Design delivery
Contractors find new tools in box to meet stringent job demands

By Angelle Bergeron

Most big contractors, wanting to stay ahead of the curve, are embracing the latest design delivery technology.

Jud Jacobs, a project manager with The Lemoine Co. Inc. of Lafayette, couldn't sing loud enough the praises of ConstructWare, his company's software choice for the fast-track delivery of the $21 million Neuromedical Center of Baton Rouge.

ConstructWare is the brand name for a multiple-industry application software, a version of which has been tailored specifically to construction. Jacobs said he likes it because it is "real time, no delay. I can type something up or scan pictures and get it to the architect and he can respond to it almost instantaneously." Perkins & Will/CRA of Houston designed the project.

Jacobs said that currently this is the only project for which Lemoine is utilizing ConstructWare.

"A lot of people are set up on totally different systems - Timberline, or Microsoft - and I think some companies don't want to intermingle their software or they just don't know about it," he added.

Apart from sheer ignorance or fear of something new, the price tag is probably the largest single determining factor in a company's decision about technology.

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"A contractor doing under $10 million (annually) wouldn't get something like ConstructWare because it's not worth the cost," said Ken Gootee, vice president of operations for Metairie-based Gootee Construction, Inc. "If a small company is only doing $3 million or $4 million a year, they don't need the detail that we may need doing about $25 million a year."

Compared to some contractors, Gootee is progressive in its use of the three-dimensional version of Auto CADD, the industry staple design program that has been around since the 70s.

"Most people don't use the 3-D version because it requires a lot of input of X, Y, Z coordinates," Gootee said. But it enables field engineers to "look at conflicts that we see on paper before we go out in the field and see it won't work," he added.

"Once you pour concrete, you have to rip it out if it's wrong. Then you've got a team of 14 or 25 people out in the field, waiting for you to figure out the next step."

Gootee said his company also uses project management software such as Expedition and Primavera, which help track everything from shop drawings to responses to requests for information.

"It helps you to make sure nothing falls through the cracks," he added.

Derrell Cohoon, CEO of Louisiana AGC of Baton Rouge said new-fangled software and creative utilization of the Internet are streamlining bidding and practically every element of project delivery, for those savvy enough to seize the techie tools.

"We jumped over the cliff about four years ago and started pushing the industry to use Internet-based project management systems," Cohoon said. Although current systems run the gamut of capabilities, from design tweaking to monitoring a fleet to keeping track of tools, warming some in the industry to the joys of modern technology has "been a slow process," he added.

But the benefits of technology are being realized to varying degrees in the construction industry.

"Say you're a contractor and the architect is in Seattle, building a project in Baton Rouge with real sophisticated millwork done in Denmark," Cohoon said. "Today, you have the ability to be able to pull the job up, interface with the architect in Seattle and the millwork supplier and sub in Denmark at the same time, while all are looking at the same set of plans. And changes can be made at the same time. That's innovation."

Bryan Perkins, project architect with Perkins & Will/CRA's Houston office, said that although his firm has often used the fast-track method of project delivery and other industry software, his experience with ConstructWare at the Neuromedical Center of Baton Rouge jobsite has spoiled him.

"The ease of use was greatly improved," Perkins said. "I'm not real computer savvy, but I thought the interface of logging in, finding new information, the way it distributes new information was much more efficient."

The system eliminated some of the "older" problems with fax machines and people not being available, Perkins added.

"When they post something new, they can distribute an e-mail alert to all the parties it affects, then log into the software and see who has already responded," he said. "It creates an open dialogue where each team member can give some input, whenever it is most convenient for each party involved."

Jacobs said that such software has become a necessity for companies doing any kind of volume work.

"My project was so fast-tracked, I had structural drawings before I had architectural drawings," he said. It's not uncommon to fabricate steel and pour foundations before the architectural drawings are complete, but the level of communication using ConstructWare helped to eliminate a lot of mistakes, Jacobs said.

"If the architect, engineer and owner are all in separate locations, I can still send it all to everyone immediately, with a press of a button," he added. "It has a bunch of other functions, but that is the most important in my opinion."

Many programs also facilitate record-keeping, the albatross of every construction project. Perkins said that since he hasn't crunched the numbers, he couldn't comment on the "real value" savings, but he enjoyed the efficiency.

"I'm working on some smaller projects now where I would like to use that software, but they just don't have the budget," he said.

Accounting. Any discussion about the impact of technology on construction would be remiss without mentioning its impact on cost management.

Four years ago, Land Coast Insulation Inc., a New Iberia-based contractor & supplier, began developing its RealTime Costing program to show customers real time daily costs as well as potential savings. In addition to insulation, the industrial contractor offers fireproofing, refractory, industrial coatings, painting, scaffolding and direct material sales, said Michael Morton, president/CEO.

"We were listening to clients talk about scaffolding on projects and how, in the early 1980s they were bidding work on 8 percent of direct man hours," Morton said. "Today, they are using 18 percent of direct man hours and still having cost overruns, so we designed a software that could put controls back on scaffold cost."

The dynamic database is accessed through LandCoast's Web site and allows project managers to track progress of a job simply by logging on and entering their unique job number and customer code.

"We developed this program as a tool so we could do both your scaffolding and monitor your cost," Morton said. "Contractors have always referred to scaffolding as a crap shoot, but it is part of a construction project, so it can be monitored."

With RealTime, contractors can avoid having inventory lying around that is being paid for but not used, Morton said. The program also enables them to track areas where scaffolding is erected and torn down multiple times.

Useful Resource:

For the latest technological developments in the construction industry, go to: http://enr.construction.com/features/technologyEconst/default.asp