Transcript
Brad Barth:
Welcome, everybody to today’s webinar. Today’s topic is “Project Certainty with Advanced Work Packaging and the Cloud.” My name is Brad Barth. I am Chief Product Officer for InEight. And really excited about today’s topic and especially excited about the speakers that we have for you here today. Both of our speakers here come from an extensive field planning and execution backgrounds. Starting with Megan Siefker, Megan comes to InEight from the TIC company, The Industrial Company, where she had the distinction of working on the Petra Nova project, which I believe is still the world’s largest carbon capture project. Really happy to have Megan here today. Megan, thanks for being with us.
Megan Siefker:
Yeah, thanks Brad. Thanks for having me. Excited to get to talk to you about Advanced Work Packaging a little bit more in depth today.
Brad Barth:
And then we also have Andre Paden. Andre is an AWS subject matter expert and comes to InEight from also a field planning and project controls background at KBR, Kellogg Brown & Root where, amongst other things, Andre led AWP implementation there. Andre, thanks a lot for being here today.
Andre Paden:
No, thanks for having me, Brad. I’m really excited to show some of the things that we’ve been working on at InEight to support our AWP effort.
Brad Barth:
Okay, well, let’s get into the live software. We’re going to show you how the InEight solutions cover the AWP process. Before we do that, though, let’s just tee up a little bit of background for you before we jump into the live tools that Andre and Megan are going to show you. So InEight is focused on eight categories of functionality and business process. And within those eight categories, we focus really from two angles. Number one, what is the functionality that is needed by the various roles in those categories to do their jobs? So making sure we’ve got the right features and functionality in each of those eight categories. And secondly, connecting them together. That’s a big part of the InEight value proposition is how we tie data and business process across all of these eight categories. AWP is a great example of that, because as you’ll see today, this Advanced Work Packaging process, we’re really going to touch on three of our eight categories. We’re going to touch on virtual design and construction, planning, scheduling and risk and field execution management. And we’ll see how different aspects of the InEight solution come together to create a purpose-built AWP solution.
Brad Barth:
And because we provide that in the cloud, it’s very easy to implement, very easy to enable that collaboration across various stakeholders. So InEight is all about project certainty. That’s kind of our mantra here. And to us that means expectations equal outcome. So those expectations could be around cost, could be around budget, could be around safety, quality, scope, lots of different expectations going into a project. Our goal is to make sure that the outcomes equal those expectations on your projects. AWP is a great way to help us with that. So as we look at, what are the things that create that uncertainty on a project? Or what are the forces that kind of conspire against it? As we talk to customers and participate in industry surveys, we see these types of things that typically become challenges. And as you look at that list and go from top to bottom, as you go down to the bottom there things are less within our control, price increases, weather, site conditions, things like that. But the thing is at the top of the list are largely under our control and fortunately those are the things that AWP helps with the most.
Brad Barth:
So making sure that we’ve got a good solid planning process. And we’ve got everything accounted for scope, risks. And we are planning properly so that we release the work when it’s ready to go. And that’s what drives that field productivity as the project progresses. So, that AWP process has been proven to help in those areas, this is not just InEight view. And as an example of that, in this Construction Industry Institute survey where they looked at a number of different projects, seven different projects that implemented an AWP process and went through completion, on just about every way you measure it cost, schedule, quality, etc. And then ultimately all the way out to that predictability virtually across the board positive to very positive outcomes, with very few exceptions across those seven projects.
Brad Barth:
So AWP has been around for quite some time and we are not going to go through a background on AWP itself. InEight has a number of different webinars on that topic. So if you’re interested in learning more you can find those at ineight.com, as well as Construction Industry Institute and other sources on why AWP delivers these sort of outcomes. What we are going to talk about today and get into here real quick is to show you how the InEight solutions enable that AWP process. And so just for those of you that maybe are new to AWP, just to get a little bit familiar with some of the terms and the intent of AWP. Ultimately, it’s all about tying engineering, procurement and construction together and ensuring that we can execute against what’s called that best path of construction. And so the key elements of that are shown on the screen here. We’re going to break the work down at construction work areas, those are going to be broken down into work packages and ultimately within those work packages, we’re going to break those up into installation work packages.
Brad Barth:
Now those work packages in the middle could be engineering work packages, it could be procurement work packages, we’re going to focus today on construction work packages. But in either case, it’s just a hierarchical parent-child relationship. Now InEight takes that one step further, and allows you to break those AWPs down into daily plans, which ultimately is essentially a shift’s-worth of work for a crew with everything that crew needs to do the work.
Brad Barth:
So traditionally, what happens in an IWP approach is that multiple systems multiple tools come into play across these different constructs. We’re storing information in a lot of different tools, Excel spreadsheets, scheduling systems, models, short interval planning systems and then as we get all the way out into the job site, the grease board at the job site trailer phone calls, emails, printouts, attachments, just a whole lot of different ways of conveying the information needed to execute the work. And so what happens, and this is the problem that InEight addresses head on, all the different roles when you think about the different roles that come into play on these projects, whether on the engineering side, owner side, contractor side, because this information is not connected, because it doesn’t integrate, all of those roles end up doing a lot of manual work re-entry of data, copying and pasting, emailing information back and forth. And otherwise, creating essentially a chaotic process as the project evolves and things change, there’s a lot of redundant effort, a lot of inefficiencies through that whole process.
Brad Barth:
So what InEight does is brings all that together into an orderly process, makes a common user experience so that all of these different roles can interact in a common way, with a common set of data and common user experience. So those 3D models that might come into play, we might take advantage of those to define our construction work areas and our construction work packages, or we might want to do that in the schedule. But in either case, with the InEight solution, as you define those using that visual context of a model or using that time view of a schedule, those CWAs and CWPs show up in both places, with not having to reenter those as we go through our planning process. And then as we create those work plans, those IWPs, all that CWA and CWP context comes along for the ride along with our scheduled dates to help us with the planning. And even better those components that live in that model or models, maybe different models by discipline, those can flow right into our IWPs so we know, what is it that needs to be procured? What is it that we need to have at the job site? So we can touch that.
Brad Barth:
Number one hallmark of AWP is let’s make sure all of our dependencies are covered, and we’re ready to go execute that work. So we’re not having to re-enter hundreds or thousands of model elements into our IWPs. And then as we break that out, send that out into the field in the form of daily plans. All that information comes along, along with our targets, budget productivity goals, resource requirements, essentially everything that the foreman in the field team need out in the field to go execute that work. And then lastly, as that work gets completed, and quantities are completed, that information flows back up the horn here to update our IWPs, update our CWPs and schedules, and ultimately coming all the way back to our 3D models, which we can color code or light up based on status percent complete, and other types of information coming from the work that’s been executed.
Brad Barth:
So this process is what we’re going to show you here today as we jump into the live software. We’re going to start up at the top here with our models and schedules that Andre is going to take us through right now. So Andre, over to you.
Andre Paden:
Thanks, Brad. The presentation really highlighted the benefits of transitioning from a traditional workflow over into an integrated data-centric process where information can flow between all your solutions and is available to all members of the project team. So in looking at InEight’s connected construction platform, we’re going to start off with InEight Model. So just to ground everyone, InEight Model is not an authoring tool. It’s a common data environment. InEight’s model tool is able to accept import models from various authoring tools. In doing that, we’re able to assign various bits of information to model objects and geometry. This information can be anything such as documents, so various bits of metadata for materials management, construction, execution and planning. And this can also be various other bits of information that align with your business processes.
Andre Paden:
InEight Model is intended to be a full lifecycle solution. So again, it’s intended to be used during the design phase construction planning, construction execution all the way through systems completion and systems turnover. So just kind of grounding in that, we’ll talk about our AWP solution. We’ll talk about it in kind of three steps, first being the tags and objects panel. Objects are simply just a list of geometry and shapes that come over from the authoring environments, not particularly important to the discussion, but again, tags, again, are bits of information that do come from the authoring tools. So this can be as simple as design areas or WBS structures and again, that information can come from the authoring tool. Bits of information like pipeline numbers, piece mark numbers. InEight Model is also able to supplement that information.
Andre Paden:
So again, depending on where the AWP process was enacted, a lifecycle engineer may or may not capture things such as construction workers, and things like that. And again, we can supplement that information so you’ll see over here in our sample environment, which is a water treatment plant, we were able to supplement the engineering information with construction execution plan and model information with CWAs and bits of information like that. The next panel we’ll talk about is the “elements” panel. So the elements panel allows us to associate both model tags and model objects to discrete elements. These elements can be as simple as material components, so pools of pipe, pieces of steel foundations, or they can be as robust as systems and subsystems for systems turnover.
Andre Paden:
So again, this elements tab is fully functional and allows us to kind of assign and bend, modeling visual information to various needs throughout the project lifecycle. Another interesting attribute of the “elements” panel is it’s also able to … You can also import non-graphical information. So, non-graphical information such as cable, schedules or field routed conduits and cable trays, those can also be assigned in the “elements” panel to give yourself a robust picture of the project both graphically and non-graphically. And the last panel that we kind of talk about in this AWP solution is the actual AWP panel itself. Again, Brad highlighted that the AWP structure of CWA, CWPs and IWPs and again, that is as simple as in the model solution, you can go ahead and create that in the model solution by hitting the add button. The CWA, CWPs and this information can be populated in schedule and published to model if this information comes from plan and progress if that’s how your business process flows.
Andre Paden:
In this AWP panel, again, you’ll see a sample AWP structure. So again, it starts off at the CWA then we get into the CWP structure. So again, as things are defined, those things can be isolated. So visually, you can produce visual reporting to identify CWA, CWPs and IWPs as well.
Brad Barth:
Andre a of couple questions for you.
Andre Paden:
Yes, sir.
Brad Barth:
Don’t mind me cut in here.
Andre Paden:
Yes.
Brad Barth:
When your premiere experience, when you’re defining these CWAs and CWPs I would assume that the visual aspect of it like you see here in the model gives you a lot of advantages to doing that inside with the context of the model. Is that kind of typically the way it’s done? Or is that a relatively new approach?
Andre Paden:
I mean, that’s relatively new, again, with this AWP initiative, bringing kind of construction folks in that construction definition of execution path construction over into the left, having those guys able to sit down with the engineering team as the models being developed in providing that input and say, “Hey, okay, I want to kind of define my CWPs in this way, because I know this is going to align with the design. So that’s fairly new, but again, it provides construction with a better mechanism to communicate both to engineering as well as communicate down to the guys out in the field to kind of illustrate plans of execution. Having the model, having the visibility of say, identifying CWPs in your path of construction visually, you sit all of your superintendents down in a room for hour or two and just kind of walk through the model and say, “Hey, civil lay out your plan, structural lay out your plan, piping lay out your plan.” Having that individual tool like that model just reduces any of the kind of miscommunication that is rampant in the construction phase and just ensures that everyone is aligned on execution paths.
Brad Barth:
Got you, got you. And then just to make sure I understand it, but that AWP, CWP structure you’re showing here, can basically push right over into your schedule to be your let’s say your level one, your level two of your schedule, is that, is that correct?
Andre Paden:
Definitely, definitely. With the InEight solution, you can create that AWP structure over in the scheduling tool. And I think you hinted on that in the presentation. If you’re doing this process early on in the lifecycle, you may not have a model to begin to visually assign them but again, you can align that CWA, CWP structure in your level one, level two, and your level three scheduled development. So again, before you even have a model, you can kind of lay out those plans and align the various bits of data at that time.
Brad Barth:
Perfect.
Andre Paden:
So back in our a WP panel. So again, the thing that Brad highlighted was the kind of digital threads and connected construction. So I’ll expand this AWP panel and what you’ll see is that there’s a wealth of information. Again, some of this is model-specific information, but again some of this is from various sources. So you’ll see within the details of the CWP or IWP that various bits of information so, schedule start, scheduled finish, schedule ID. Again this information is directly fed from our InEight scheduling tool, so again, as items are defined within Model visually, and then are linked to discrete schedule activities, that information is published back and then represented here within the model solution. Again, other bits of information, total man hours, earned man hours, performance percent complete.
Andre Paden:
Again, that information comes in from progress and plan as work has been executed. So again, that bits of information of the actual execution of these work packages also can come back into the model solution. So, again, visually you can look at what does my work package look like for the next three weeks, you can kind of visually highlight that based on having the schedule information. Or in the execution phase, you can look at and say, “Okay, how am I looking for all the work packs that are going to finish here in the next couple of weeks?” And you can look at percent complete mapping and say, “Okay, everything looks in proper order, let’s continue to work towards our plan.” Or if something’s off, then we can make those adjustments well in advance.
Andre Paden:
So again, having that connected information, and having it in real time allows everyone to kind of stay focus, have those bits of information allow us to make the necessary changes before you kind of get too far of planning off target in the schedule. So I’ll highlight in here so you’ll see the various IWPs that we’ve created for you, see a lot of these have already been assigned schedule information. So this last IWP which is process fee section D, we’re missing a bit of a schedule information. So we’ll go over a pop over into our scheduling solution and kind of just quickly show you how easy that is. So over in our schedule tool, so we’re in our water treatment plant. Again, this is our AWP pop out so again, the way this was designed, to your point Brad, it was to be flexible. So if you’re a contractor and you follow a rigid AWP process where your level three schedule speaks directly to IWPs and CWPs we can accommodate that. Or if you’re kind of slowly adopting and transitioning and maybe the way you develop schedules doesn’t align so that we can also accommodate that.
Andre Paden:
So again, AWP structures can be imported and then linked up to your schedule so you don’t lose that connected bits of information in the process. So I’ll go again, I have the AWP structure and you’ll see that’s the same work package that was shown in model, IWP process feed section D. We’ll go ahead and grab a schedule activity ID, D1 piping. And you’d notice here in the schedule start 19th of December, it’s as simple as drag and dropping. So again, drag and drop will go through that cycle. Now that IWP is now linked to a schedule activity ID and then that information will be published to both model as well as planning progress. One point to emphasize and I think you kind of hit on it before again, creating IWPs, CWP so that entire AWP structure, you can do that anywhere. So again, you can start that process in the scheduling solution. So again, that’s available to you here and again, you can publish it here and then push that out or again you can publish it in the other solutions, and then push that back into the schedule as well.
Andre Paden:
So again, connected information, again, you’re not going to get all of your work packages upfront. So again, you may be further down the road and end up creating new CWPs and IWPs. And again, pushing that information from model, from planning progress back to schedule just to continue to ensure that all of those bits of information are in line is just invaluable to the guys in the field.
Brad Barth:
And Andre, from your experience, what roles are typically involved in what you’re doing here, and I’m assuming you typically work on projects of any size and you’re going to multiple people doing this at the same time, right?
Andre Paden:
Definitely typical projects you have depending on the size of the project you have. Maybe you may have area planners on the work face planning AWP side and you may have the same kind of amount of planners or P6 individuals on the project control scheduling side. So again, there’s various inputs on both sides. So again, having the ability to define that process either kind of just being flexible and be able to define it from either side is a benefit. You may go down there and you may have a strong individual and P6 who knows, kind of the workplace planning process, he can kind of go through there and help supplement the creation of that AWP structure or you may have some novices who aren’t as familiar with and no need to be fully supported on the planning side. So again, having that flexibility of going either direction creating AWP structures in the schedule as well as Model is just going to be a benefit for everyone in the field.
Brad Barth:
And that may be something I didn’t point out to the InEight Schedule solution which you’re showing here does tie in and integrate with P6 right with Primavera P6?
Andre Paden:
It does, it does.
Brad Barth:
Your master schedule is maintained in P6, you can still do everything you’re doing here and just have that show up over in your P6 schedule, right?
Andre Paden:
That is accurate. So yes, InEight works with Primavera, P6 as well as Microsoft Project. So again, we are adaptable, we’re flexible, we can work within your normal processes, and we can supplement those. So you don’t have to abandon all of your processes to use our solution.
Brad Barth:
Good deal.
Andre Paden:
So jumping back into InEight Model. So, again, project updates. I’ll hit the “update now” panel. Again, accept all those updates that quick. So I’ll go back into this process feed section D, manual C, now we have a scheduled start, scheduled finish again. December 19, 2022 popped across again, assigning schedule information, it’s just that easy and again, publishing it and pushing it out to everyone. So again, to have real time information as it’s being developed is critical for the guys executing in the field and just a lifesaver by having all the information. That typical process if you have a planning solution that stand alone that’s an Excel file that needs to be exported from P6 and then married up in your planning solution then pushed back and say, “Okay, these are the packages that are now assigned to this piece of activity.”
Andre Paden:
And again, anybody who has been on a construction site knows that that doesn’t just happen within a matter of minutes. That’s a potentially days or a couple of days activity dumping files out getting things assigned and pushing it back into P6. So again, real-time information, always available to not only people in the model, but people in the schedule, solution, progress and planning solution is just invaluable when you look to start measuring that. So that’s the kind of quick and dirty of kind of work packaging, creating packages and the planning side of it. I’ll now hand it over to Megan, who can talk about the actual execution in the forms of workplace and daily plans.
Megan Siefker:
All right, thanks for handing it over Andre. So I’ve jumped into the work packaging module of InEight. And you can see here I’ve got that AWP structure is what pops right up. This structure came over from the model, and you also saw it in the schedule. And now we see it in a plan. So I can see that same structure with my underground piping CWP with all the IWPs that Andre created below it. And you can also see with that process feed section D, this just populated with those scheduled dates. So they’ve come all the way through to from the schedule. So I can start seeing some information here. And then I can see some of the percent completes here who the superintendent or planner is assigned to and start getting into, now I’m going to get into the process of planning these scopes of workout.
Megan Siefker:
So I’m going to jump into this CWP just to give you another view. So to give you another view of this CWP I can see all the IWPs that are included within that construction work package, and I can start seeing some of the percent completes and then see what packages or IWPs I need to go ahead and still plan, so you can see these are in draft mode, and they’re coming up well, and that one’s out in a couple years. But if I go to this one, I can drill into the IWP and this is where I start adding details. So, I want to specify my safety items that I need to consider, the quality that needs to be considered, what activities, what work sequence. So I jump to my “workspaces” tab. And on my “workspaces” tab, I can pull in different buckets of information. So I pulled in, what equipment do I need for this scope of work? Which is some underground HDPE fire water?
Megan Siefker:
I’ve got my material components, and this actually came directly from the model. So this was a model element that Andre had assigned to this IWP. And from that model element, I’ve broken out that one ISO into the piping spools that I need to install. And so that’s that specific quantity of each spool. And you’ll see that gets all the way onto an iPad for a foreman to know what specific tasks they’re going to do for the day. So I have my activity components here, I’ve got a work sequence so I can dictate to my foreman and to the crews the specific steps that they need to do to complete their work. If there’s any hold points, if I want to attach any drawings here, about how many man hours and then if I want to add specific scheduled dates for these more detailed tasks that are at a lower level, even deeper than what you might see in the schedule.
Megan Siefker:
And then I’ve got my crew assigned. So I can assign named resources or just how many journeymen do I need, how many helpers do I need at this stage? And then get into my quality steps. So what are the quality risks at every one of those work sequences and how do we mitigate those? What type of inspections are needed? All of this information is very important for the foremen to know and understand. So I want to make sure that information gets out to them, to the crews doing the work. Same with the safety, what are any of my hazards? What kind of mitigation measures are we putting in place to reduce those risks? And any environmental. The other thing I can do in this IWP is assign constraints.
Megan Siefker:
So I can jump to my “constraint management” tab. And this shows “Okay, I’ve got my isometric drawing that needs to be released IFC before we can go to work, I also need my fusion machine on site, I need my materials on site.” And I can assign those responsibilities to different people set due dates. And then those people can come in and close those constraints. So I know when I have a constraint-free installation work package that’s ready to go out to the field.
Brad Barth:
So Megan, let me stop you right there for a second. When in sort of your prior life, or let’s say, if you weren’t using tools like this, it strikes me that these constraints, which you’ve got three of them here, that could be dozens. I mean, how do you make sure that they’re all checked off if you don’t have something like this? What did that process used to look like?
Megan Siefker:
Yeah, that’s a really great question and in a previous life when I was on a large L&G job, that was actually my entire role, was tracking all these different constraints and dealing with piping work packages, where we were tracking the spools from fabrication to paint to “is it on a loader being shipped to site? And where is it out in that process?” And we had just multiple spreadsheets and access database tables, and different people having to go in and try to update those and then send them through email and share them. And it was just such an incredibly manual process, where this creates so much more collaboration and all these different people are able to go in, check off the boxes as they’re completed and then potentially down the road add integration so that information is just being populated automatically to come from material and procurement reports.
Brad Barth:
Got you.
Megan Siefker:
So then if I jump back to my “workspaces” tab, I’ve gone through the work packaging, I’ve put in all the details, I’ve taken inputs from potentially safety managers, quality managers, everyone’s looked this over, blessed this IWP, it’s now constraint free and ready to go out to the foreman. So I don’t have to do any recreating of work, I can simply go in and create a daily plan directly from this IWP, and it’s going to ask me: “For this specific day of work, what items are you going to work on?” And I just check the boxes, okay, we’re going to do these couple items here. And what safety, what labor do I want to include? So I’m going to include my whole crew here. And then based on the work that they’re going to do tomorrow, maybe just the first four quality items apply, same with safety. So I’ll go check those off and we always want to identify environmental.
Megan Siefker:
And then I hit “next” and this is going to pop up my daily plan creator. So I just pick my plan date. So I’m going to pick today’s date, or potentially I’d be planning for tomorrow, give it a plan name. So this is just my pipe crew, but I might name it what my Foreman’s name is. Because then I can add an approver and I can also add an executer. So executer would serve the role of a foreman and they’re the ones actually executing the work. The approval then has the step once the executer foreman submits their timesheet and their quantities that they’ve completed for the day, that gives that last step of approval before hours are sent to payroll and to double check that the quantities are accurate. So that’s the process for creating the daily plan. And then I just hit “next” and we’re going to jump into then how that shows up on the foreman’s iPad.
Brad Barth:
So Megan this part that you’ve been doing, you could be doing that in the job site trailer, you could be doing that in an office, you could be doing that, I guess, these days, you could be doing it from anywhere. But you don’t need to be on the same network or anything like that to publish this out to the next step, right? Since it’s through the cloud you’re going to be able to get that information without sending emails or hand delivering thumb drives or anything like that, right?
Megan Siefker:
Yes, so that’s a really nice part. So I’ve just picked up my iPad here and I’m playing the role of a foreman. And what you’re seeing on the screen here is exactly what I have on my iPad. But all I have to do is to just sync so I don’t need to have internet on the iPad at all times. But I go into the job trailer, I hit the sync option up here and that pulls up all that information that you just saw coming straight from the IWP. So I’m not having to exchange emails or send anything. As a foreman, I know this is where I go to get my daily plans and this is how I know what task I’m working on, what approves I have, I’m doing their timesheets. So everything right here on the iPad, and it’s just so easy, anyone can do it. And you don’t have to have all that back and forth. Really, it just opens up the floor for communication so much too, because I can add notes in there to my daily plans as a superintendent or field engineer, and they just pop up right here on the iPad as soon as he syncs or has an internet connection.
Megan Siefker:
So what I’m going to do is, you can see that piping crew, that plan came through to my iPad here in my water treatment job. And I’m just going to go in and so now as the foreman what I’m able to see right off the bat is what task I’m working on. So I have that underground large piping task. I also have all my safety items. So this is really great for in the mornings when we’re doing our stretch and flex and I can go over all the safety quality items that I need to cover with my crew. And that information came all the way from the early stages of planning straight down to my iPad to the people who need to have that information. I’ve also got room for some planner notes. So as a superintendent, they might have put in some information here. We’ve got a mass safety meeting everyone needs to be aware of, and then general discussion. So your superintendent and I can just open up communications and say, “Hey, here’s our goals for the week, you need to complete the east-west run of the underground fire water,” and that’s right here as well.
Megan Siefker:
So I’ve got all my toolbox talks, and then I’m going to jump over to my timesheet tab. And here I’ve got my cost code at the top in green that all my crew is working on. And these are their planned hours over the course of the day if they worked all those hours and worked on that code then great. If someone may be left early, maybe Miguel left early, I’m just tapping on that cell and I can change his time to maybe six hours. And I could leave a note, maybe if I want to add a note here that he had a doctor’s appointment left early, I can do that as well. And that becomes the mobile timesheets. So this is going to be what sends to payroll, so you don’t have to fill out written timesheets anymore, it’s all just one nice daily log.
Megan Siefker:
So then I jumped to my “quantities” tab. And here’s what’s really nice is I’m just going to close these for visual real quick, but there’s those three components that came, started as a material element in the model, then were expanded into activity components of these specific spools in our IWP. And now what my foremen sees on their iPad is “Okay, I need to install this piping spool and I have the different steps to check off. So as a foreman claiming quantities, there’s no crazy math that I need to do or think about. I’m just working on doing my job and I received an offload of this spool.” I did the prefabrication, all I’m doing is checking those boxes. And I can see here my planned quantity, so this is what my superintendent or field engineer whoever was planning that work, thought I should get done for the day. So I’m going through and looking at those making sure I got those, maybe this last one. Maybe I didn’t get to the prefabrication yet if we ran into an issue or something, so I might not check that one off.
Megan Siefker:
So I’ve got my notes so and I said, this is your daily log for everything so I can add a note or add an issue. If I want to add an issue I could give it a name maybe damaged pipe in this bundle. Maybe a forklift bumped our pipe. And I can also add a picture here, so I can open up my iPad camera and just take a little picture. And that’s it. Or I can go for my photo library or take a photo. So take a little photo, I can mark that up, circle something on there and then. And the really nice thing about… We talked about kind of this realm of products that InEight has it’s all integrated these issues will actually go directly to the issue log and InEight change so it can then be assigned to someone to investigate it further, does it have an impact on cost or schedule? Does it need to become an owner change order or potentially affect a vendor? So we’ve captured that as a foreman and all I needed to do was notify someone and here I have notified it and it’s going all the way upstream through the other products.
Megan Siefker:
Then I go to my productivity tab. So this is really cool. I have entered my timesheet, the time that my crews worked and then I entered my quantities. Right away as a foreman I know whether I’ve gained man hours or lost man hours for that day. So I can see my performance immediately. I can see here because I wasn’t able to get that last test done that was planned, that I’m actually in the red. So I’ve actually lost some man hours. Now, if I had gone back and was able to complete that task, we’ll just check that one off. And I go back to my productivity tab, you’ll see how we were actually able to gain hours and you might have a couple different cost codes that you’re working on. So really easy to tell your performance and get that instant feedback right away. And then I can sign my crew out and submit this to that approval stage.
Brad Barth:
Megan, question for you back on the “quantities” tab there. So those steps that you’re checking off there that are associated with that component, would it be correct to say those are rules of credits? Is that when you were talking about kind of the crazy math the foreman doesn’t have to do. So each of those steps is contributing some percentage towards the overall percent completed of that component, is that right?
Megan Siefker:
Yeah, absolutely. And I probably didn’t explain that well, but yeah, so this pipe component has 40 linear feet. So you can see here is the quantity of that pipe component. And then each of these steps has a percentage, so value of weighted rule of credit. And then as I complete that step, you can see at the bottom, it’s doing that calculation. So because I completed these two, whatever their percent of that 40 linear feet was, gets me my earned total quantity. And that’s what contributes then my earned value, which is going to send to model where you see start to see the percent complete come in, it’s going to send to my control budget so I can start seeing variance analysis and comparing earned versus actual, and that’s what we show on the productivity tab as well. That’s what gives you your earned value to show that gain lost column. All right. So I think for here we go back to Andre.
Andre Paden:
Okay. So all of that information that was captured in the field as Megan highlighted both from the iPad and on the computers can then be shown visually back within the model. So again, that’s that kind of last item that Brad mentioned that, the actual execution can then flow back up through plan progress schedule and the model. And if you’ve been out to any construction site over the past few years, you’d be hard pressed to not go into any of the conference rooms and not see a big D-size printout of some of the future facility are all highlighted and color coded to show kind of status. So in a model that’s fairly simple, so if you come over to the “Settings” tab, and then show percent complete, and as you see, I’ll highlight the entire work package here, it’s maybe faint to see, but again, it shows various status, so anything that’s 100% is green, partial progress items are yellow.
Andre Paden:
And this is fully customizable. If you want we can come into styling, visual recordings and again, you can make whatever colors make… Progress items, various colors if you want to shrink the ranges, if you want to go from zero to 25 is purple and 25 to 50 is different colors. We’re totally flexible on how we represent that and again, that can be project specific. Within our reporting we can also do the same for material statuses IFC status and various other things. So visual reporting, we’re totally flexible, we can pretty much do all types of visual reporting that is needed to kind of communicate with the model where you stand at in various aspects.
Brad Barth:
Okay, so Andre, so it’s not just limited to lighting up the model based on percent complete, like you might be able to show I’m not saying “show it now,” but presumably you could go and do… Show me through these color codes, what’s been included in work packages and what’s still left to be included versus the stuff that’s maybe in flight or already executed.
Andre Paden:
You can create visual audits for all of that information. So if you wanted to highlight the model and say, “Hey, show me things that haven’t been captured in CWPs and or IWPs,” just to kind of do an audit on your plan, you can do that. If you wanted to say, “Hey, I want to do an audit on my materials, show me materials that have been received in my laydown yards.” Just to kind of confirm that my IWP plans do align with materials that I have on site, you can do that as well. So again, it’s totally flexible and again, it’s customizable to the project, customizable to whatever needs you may have. So again, no issue in doing that at all.
Brad Barth:
So again, without something like this, you mentioned the common approach of kind of communicating the status of the project through that color coding, I mean, how do you do that with… So here with the form and turns in the quantities out in the field, they go through an approval process, but as soon as it’s approved, it shows up in the model right? Without that kind of a tie off, I guess you’re what manually putting that into the model or trying to do some kind of import export?
Andre Paden:
Yeah, so you’re looking at either manual updates or some type of import export from a progress measurement system. I think Megan hit that point earlier when she was talking about managing constraints again, having to wrangle various spreadsheets from various sources just starts to become a nightmare the bigger the project. Again, maintaining a material database to understand where your materials come from, you get on a project of any size that’s 10s of thousands of lines of material where you’re kind of marching through the steps. So again, it just becomes a cumbersome effort to manage that. So again, having that information within the solutions where it’s real time and you don’t have to have such hands-on import export integration is just vital for the construction industry.
Brad Barth:
All right, Andre and Megan, really appreciate that great demonstration of the InEight tools. Let’s just wrap it up here by talking about some of the key benefits of the AWP process as enabled by the InEight solution in the cloud. Number one, improved operational efficiency. So being able to connect those traditionally disconnected processes, disconnected systems, connecting those all into a common experience just drives that efficiency across the board. Number two, better visibility to issues and status. So we’re not waiting for information to kind of make its way up the chain as the work gets executed in the field. That information flows into reports and dashboards so we know, where are we? What issues do we have? What’s our status?
Brad Barth:
And then lastly, number three, increased project certainty, that’s what it’s all about. And we do that by streamlining that collaboration across all those different roles across the different stakeholders involved in the process. And ultimately, that leads to what everybody wants, which is that field productivity maximized because people are not waiting around, we’re not doing rework, we’re not waiting on other contingencies or dependencies that haven’t been checked off. So that collaborative planning process ultimately drives that field productivity and that translates into that project certainty that we’re all looking for. All right. And with that, that wraps it up for today. I thank you all for being here with us and thank you for your time. If you’re interested in learning more about InEight and our AWP solution or other parts of the InEight solution, visit InEight.com. Thank you.
