Construction Quality Assurance and Control in 2022
Listen it's 2022, and this construction backlog means we got too much work to do. There are many ways to leverage your BIM as part of the QA/QC process on the jobsite to get it done faster and better. I'm talking about augmented reality and your BIM. At any level of detail, at any jobsite in the nation, AR makes error on projects obvious. Faster, easier, and earlier than scans.
This series will talk about bringing your Quality Assurance Checklists into the digital age, including how we’re using Augmented Reality and BIM for Quality Assurance on the construction site.
When it comes to fee erosion and dollars saved for time invested--look first to your QA/QC processes. If you're just using you're pre-baked checklists and getting half-baked results, you'll be happy to know there are now better ways.
F*ups and Fee Erosion
Deviations, errors, F*ups and Fee Erosion. It's not a question of if but of when you'll find an error. We build it into our budgets in construction, but what if those set asides became profit centers.
The day I arrived on site for an Argyle demo, the Project Manager was a bit swamped. Even though everyone did their jobs right and built to the plans, there was a clash with the site that was found the expensive way. A big one.
How is it possible that a standard, straightforward project can turn into a time and money suck? Why does rework happen? And most importantly, how do we find errors like site clashes earlier in the process before it becomes expensive rework?
Let’s get the job done right the first time and then replicate it so it’s done more efficiently the second time.
Preventing Construction Rework, The Basics
Quality Control and Quality Assurance are huge in the modern construction site. And you know your QA/QC process had better be tight to compete in today’s competitive margins. When we look at fee erosion closely, most of it can be attributed to--you guessed it, rework.
Rework - construction work that must be done again because it wasn’t done right the first time.
Quality Assurance--preventing rework for first time quality.
Quality Control--spotting mistakes and preventing even more rework or, worse, construction defects.
QA/QC Checklists - standardized methods of ensuring quality on the jobsite.
Your construction project will likely have its own checklists, based on specs and the contract documents. Or you may have templates from your project management software. Now you've found them, make them them work for you. Think through possible potential issues in the project--any engineering or design deviations from the way you do normal things? What about big ticket risks? Make a plan especially for those. Next, you'll need to ensure your QA process is actually used. How do you ensure that those checklists actually used, maintained, and applied on the jobsite? Great question! The BIM holograms Argyle is making not just there to look cool and impressive to your clients, they are there to enhance and promote your Quality Assurance Processes.
The Case for “Spatializing” your QA/QC checklists
The old QA workflow required an experienced worker to inspect the elements installed. Too often that person was the same person who installed them in the first place, making the same wrong assumptions twice. The workflow included tape measures and the 2D plan-set and physical or digital checklists that must be maintained and reviewed.
The augmented reality workflow for this type of QA inspection is that virtually anyone on site can QA. It's as easy as seeing the highlighted element, clicking "pass" or "fail" and having that info instantly stored and sent to the cloud. Check it out:
With Argyle, QA checklists are spatial, visual, and instantly maintained and communicated. With quality assurance checklists integrated into the fabric of the project, your superintendents have superpowers.
Our augmented reality app for construction superimposes the 3D models and the metadata as holograms to the physical project, showing site workers where the elements to inspect are located, what their standards are, and then makes that element interactive--like a button made out of the real world.
Argyle updates its blog with news on Construction QA, Augmented Reality in AEC, and Argyle Product updates around 2 times a month. SUBSCRIBE to be the first to get special product offers, news about Argyle releases, and short stories about construction.