Building Design + Construction - October 2019

34 |BUILDING DESIGN+CONSTRUCTION | October 2019

spaces—courtyards, alleys, streets—in six cities.

Carruthers says 276 people were interviewed, and

the fi ndings allowed the fi rm to create a new set of

metrics that it fi rst applied to the design of a court-

yard for a 25-story offi ce tower in British Columbia.

Originally the courtyard was to be on the ground

fl oor, but ZGF’s analysis made clear it would need

to be elevated one fl oor to increase its exposure to

natural light. The redesigned courtyard—with one

terrace that’s 144.9 sm and another that’s 138.2

sm—is less deep, smaller, and allows for place-

ment of trees in optimal locations.

Last March, at Turner Construction’s annual In-

novation Summit, a team working on the massive

Los Angeles Stadium and Entertainment District

presented a new business intelligence (BI) dashboard

for analyzing fi nancial and engineering data. Laura

Santo, Project Controls Manager at Turner’s Southern

California offi ce, calls this dashboard a “one-stop

shop” that organizes data into digestible formats.

The reports produced by the dashboard provide

“interactive visual tools,” complete with metrics

and action items, says Santo. By using this dash-

board, for example, Turner and Kroenke Group,

the owner of the L.A. District project, were able

to eliminate their weekly meeting about change

orders. Turner is now rolling out the dashboard to

other projects across the country.

Construction. At the beginning of each job,

Clark identifi es potential major risks and bases its

data collection and analytical strategies around

these to put together a digital management plan.

Clark Construction won’t touch a site before it

collects data on underground utility locations, soil,

and other existing conditions. That information

derives from the fi rm’s own laser scans, as well

AEC TECH^ |

MORE THAN HALF of contrac-

tors say their methods of col-

lecting and analyzing data from

their jobsites need to get better

over the next three years, in

part for their companies to use

these data to predict employee

and project performance.

That’s a key finding in a new

40-page SmartMarket report that

Viewpoint and Dodge Data &

Analytics have released, entitled

“Improving Performance with

Project Data.”

The report is based on an

online survey conducted from

August 14, 2017, through Sep-

tember 12, 2018. The survey

used Dodge’s Contractor Panel

and contacts provided by View-

point. Of its 187 respondents,

98 were GCs, 47 specialty trade

contractors, 28 construction

managers, nine design-build

firms, and four design-contract-

ing firms. Thirty-seven percent

of respondent companies gen-

erate revenues between $50

million and $250 million.

The research focused on

five key types of data: project

progress, manhours, produc-

tivity, safety, and equipment

management.

Respondents were asked how

they gather, store, manage,

secure, analyze, and report on

each of these types of data. Key

trends include a rapid shift away

from paper-based forms, re-

ports, and spreadsheets to digi-

tal tools and platforms, some

that leverage cloud technology;

increasing use of apps on mobile

phones and digital cameras in

the field; the desire for more

accurate field data that enables

trends analysis across projects;

and a focus on data security.

More than three-fifths of the

contractors surveyed say they’ve

seen improvements in their data

gathering and analysis capabili-

ties over the past three years.

That’s especially true among

larger companies. By far, the

most important project data

being gathered is performance

information such as scheduling

and costs, followed by payroll

and manhour data.

The top-three benefits from

data analysis, say contractors

polled, are improving their

ability to complete projects at

or under budget (53%), greater

productivity (47%), and greater

profitability (46%).

However, more than half of

the respondents (54%) admitted

that they need to improve how

they gather jobsite information

over the next three years. And

45% think their ability to analyze

trends across projects must get

sharper, too, as well as their abil-

A new report on how contractors collect and use jobsite data is based on

responses from 187 companies. Image: Dodge Data & Analytics

INFORMATION IS POWER, BUT ARE CONTRACTORS COLLECTING WHAT