Construction technology like Smart Construction Field can help you track costs and improve profitability when used effectively. Read on to learn how.
Introduction
Running a construction business is challenging, especially when it comes to maintaining profitability. However, not everything about construction has to be difficult. In fact, there are a few things you can start doing in the upcoming week to improve profitability. In this blog post, we will discuss five things that you can start doing to improve awareness, accountability, and profitability in your construction business using Smart Construction Field. Smart Construction Field is an easy to use, low cost, and high value project management tool that is easy to use and can be implemented in just a few days.
Five Ways for Construction Companies to Boost Profitability with Technology
In this article, we will discuss five ways that Smart Construction Field helps contractors improve profitability. Smart Construction Field can help contractors:
- Monitor daily production and costs
- Digitize and streamline jobsite activities
- Monitor equipment utilization
- Accurately track fuel usage
- Digitize equipment inspections
This is not an exhaustive list. When used to its full extent and paired with other construction technologies like Smart Construction Office, Smart Construction Field can provide great value to contractors looking to become more efficient and productive.
Let's look in-depth at each of these features and how they can benefit your construction business.
Monitor Daily Production and Costs
Smart Construction Field gives managers the ability to track field costs and production in near real time with automated reporting, empowering them to monitor performance closer, react quicker, and maintain profitability on their projects.
Image by senivpetro on Freepik
Understanding crew performance is critical to maintaining profitability on construction projects. The first question project managers should be asking themselves every morning is: “Were my crews profitable yesterday?” If the answer is no, their next question should be: “Why weren’t they and what changes can we make to become profitable today?”
It goes without saying that managers can’t correct issues if they’re not aware of them in the first place. Unfortunately, many companies don’t have a process in place to correctly identify what was done yesterday and that reduces the ability to see profit and loss on a daily basis. In fact, a shocking number of companies don’t even know if their projects were profitable until after the project is complete, which is far too late to react and mitigate losses!
Calculating project costs in this manner is akin to driving a car using only the rearview mirror. That data is too old to be useful and will not stop you from running into a wall. To learn more about cost controls on construction projects check out this article.
Digitize Timecards and Streamline Workflows
By implementing Smart Construction Field, companies can reduce the time it takes for crews to do timecards while improving their job cost accuracy.
Image of Smart Construction Field
Timecards are a crucial part of the cost control process, but they can be time-consuming and prone to errors when done manually. Calculating daily costs requires a substantial amount of information to be tracked daily. Supervisors can easily spend 30-45 min manually filling in all the details on a thorough timecard for their crew. They must document information such as labor hours, equipment hours, production quantities and material usage for every task performed by every crew member for that day.
With Smart Construction Field, workers simply clock into the job when they arrive and choose the task they are performing from a specific list of pre-configured work items. They can easily switch tasks and add notes to explain what they did that day. The BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) devices automatically capture the time they spent working in machines. Now, at the end of the day, the supervisor is simply approving hours and entering production quantities instead of entering all this data by hand, saving them valuable time.
Monitor Equipment Utilization
Construction companies can easily monitor equipment utilization and productivity with Smart Construction Field, giving them critical insights into costs and opportunities.
Image by senivpetro on Freepik
One of the most significant expenses in a construction business is equipment. Therefore, it is essential to monitor equipment costs and utilization closely to maintain profitability. One of the key pieces to understanding equipment utilization is knowing how much your machines are running and what they are working on. With Smart Construction Field you have the option to use wireless and inexpensive Bluetooth low energy (BLE) sensors to track operated equipment hours in near real time. These weatherproof, long-lasting sensors report operating time down to the minute and automatically code the machine's cost to the correct task budget.
This advanced jobsite technology will allow you to track equipment costs with greater detail and accuracy than ever before.
Accurately Track Fuel Usage
Organizations using Smart Construction Field have seen as much as a 15% reduction in fuel use after implementing fuel tracking, leading to significant cost savings.
Photo by Pedro Céu on Unsplash
Fuel is a major cost on the jobsite and construction companies often struggle to accurately track this expense. Furthermore, companies can even struggle to understand if all the fuel being charged to the job was delivered to that job. Implementing a system to accurately track fuel usage on job sites can help control and reduce fuel costs. Smart Construction Field uses QR codes to quickly identify 1) type of fuel being dispensed, 2) asset fuel is being dispensed from, like onsite tanks, transfer tanks, or a fuel truck 3) The asset that is being fueled, like dozers, excavators, and haul trucks.
By quickly scanning the codes with a smartphone, operators can correctly log fuel usage and managers can see a detailed breakdown of where every gallon was used. This helps to identify fuel theft, simplify invoice reconciliation, and increase job cost accuracy.
Digitize Equipment Inspections
Digital equipment inspections with Smart Construction Field can help your crews stay safe, reduce equipment downtime, and ensure compliance with regulations.
Image from Komatsu.com
Equipment uptime is a key indicator of project success, therefore, reducing equipment downtime should be one of the top priorities of equipment managers, project managers and superintendents. Thorough equipment inspections have been proven to reduce downtime, resulting in higher productivity and profitability by detecting potential issues early on, which in turn increases the lifespan of your machines and avoids costly repairs that can result from neglect or overlooked problems. Traditionally, equipment inspections have always been done on paper, but paper-based inspections can be time-consuming and often lead to inaccuracies, delays getting information to the people that need to act inevitably leads to delays in repairs. In addition, operators forget to fill out the inspection, do not have an inspection book or a pen, or the paper gets lost before it makes it to the office.
Smart Construction Field’s digital equipment inspection system is a much-needed upgrade to traditional paper inspections. Smart Construction Field will automatically flag timecards when operators are not completing their inspections, ensuring both compliance with regulations and appropriate maintenance concerns are being addressed. Smart Construction Field will also help you to identify and remedy issues faster by notifying the maintenance department as soon as faults on equipment are identified ensuring machines stay moving and profitable.
Read more about digital equipment inspections in our recent post.
Conclusion
In conclusion, implementing Smart Construction Field can significantly improve the profitability of a construction business. By monitoring equipment utilization, digitizing equipment inspections, accurately tracking fuel usage, monitoring daily cost and production, and digitizing timecards, companies can increase productivity, reduce downtime, improve accuracy, and maintain compliance with regulations. These improvements can lead to cost savings and increased profitability, making it easier for construction businesses to thrive in a competitive market.
Schedule a demo today! Our team is ready to help you implement this into your business ASAP. You can be up and running with Smart Construction Field in just a few days. See for yourself how Smart Construction Field can take your operations to the next level.
