Construction | ivanaristic-v4

CONSTRUCTION ASSET MANAGEMENT

DESCRIPTION

Before this assignment the company had already been serving the construction vertical but with limited success due to the fact that the features were not designed with the needs of construction activities in mind. The platform was primarily designed for the transportation industry and tracking vehicles on roads.

We were tasked with doing a deep dive into understanding the needs of this market and coming up with a solution that was designed specifically for the construction industry. The team involved in the research phase was myself, the product manager, a representative from each of the following departments: Professional Services, Business Development and Sales.

CHALLENGE

The construction vertical has some unique challenges and opportunities from other fleet management verticals we studied. Assets for construction can range from $5 to $1M and tracking these assets require different levels of fidelity. Asset allocation and maintenance are a higher priority in construction and the high level of variability in these assets meant there couldn't be a one size fits all solution.

The other challenge was data. The smaller assets had no data and the high value assets had data that could be coming from multiple sources. Sometimes those sources did not follow the same format or simply reported slightly different values that needed to be reconciled.

APPROACH

For this project we were given 6 weeks to do user research. During that time we swarmed with our Sales & Professional Services Team to identify and collect existing customers and prospects that would be appropriate for this research study. We spoke to over 30 companies by phone, interviewing people from decision makers to machine operators.

We were also able to travel to some customer sites to conduct contextual interviews where we could shadow people for at least an hour or so.

Then we reconvened to synthesize what we discovered.

FINDINGS

Inspection Theme

Inspection Forms (Paper Based) were used on a daily basis for every machine that would be used that day.

Scheduled Inspections were based on engine hours and depending on the age of the machine, had different types of maintenance that needed to be performed.

Due to the fact that these forms were paper based, the results of the form may not be delivered to the maintenance manager until days after a defect has been discovered. This could lead to dangerous safety concerns or a catastrophic malfunction that could cost several thousand dollars to repair.

Equipment was often sold after a threshold was reached where repairing the vehicle was no longer financially prudent. The life of the equipment could be extended dramatically if it was maintained diligently.

Maintenance personnel resorted to tracking information in a notebook and then transposing it into a spreadsheet at the end of their shift for tracking oil and gas consumption.

There were other types of inspections that needed to be performed that were not related to a vehicle or machine, but to the work area itself.

There were incident reports that also needed to be sent to a centralized system and kept for up to 3 years after the incident.

Asset Visibility

Asset tracking can be challenging because of the locations where construction projects occur. This could be due to their remote locations or the assets not having the capabilities to transmit data.

Theft or loss of equipment due to lack of tracking would add a significant cost to construction projects.

Asset utilization was a major concern since idle machines meant lower production and often times for very expensive, specialized equipment, the asset was leased and costs were very tangible.

Heavy equipment was very expensive to transport. With no verifiable method to track a project's equipment utilization, the Project Managers storing the equipment were charged daily while it sat idle on their project site. This incentivized Project Managers to request moves back to the organization's equipment yard instead of storing it until another jobsite required its use.

In the world of construction, operators were also considered an asset. Operators needed to be certified on specialized equipment and every jobsite required that workers were trained for jobsite specific safety protocols. Jobsites violating any of these protocols including the presence of workers not properly certified could cost the company their safety rating and ultimately effect their ability to win future bids.

Tying It All Together

Jobsites all have production metrics that can inform a Project or Production Manager whether they are on track with their daily costs vs expected job revenue. Tracking the efficiency of a worker and the equipment in realtime, could greatly impact their ability to properly allocate resources and forecast their profit margins.