Suffolk Construction Working on the Liberty Hotel, Boston MA – A Need for Efficiencies and Quality
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?
Easy to Use Software to Maximize the Potential of Tablet PCs
Vela Systems, the leader in mobile software for the AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) 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 notes at the office and then circulate the notes to all participating parties, which on average took up to three days. The lag time between capturing the notes and distributing them was 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:
In its search for efficiencies, Suffolk found the solution in Vela configured Motion tablets and put them to the test right away. 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 more convenient to carry than the 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.
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 to capture field notes on-site, type them at the office and then distribute them, now only takes 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.
Also, as a general contractor, Suffolk 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 in the same document 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: