One missing material, a lost permit, or even missing equipment can completely derail your construction project. With a large-scale project, there are even more factors to track so as to ensure you stay on schedule and don’t exceed your budget.
In this scenario, advanced planning solutions can help you gather all your information into a single platform. There, your employees and partners can work together to plan this project, mitigate risks, and make changes.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the challenges of large-scale builds and the real estate software you should seek to help you navigate them.
The Key Complexities of Large-Scale Builds
Building skyscrapers and other large projects requires the careful management of multiple moving pieces. You’ll need to keep track of trends in real estate, the logistics of transporting your materials, and the labor you’ll require. Moreover, there are external factors, such as the law, that can affect the progress of your large-scale build. More specifically, a large-scale build poses these challenges:
- Insufficient Financing: This kind of project requires large funds, and failure to raise this initial capital can create delays and increase the final cost of construction. Without a thorough cost analysis, risk mitigation, and a budget, the funds for this project could be insufficient.
- Increasing Project Scope: The larger your project, the more complex the construction will be. The materials, labor, and equipment required will all contribute to the complexity.
- Delays: Accidents, defects in materials, and environmental conditions can all cause delays that will affect your project. These delays can become costly or render the project less likely to succeed.
- Poor Resource Management: If you’ve not secured your materials, equipment, or funding and appropriately planned their dispersal, the construction project will have problems. In particular, this poor resource management can lead to financial loss and delays.
- Regulations: A failure to comply with regulations can lead to fines and having the state interfere with your project. Therefore, this could affect your schedule and your project may require further funding.
- Unsuitable Environment: Some environments pose a challenge because of the quality of the terrain, the lack of infrastructure, or even the remoteness of the area.
- Stakeholders: As you build your project, it may affect some individuals and communities. Disputes with these stakeholders could bring costly court proceedings and affect your reputation.
The Role of Advanced Planning Solutions in Construction Management
With so many challenges to keep in mind, your business needs a way to plan while taking into account all factors and potential risks. You can use advanced planning software to manage your large-scale construction projects. More specifically, this software can help you in the following ways:
- Reduces Delays
- Increases Collaboration
- Compiles Data on Projects
- Reduces Costs
Let’s dive deeper into how advanced planning solutions will help your construction projects.
Collaboration & Data Compilation
This technology helps you manage the different parts of your construction project with your team. It gathers all your communication and documents on one platform where you can collaborate with all of those working on the project. For instance, if you host QuickBooks on cloud, planning software can pull accounting data from your records in real time to help your field team manage its budget more efficiently. With this software, everyone on your team will be able to contribute to the plan and even use information from previous projects.
Problem-Solving
Since your data and documents are all on this system, you can easily notice issues and needs and even predict them. Then, you can resolve these problems and change your plans so as to ensure that the resource allocation suits your new decisions. Plus, there will be less miscommunication since you’re all working with the same data.
Adherence to Schedule & Budget
Through the changes you make in this software, you can reduce the cost of construction associated with the delays you’ve mitigated. According to reports, only 8.5% of construction projects finish on time and within their initial budget. So, you could join this number when you use this efficient technology.
The Essential Features to Look for in a Planning Software
Not all software for construction will suit your particular needs. As you’re building a large-scale project, you’ll need software tailored to large projects and many moving parts.
Therefore, your advanced planning software should have the following core features:
Document Management System
This software gives you the ability to view a variety of documents, manipulate them, and alter them in secure cloud storage. When you have this management system, you can easily find documents, send them to relevant parties, and collaborate on them with your team. Plus, you can store resources on regulations for your team to reference.
Cost Management System
This technology enables you to estimate and track costs so you’re always aware of where you stand financially. With this system, you’ll also be able to find cost-saving solutions that don’t compromise on material quality.
Forecasting
With this technology, you will be able to forecast your material, equipment, and labor needs. You can also use this feature to adjust your plan and your budget to fit these needs. Alternatively, you could use it to simulate scenarios as you consider making changes.
Multi-Interface
This feature will allow multiple individuals to connect to the platform using a variety of devices. According to reports, slightly over 90% of construction workers use their smartphones to do their work, while over 82% use a laptop. Therefore, your workers, contractors, and other partners need to have access to this software on multiple devices.
Workflow Process
You should be able to plan your workflow and alter it within the software. This cloud-based scheduling system will allow you to quickly communicate plan changes and avoid mistakes.
Approval Process
The software should have a mechanism to request approval and submit it. Therefore, it should also include verification tools and electronic signatures.
Simple to Use
Finally, this technology requires little training and is easy to use. Otherwise, there’s a risk that your employees will be reluctant to use it. At the very least, you shouldn’t need coding knowledge to install or use it.
The Best Practices for Navigating Large-Scale Builds
In addition to using advanced planning technology, you can use the following practices to help you manage large-scale projects:
Share Equipment
Since different parts of a construction project can be at different stages, you can share your equipment between the different areas or even between different projects. This will help you minimize costs since you won’t need a higher number of equipment with some of them not even being in use.
Track Tasks
You can track your employees’ tasks as they complete them. For that, you can use a checklist system in advanced planning software. This will help you notice when there’s an issue and address it promptly.
Streamline Your Systems
Lastly, you can create a frictionless workflow to maximize labor and prevent delays. To streamline your workflow, you’ll need to standardize your processes and communicate this change through a platform your employees have access to.
Conclusion
Large-scale buildings are complex projects that require careful planning to minimize delays and unexpected costs. With advanced planning software, you can manage the different parts of your project and collaborate with your employees and partners.
When you search for advanced planning software, you should ensure that it suits your large project. In particular, I should be compatible with a variety of devices and keep all your documents safe. In addition, it should accommodate your whole team with little to no training. Then, follow the best practices listed above to help your project stay on schedule and within budget.
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