Construction documentation is one of the important aspects of construction which have great impacts on the success of a construction project and on the business operations as a whole. Improper construction documentation and management can create certain loopholes that may incur heavy costs on the construction company. However, construction documentation and its management are not an exciting thing to do.
Conventionally, the construction companies have been relying on manual means for documenting their jobsite progress. Generally, the Project Engineers or Field Engineers walk down the jobsite, click pictures of the project progress, make certain calculations in their mind, note down the approximate percentage of task progress and then manually enter these observations and calculations into the paper or Excel sheets. However, the manual documentation method is cumbersome and unreliable.
What are Disadvantages of Manual Documentation in Construction Jobsite?
In this digital age, the traditional pen-and-paper method of construction documentation is certainly not the smart way to do. The various disadvantages of manual documentation that raises question on its usability are:
Cumbersome, Time-taking & Unreliable
The entire process staring from manually walking down the jobsite to manually documenting each and every detail on the work progress is very cumbersome and requires much time. Moreover, being reliable on manual calculations, there are often chances of errors or mistakes that further makes this method unreliable.
On-Field Modification of Documents Becomes Difficult
Most of the construction activities are performed on the field. The Managers and supervisors while working on-field need to have access to the documents. The bigger the size of the project, the greater is the number of documents and thus, harder it is to track and modify the documents on-field.
Accessibility Issues
Accessibility to documents is very crucial to promote efficiency, ensure smooth communication and avoid delays. As for example, the clients will require the updates on project status; project managers will require updates so as to keep a track on schedules and expenses; and the contractors must have access to documents to ensure that the project is progressing according to plan. It is therefore essential that all the documents on hand are updated and available to all the stakeholders. However, in case of projects that still use physical paperwork, it becomes difficult to transfer updates from one level of stakeholder to another.
Difficulty in Managing Revisions or Changes
Changes in the construction project take place every now and then, sometimes due to fluctuations in material prices or sometimes due to the weather conditions. Markups are also an important part of the construction process since plans keep on going from pillar-to-post between project participants until they are finally approved. Owing to these and several other reasons, many construction documents have to undergo several revisions. This often poses the challenge of re-documentation. Moreover, projects relaying on manual documentation need to regularly keep a check on the documents to ensure that the stakeholders have an access to the updated documents.
Apart from these, there are several other drawbacks in the process of manual documentation that makes it lesser preferable:
Requires more manpower which could be utilized in higher ROI tasks.
Trend-oriented reports cannot be generated
Visual documentation of project progress is not possible
Possibility of human prejudices and biasness
What is Automated Construction Documentation?
It is no lesser than a blessing that the modern technologies have alleviated many of the challenges of construction documentation that we face today. “Automated Construction Documentation” has emerged as the magic words for the construction industry. Modern technologies such as AI, Vision Intelligence and cloud-based document repositories have helped the users to alleviate the problems of manual documentation.
Using cloud-based software, the users can now centralize their construction project in a singular source, modify documents on-air, update documents in real-time and synchronize modifications with all the concerned stakeholders instantly. These technologies have further enabled the users to have trend-oriented reports, and visual documentation of the work progress in no time, zero-errors and minimal human interference.
How Does viAct Help in Eliminating Construction Documentation Problems?
viAct’s Smart AI & Computer Vision
viAct’s scenario-based AI and computer vision is smart enough to detect and capture the minutest of non-compliance taking place in the jobsite. The 30+ AI modules crafted by viAct enables the stakeholders – both remote and on-site – to ensure the safety and productivity of the construction jobsite. Further, its modules such as Construction Site Progress Tracking allow the stakeholders to keep a track of the construction jobsite and work progress anytime and from anywhere.
viAct’s Integrated Dashboard
viAct’s integrated dashboard records all the instances of non-compliances taking place in the construction jobsite. The dashboard further provides the visual insights on the jobsite progress and trend-oriented reports that can be viewed from any date range. Additionally, the dashboard allows the stakeholders to compare and contrast the present project with the previous ones. The smart insights provided by viAct’s integrated dashboard enables the stakeholder to detect any error in the construction project and develop actionable insights before it is too late.
viAct’s 360° Camera
viAct’s 360° camera is smart enough to detect and record the minutest of error in the construction jobsite, without any pen or paper, even in small duration of time, say a small walk down the jobsite. The camera is so handy that the site inspector can easily carry it during his site inspections. The recorded insights get stored in viAct’s cloud platform that could be easily viewed by the stakeholders in viAct’s mobile application.
Thus, viAct’s 360° camera further eases the task of construction jobsite documentation.
Let Us Help You to Automatically Document Your Construction Jobsite Progress Tracking!