Case Study: Suffolk Construction Cuts Contractor Worklist Time By 50%

Driving Efficiencies in the Construction Industry with Motion Tablet PCs

The Challenge: Suffolk Construction Working on the Liberty Hotel, Boston MA - A Need for Efficiencies and Quality

Liberty Hotel, Boston, Mass

The Liberty Hotel was a challenging project, even for Suffolk Construction, one of the country's most successful privately held building contractors. A turn-of-the-century jail in downtown Boston was to be gutted and completely remodeled into a five-star luxury hotel, all under tight time and budgetary guidelines. Traditionally, work of this complexity required very detailed and time-consuming communication from the field back to the architects and designers to make sure that the project would meet the design intent and high quality standards. How could Suffolk streamline its worklist, punchlist and other field processes to increase productivity and maintain quality on this high-visibility project?

The Solution: Easy to Use Software to Maximize the Potential of Tablet PCs.

Vela Systems, the leader in mobile software for the AECO (architecture, engineering, contractor and owner) industry, was founded to resolve exactly this problem. Co-founder Adam Omansky, a construction manager, had been frustrated by the amount of time it took to capture field notes on-site, type the data at the office and then circulate it to all participating parties, which on average took up to three days. The lag time between capturing and distributing the information not only frustrating but also detrimental to the accuracy of the notes and, in the long run, was costing the project money by slowing it down.

Omansky felt strongly that architects, engineers and construction workers should focus on the work, not the paperwork, so he and fellow co-founder Josh Kanner decided to automate the field notebook by building an easy-to-use software package that leveraged the two things that field workers used most: handwriting and the ability to mark up plans with a pen.

For the software to be as useful as Omansky and Kanner envisioned it, it would need to run on a tablet PC so field workers could use it in real time, whether on a job site or at the office. In fact, Vela is the first software company built from the ground up to maximize the potential of the tablet PC. After evaluating several tablet PCs, Vela chose Motion Computing® slate tablet PCs for their blend of performance, ruggedness, lightweight design and affordable price point. Several other unique features led to Vela's decision including:

• Motion's™ ease of use with a stylus, including the ability to use and interpret handwritten content
• View Anywhere® display, that maximizes viewability outdoors and in harsh lighting environments making it easy for field workers to work almost anywhere
• MotionGuard®, a complete plan designed to protect Motion tablets from the unexpected, which is a critical component to making field workers feel safe while using their tablet
• The fact that Motion is focused solely on slate tablet PCs and improving the mobile worker's productivity, efficiency and workflow.

In its search for efficiencies, Suffolk found the solution in Vela configured Motion tablets. Suffolk was attracted to the ability to work in real time, shaving off hours, days and potentially weeks from projects. Also, Suffolk found Vela configured Motion tablets much easier and convenient to carry than traditional field notebooks and tubes of drawings. The tablet's lightweight design, convenient shoulder strap and long battery life enabled Suffolk personnel to work in real time throughout the day.

The Results: Personnel Productivity, Project Acceleration, Risk Reduction, Cost of Quality

By using Vela software on Motion tablets, Suffolk superintendent John Gillis was able to cut his time in half. What normally took him four hours per day capturing field notes on-site, typing them at the office and then distributing them, now only took two hours per day with a Vela configured Motion tablet.

Time savings was not the only benefit Suffolk experienced by using a Vela configured Motion tablet. During a walk through on a recent project, Gillis found several lighting fixtures not working and was able to report this in real time, saving the owner a significant amount of money in cost of quality.

As a general contractor, Suffolk also has to share information and collaborate with multiple parties on any given project. Vela software enables Suffolk to be the master of all project information by allowing multiple parties to collaborate on and automatically synch multiple versions of the same document. In addition, the quality of the electronic output, reports and documents is far superior to those Suffolk was using before.

Suffolk recently completed the Liberty Hotel project in Boston using Vela configured Motion tablets and plans to use them for two upcoming projects including the Mandarin Hotel and Cambridge Residences.

On average, companies using Vela configured Motion tablets experience significant results in four main areas:

• Personnel Productivity - By using a Vela configured Motion tablet on-site, field personnel can take notes in real time, essentially automating their field notebook. In return, workers save four to eight hours per week in time that they would have spent taking notes on-site and then transcribing later at the office.
• Project Acceleration - With a Vela configured Motion tablet, all processes are done in real time, dramatically reducing the lag time in communications from the field to participating parties. On average, companies see a 10 to 20 percent increase in project acceleration, gaining one to two days a month, and potentially finishing the project one month early on a two-year schedule. This equates to considerable time andl financial savings.
• Risk Reduction - By capturing data in real time, risks and issues become visible to project leads and management sooner so that these issues can be dealt with in a timely manner before negatively affecting the whole project.
• Cost of Quality - By measuring the cost of quality in real time at various stages in the project, owners can ensure that their payments are in line with the quaility of work being delivered so they are never in a situation where the hold back.