Communication and processes make for most of the challenges any construction project faces. The result is, as we all have seen it, severe delays in the project, and large budget deviations. Phoenix had been committed to align its processes and improve communication from the word go. During the construction phase of a project, their process alignment team observed several gaps in how teams coordinated tasks among each other. For starters, the BIM went through minor (or sometimes even critical) changes as the construction progressed. However, this process used to take several iterations, approval from project managers, sub-contractors, and engineering. Often, the files were scattered across different systems and stakeholders didn’t get access to the updates on time. By the time everybody was on the same page as the updated BIM, realignment of activities became necessary, causing delays. Other team collaboration activities also had a considerable scope of improvement. For example, inter-team and intra-team communication of tasks, punch lists were not standardized, and therefore, at times, tasks would go unrecorded, only to be taken up after some delay.
Reworks were not uncommon either. Moving decisions from the office to the field was slow and complex. Design improvements and revisions had to be communicated to the teams working on-site, and a delay in such cases led to rework. Construction omissions were spotted late at times, requiring further rework. Rework could crop up in fabrication, design, and change in processes.
While Phoenix, true to its mission statement, had upgraded a large part of its operations with IT-enabled processes, the onsite data collection was still manual. The data was aggregated from the site and then updated in their IT systems for monitoring and maintenance. For example, the pictures taken from the site for documenting construction progress were not organized for easy navigability and the teams often lost it after a period.