Construction Reporting
Root Cause Analysis
When done properly, Root Cause Analysis can help identify underlying issues that could cause delays and costly mistakes on construction projects.
Communicating information from office to field is critical to project success but doing so is only getting harder as projects increase in complexity. Teams are having to invent onerous and time consuming workflows to ensure that everyone is working towards the right targets and that they have the details they need.
To keep a project on track, successful communication starts by getting each site engineer, foreman, or construction manager the list of tasks they are responsible to deliver in the short term. Not only that, but these teammates often require a range of supplementary information about these tasks such as permits, method statements, test plans or drawings. Across the construction industry, we see countless examples of bespoke solutions to this problem. What do they have in common? They all start with a meeting or a spreadsheet and end with time poor engineers rewriting plans that already existed in their four week lookahead and their master schedule in yet another format. That’s why we are so excited to announce the release of Aphex Field 1.0.
Field is a new app in the Aphex platform, designed specifically for site teams. Field enables you to assign the work in your plan to the team responsible for delivering it, and to automatically generate unique daily work plans for everyone on site. With two clicks of a mouse, teams can save hours of busywork making daily activity briefings (DABs or the many other acronyms) and replace multiple spreadsheets and plans with a single platform.
Connect information to work
At Aphex, we know teams use a combination of systems. From document storage in Aconex or Sharepoint to workflows like RFI’s, checklists or permits in Procore. We also know that site teams rarely have the time to go searching through complex systems for the right permit needed for tomorrow’s concrete pour. That’s why we designed Field to allow the information about work to live on the work. To be the place that connects the information from across your systems and puts it where it is needed - on the task. With Field, Aphex now empowers engineers to prepare the sketches, permits and method statements (or any document) and put them as links, comments or files on the work that their site teams will pick up tomorrow or in two weeks from now. We want to enable teams to say goodbye to the stressful 5am phonecall by making it easy for site to find exactly what they need to keep moving.
Empower coordination and problem solving on site
Talking to users about how they communicate plans to the field made it clear that even the best made plans require constant coordination and problem solving on the ground. Whether it is the crane lift delayed by four hours or the excavator breakdown that impacts a dig, site teams are always adapting plans on the fly to make the most amount of safe progress.
Aphex Field’s Map page arms site teams with a new weapon to adapt to change, providing an interactive way to understand the tasks that are happening around them and how adjustments might impact the work.
Capture changes from the field
Finally, we hear a lot from users who love the Statusing features in Aphex Planner. This allows them to easily capture why and how their lookahead plans change week on week. Now, Aphex Field, extends this feature direct to site.
Site teams assigned to tasks can now report how they are tracking from the field. Whether it is confirming that they will still finish on Thursday, or it is likely to slip into Friday - anyone assigned to a task can now contribute to its record.
Bring everyone into the plan
Our goal is to build a planning platform for everyone on a modern construction project - not just the small group at the top. Aphex Field is the next step on that journey, one that we hope brings more of the site team into the plan and removes a huge amount of busywork in the process.
I want to thank every one of our users who have taken the time to help shape what we build next. Shipping a new app is not easy but having a willing group of early access testers makes the path much easier to navigate. Whilst Field 1.0 represents a significant step forward, we’re already working on what comes next.