. As clients’ demands increase and technology makes its way into the workplace, it becomes essential for construction companies to establish real-time monitoring that keeps up with the speed of change. This can only be done through robust and comprehensive real-time monitoring systems such as KanBo.