Finding new digital fixes for day-to-day construction processes

Selina Mosley (Oliver Kinross)00:01

Hello everyone, my name is Selina Mosley, and on behalf of the organizers, Oliver Kinross, I'd like to welcome you all to London Build Online. A big thank you to all of our sponsors, with a very special mention of FlowForma, our sponsor for today's session: a panel discussion on finding new digital fixes to day-to-day construction processes, moderated by Ursula Cullen and joined by our panelists Andrew and Paul. There'll be plenty of time for Q&A, so do submit your questions in the questions box on your screen.

Ursula Cullen00:39

Thank you, Selina, and welcome everyone. I'm delighted to be joined by FlowForma Product Strategist Paul Stone, who has 27 years' experience in the IT industry. Paul is the go-to product expert from both a business and a technical perspective, and works closely with FlowForma clients, supporting them in the delivery of process automation.

Ursula Cullen01:17

I'd also like to introduce Andrew Gamblen, Digital Manager for Willmott Dixon Construction's North London and East offices, where he looks after the effective implementation of the latest technologies, processes and BIM. His background is in structural engineering, and most of his construction experience was gained in the heavy refurbishment of existing assets in central London, working for a steel fabricator. Our third panelist, from Balfour Beatty, was due to join us but unfortunately can't, due to unforeseen circumstances. We're very sorry for the last-minute change. Your lines will be muted, but you can use the chat to ask questions, which we'll share with the panel at the end.

Ursula Cullen02:36

Topic one is the current digital climate in construction. The world has changed dramatically in recent months, and now more than ever, digital processes that let construction workers focus on the job at hand are essential. Andrew, what challenges have you experienced at Willmott Dixon since COVID?

Andrew Gamblen03:00

Like the vast majority of people, I'm working from home. When the pandemic hit, around March and April last year, we had to find a way very quickly to make sure people were still productive without being located where they were before. Where we used to have loads of meetings in person, we had to find new ways to communicate and collaborate. From a site operative's point of view, making sure we were working in a socially distanced, safe environment was key. There's been a huge number of changes in our organization, the majority centered around being able to work in a more digital fashion: collaborative technologies and systems that let people communicate without being face to face. That's probably the biggest change since the pandemic hit.

Paul Stone04:29

I'd certainly concur. We've noticed increased interest in digitalization across all industries, especially construction. There was already pressure to digitize in construction before COVID, and COVID just accelerated everything. Everybody's now frantic to digitize as much as possible as quickly as possible, and it's pushed digitization up the agenda at board level over the past 12 months.

Ursula Cullen05:18

Construction sites are opening again. Is there more pressure in the industry now to digitize?

Andrew Gamblen05:24

As Paul intimated, there's been growing pressure since around April 2016, with the BIM Level 2 mandate on government projects across the UK. There was always a slow rumbling of people getting to grips with what they could do digitally, and how BIM could be a foundation for more digitized processes, not only in design but in construction and operation. Then COVID forced people to deal with digital systems and software, and that accelerated things even further.

Andrew Gamblen06:31

We've been investigating technologies like 360 cameras, so you can see a site without being on it, with someone walking around live streaming what they see and discussing issues. Even in design: how do you get the same outcome as being in a room with 10 or 15 people without physically being there? Now that people have realized it's achievable, they see digital is 100% the way we need to go, with huge benefits we're only scratching the surface of as an industry.

Paul Stone07:28

Only three years ago, people were telling me BIM was just a marketing thing. All of a sudden it's become so much more important. What's really changed over the past few years is the technology available in the marketplace. Things like 360-degree cameras were already becoming prevalent, the pandemic accelerated interest, and the technology itself is far better than it was. A lot of people sense that now is the right time to digitize.

Ursula Cullen08:28

Paul, how have we got to where we are today? Where are these new platforms coming from, and how are organizations deciding that now is the time?

Paul Stone08:47

It's taken time for these technologies to be ready for the marketplace. Three or four years ago they were pretty primitive, because construction was a little neglected: not a lot was invested in IT on construction projects, so suppliers had little interest in developing the systems. That's changed. The systems available to construction companies now are significantly better, and they drive a lot of value. Ultimately they drive productivity, and productivity equals cash at the end of the day. It also equals reduced risk.

Andrew Gamblen10:03

People have also realized the value of data and what can be done with it. That's pushing them to investigate the software out there, and where nothing meets their specific needs to gather, record and visualize the data, they're investing in new systems to get the insights they need.

Ursula Cullen10:46

Topic two is the process challenges in construction. Paul, there seems to be a new direction for construction organizations and a revamp of initiatives, with business people now leading them. What are your thoughts?

Paul Stone11:10

Investment in IT in the construction industry has always been at quite a low level compared with other industries, based on our own interactions. What's changed is that people realize they need to invest to become more productive, and one way is digitizing processes. The problem is that with such a low level of investment in IT, they don't have access to the IT resources to make that digital transformation happen.

Paul Stone11:59

There are systems out there, FlowForma being one, that let you digitize using your business resources. Get the engineers and the apprentices to do the job: they can be trained to build little applications themselves that make your company more productive. You might be very constrained in the IT resource you have access to, but you do have engineers and apprentices.

Andrew Gamblen13:03

Construction is a very traditional industry. It still ends up with someone standing in a hole on site building something. People have relied on paper because they're used to it, and under pressure, whether commercial, time or quality pressure, they go back to what they know. But because of COVID, the Grenfell incident, new legislation like the Building Safety Bill and the UK BIM Framework, people are realizing paperwork only gets you so far.

Andrew Gamblen14:30

IT isn't just Outlook plus Word; there's a lot more behind it, and people have had to learn that working remotely. So people who were fine leaving things as they were now say: let's digitize this, let's look at our processes. And let's not make it the remit of a single specialist in the company; let's democratize it.

Paul Stone15:09

The pandemic forced people's hands to try new things, at just the right time in terms of technology. If it had happened a couple of years ago, there'd be no Teams. Now the technologies are ready to be adopted, and a lot of people have found that making that jump out of their comfort zone was the right thing to do.

Andrew Gamblen15:56

On decision makers facing broken processes and a reliance on paper: in my experience, people rely so heavily on paper because of the legal and commercial side, the need for someone to sign something at the end. Legal circles are starting to adopt digital signing, but it's still in its infancy. In some instances I've come across processes that shouldn't even be digitized; they should be removed entirely. Processes need to be revamped holistically, and that's a golden opportunity.

Paul Stone17:20

This is the time to look at those processes. People have been filling in pieces of paper for the sake of it, and with paper forms it's very difficult to change a process and be confident doing it. Digitize them and the whole thing becomes more fluid: you can change and evolve them, and you might even evolve them out of existence because they're unnecessary.

Paul Stone17:54

On signatures: before we introduced our product into construction, we didn't have a signature field. We only added it because people in construction told us they had to be able to physically sign on the screen. We asked why, when you have a full digital record of your activities. But if that's what you need to do, that's what you need to do. It's a traditional industry.

Ursula Cullen18:54

That backs up the point that 69% of construction decision makers face broken processes and too much reliance on paper. Maybe that's why the processes are broken: they've sat on paper for too long and no one has reviewed them.

Ursula Cullen19:17

The last point is external stakeholders: contractors, partners, suppliers, architects and clients are all looking to participate actively in business processes. Andrew, what challenges have you seen?

Andrew Gamblen19:43

Construction is such a fragmented industry, with so many specialists in so many areas, each with their own niche. But you also deal with people who have no knowledge of construction, like a lot of end users and customers. It's no fault of theirs: they don't understand how to read a 2D drawing, or why a piece of paper needs to be signed or a schedule reviewed. Either it's confusing to them, or the way the information is presented is.

Andrew Gamblen20:54

When we bring others from outside the organization into a process, we ask ourselves three questions: who, why and what. The idea is to make sure everyone engaging with the process understands their role and what they need to do, so everything runs smoothly. A lot of it simply comes down to communication.

Paul Stone21:46

We see that in construction more than in any other industry we work with. External contractors aren't just construction workers; there are legal teams and others who don't necessarily know your processes. Communication is key. In our system, you can externalize your workflow: when it reaches a certain step, you assign it to an external person, who fills in the form or uploads the document as part of the process. With such a large share of the workforce being contractors and subcontractors, that's critical.

Ursula Cullen23:12

And since COVID, contractors aren't on site chatting to you in person; you're at home and they're at home. That must cause difficulties too.

Andrew Gamblen23:36

It certainly can. Generally the difficulties are family members running through the background, or pets: unforeseen but frankly quite welcome distractions in the middle of a meeting.

Ursula Cullen24:01

Our third topic is overcoming process challenges with digital tools. Paul, how can organizations actually get started?

Paul Stone24:30

I'll give you a process view: process is a good place to start any digital transformation program, because processes lead you to business goals and get results that are measurable. Digitize a process, whether it's a field change request or anything else, measure its performance, and the improvement justifies further investment.

Paul Stone25:35

You've also got to focus on adoption. Find a process everyone knows, what we call the 'captain obvious' processes that are clearly not working very well, and put in a digital fix. Then get people involved and adopting it. Any digital tool is only good if it's adopted and used by the workforce.

Andrew Gamblen26:44

I'd add the who, why and what. If you understand who needs to see something and why they want to see it, that drives what you need to collect and digitize, and lets you focus on something very specific. Say you want to understand how many quality issues you have on site: track how many there are and where they come from, whether it's a supply chain member or the drawings and details, and that knowledge drives the business solution.

Andrew Gamblen28:00

The user interface is key. Make sure the people who need to use it can, and don't find it a horrible experience, because as soon as they do, they won't touch it again. Most of the time you only have one chance to digitize something. At Willmott Dixon there was a BIM initiative back in 2011, well before the PAS 1192 documentation, and when April 2016 came around, it was a struggle at first because people had seen it before and it hadn't worked too well. You have to get over that extra hurdle.

Paul Stone29:53

Understanding the place you need to get to is so important, because then you can manage expectations through the journey, so people don't fall into the trap of trying it once, not liking it and never touching it again.

Paul Stone30:18

We digitize processes that existed on paper, and people fall back on what they know. So you might start with a form that looks like the piece of paper, then gradually change and improve it. Put it out to the end users, let them tell you what's wrong, ask them why, fix it and push it out again. That iterative refining helps adoption, until people say: this is actually better than paper.

Andrew Gamblen31:39

I think you'd agree with this, Paul: the best process is the one that people don't realize they're working.

Paul Stone32:03

Feedback from our customer base is that the first one is always the hardest. Time and time again, the very first process a construction company puts out is the hardest, because everybody's learning, both the people using it and the people configuring it. Once you're over that first hurdle, adopting new technology in general becomes easier.

Ursula Cullen32:45

So business-led automation is at the forefront, and it's important to have a tool your business people are happy to use and can develop with themselves. Paul, what key factors should people think about when looking at a solution?

Paul Stone33:15

We feel business-led automation is the way to go. If IT just delivers a system into the business and the business has to accept it, that works some of the time, and sometimes you get a lot of kickback. If the business is involved in delivering the solution and takes ownership of it, it will more readily adopt it. And adoption is what you want, because adoption gets you data and analytics.

Andrew Gamblen34:36

From experience, the best methodology is that the business identifies a need, then IT helps investigate the options. Collaborating between the two ensures a system people will use, because it replicates how they work or want to work, while still fitting the rest of the business's IT architecture. Otherwise you end up with a solution people feel is being forced upon them, and they immediately don't like it.

Andrew Gamblen35:38

A friend of mine gave a great analogy: what's the similarity between PowerPoints, processes and kids? We all love our own more than someone else's. If someone gives you a process, you want to change it. If you're involved in developing it, it becomes yours and you're an advocate for it.

Ursula Cullen36:19

That leads us to where technology fits in. Andrew, how important is sustainability in your organization, and how are you addressing it?

Andrew Gamblen36:42

Willmott Dixon has recently released its Now or Never strategy, looking at sustainability with targets for 2030 and 2040. It focuses on three things: brilliant buildings, delivering sustainable buildings such as net zero carbon and Passivhaus; building lives, enhancing the communities where we build; and a better planet, leaving the environment in a better place than when we came in.

Andrew Gamblen38:14

Where do digital and process fit in? The only way to achieve these things is by being digitized. You can do it on paper, but incredibly inefficiently; it's not sustainable for the business. I believe most if not all local authorities in the UK have declared some kind of climate emergency, so everyone is looking for ways to do things sustainably, and digitizing is the only way we can really achieve it.

Paul Stone39:11

It's really risen up the agenda. It has to be a cultural change first, to put sustainability top of mind. But digital controls that help people understand the impact of what they're doing on the environment, and guide them to sustainable operations, really help. And as more regulations come in, you'll need to evidence sustainable practices. Having all that activity recorded digitally, so you can show the regulator, will be increasingly important.

Ursula Cullen40:56

We've heard the term paperless workplace a lot lately, which has driven the use of mobile devices on site. Andrew, have you seen advantages or disadvantages?

Andrew Gamblen41:19

Back in 2018, I visited the Nordic countries and spoke to a company running a paperless site. Their contractor, a traditional mid-sized builder that had never worked digitally, asked for a printer on site every day, and the customer refused; it became a daily joke. Instead they used tablets, mobile phones and flight cases with computers dropped at key locations, so people could see the drawings, and they found huge efficiencies.

Andrew Gamblen42:36

You could have the perfect design of a building, costed down to every nut and bolt, but if the person on site interprets a paper drawing wrong and installs something out of sequence, all that planning is for nothing. So mobile technology has to be there for that initial communication, and then for traceability: signing off that elements have been installed and constructed correctly, ideally in the same systems, so you have a fully traceable record from design through construction to handover.

Andrew Gamblen44:02

When we've implemented these systems correctly on site, the uptake has been incredible. People have access to information they've never seen before, we get more collaboration and more upfront comments on possible issues, quality goes up and defects come down. Whatever you do business automation-wise has to work on a mobile device, otherwise you lose three-quarters of the people you're dealing with.

Paul Stone44:56

For our construction clients, it's mobile first. They tell us they have to have mobile, and mobile offline too. It's a prerequisite: you can't walk in the door without it. It lets people on site communicate very quickly with head office and with suppliers, without having to come into head office and use a desktop computer.

Ursula Cullen45:55

Coming back to external stakeholders: Paul, how can process automation bring organizations closer to them?

Paul Stone46:14

A common scenario is interaction with suppliers. Traditionally that's on email or paper, but you can involve them in your business process. A supplier might click a link on your public website to open a form and apply to become a supplier, or take part in a single step of a long materials requisition process. You assign that step to an external user, they fill in their details, and the process continues through further steps internally.

Paul Stone47:28

Because they're filling in a digital form, the information is validated as they key it in, so when it arrives it's already valid and you don't need to go back with so many questions. With an email, there's no control over the content, so critical information gets missed and goes back and forth until it's right. With electronic forms, those pass backs are really reduced. You can use exactly the same method with your customers.

Andrew Gamblen49:45

In the past there's been a reliance on processes that only work internally. But in construction, the only way to get a quality product at the end is to get everyone involved in the same process, so you're not double, triple or quadruple handling information. I wish we could get rid of emails, but we're a few years away from that. A lot of organizations are involved on a typical project, so opening the process up to the key stakeholders first, and eventually all of them, is the utopia.

Ursula Cullen51:02

Let's talk about keeping up with regulations and ensuring compliance. Andrew, how can technology help here?

Andrew Gamblen51:21

Some processes are fairly standard: timber certificates, to show we're using sustainably sourced timber from our supply chain, and waste tickets, to track whether waste is kept on site, goes to landfill, or is recycled or reused. Every construction site in the UK can follow those.

Andrew Gamblen52:13

The interesting one is product information and compliance on the building safety side. The Building Safety Bill, a response to the Grenfell incident in 2017, focuses on high-rise residential buildings and the traceability of information through design, construction, installation and handover. It will require a fully traceable record: was the right product chosen, was it installed and signed off correctly, so the residents can sleep soundly at night.

Andrew Gamblen53:19

That level of information is something the industry hasn't come across before. It will need a lot of interoperability between manufacturers, installers, suppliers, building merchants, contractors, customers and consultants. Until now, people could achieve compliance with digitized versions of paper processes. As a paper process this would be significant; a digital process will be a lot simpler to achieve.

Paul Stone54:30

Three or four years ago, some large projects were recording everything on paper and storing it for review, so at the end of the project you had a warehouse full of paper that couldn't really be used. It wasn't a usable audit trail. With digital technology all the way through, you have a digital data store you can pass on to the building maintenance firm, who can click on an area of a 3D model and find all the details of how that part of the building was constructed.

Paul Stone55:43

I remember a maintenance company that had been handed a selection of paper files by the construction company, and it was so difficult to access any information in them. A modern build with the latest digital tools is an easily searchable digital library, including all the processes and data captured during the build. That will reduce ongoing maintenance costs, so there's a real net win for the building owners.

Ursula Cullen56:55

Paul, 27% of respondents to a recent survey commissioned by FlowForma said they didn't have enough budget to get processes online. Budget is always a topical conversation in construction. What are your thoughts?

Paul Stone57:22

IT and technology spend on construction projects is very low compared with other industries, so people have to be very confident a technology will generate tangible benefits before they part with their money. But digital tools have now been proven on enough projects that there's a much better understanding of the value they bring, and I think that number will reduce over time. The people who feel they don't have enough budget may not yet understand the value; if they did, they could argue the case better.

Andrew Gamblen59:28

Value is the right term. A lot of people have used return on investment, which I find a very commercially led term: it's always pounds, shillings and pence. With digital systems there are other benefits you don't see in cold hard pounds: better understanding, better communication, better collaboration, and removing issues before they've even occurred. A digital process touches so many elements that sometimes you just can't put a figure on it.

Paul Stone60:45

That's where case studies help. We implemented FlowForma on the A14 project, which ran some years ago, and they measured the benefits. Because you're capturing information electronically, you can report on it and measure it. They saw a benefit of £77,000, for example, on one of the processes they digitized. Having numbers like that available really helps people cost-justify the investment, and we have case studies that show actual, tangible benefits.

Ursula Cullen62:09

That leads nicely to our final topic: return on investment and some success stories.

Paul Stone62:27

Take Reliable Contractors. They've introduced processes that extend out to their contractors, so when they advertise positions, contractors fill in their details remotely on a form that's submitted in, and they're not handling paper anymore. And Gallagher Group digitized over 37 processes in the space of 10 weeks, which is incredible. If you can digitize 37 processes in 10 weeks, that's going to save you a lot of money.

Paul Stone64:15

This is a mini case study of CVB Tideway East, a tunneling project over a distributed site that was very dependent on paper, with lots of communication channels. They chose a no-code process automation tool and, with a specialized training program from us, trained their own staff to digitize processes. Their first was new starters and leavers, the onboarding and offboarding of contractors, a many-step process that was hard to track on paper. It also supported their COVID-19 record keeping, recording when contractors came on and off site.

Paul Stone65:39

They did some analysis and reckoned that over a year they were saving 700 hours of effort, and that's just in the first year of going digital. The big spin-off is that you're capturing the data related to your operations, so you can introduce dashboards through tools like Microsoft Power BI, see the bottlenecks in your processes and act a lot faster on delays you'd otherwise detect much later.

Ursula Cullen66:48

Thank you both. A reminder to pop your questions in the chat for the Q&A at the end. Paul, you'd like to tell us about the FlowForma process automation tool and then give a quick five to ten minute demonstration.

Paul Stone67:22

FlowForma is an award-winning process automation provider. There's a wide range of digital tools going into construction, but our focus is digital processes, because processes get measurable results. We're seen as revolutionizing the process management space because we enable business people to digitize processes themselves, rather than depending on the IT department or an IT supplier. We have over 200,000 people across the world using FlowForma, and we've been recognized by bodies including Forrester.

Paul Stone68:58

We have a lot of customers in construction, and they tend to look for the same things: a tool that empowers citizen developers, which is a fancy name for business people like your engineers and apprentices; proven ease of adoption; integration with communication channels like Microsoft Teams; engagement with customers and suppliers; removing paper for sustainability and efficiency; mobile access that supports offline; low startup costs, so you can start small and snowball; and the ability to prove the return.

Paul Stone71:17

You can digitize pretty much any process you have on paper. In health and safety, people use FlowForma for risk and incident management, but probably the most popular uses are site inspections, QA, and safety checklists and observations.

Paul Stone72:05

Because we deal with a lot of construction companies, we've built a set of accelerators: pre-built solutions for common construction processes that you can start using on day one. We've launched nine at the outset, and this is in fact the official launch, so they're available from today. We'll expand them over time into a larger library of digital processes you can download and start using straight away.

Paul Stone73:17

Here's a FlowForma implementation. The boxes at the top are links that kick off a process, and all the information captured is stored centrally. We use Microsoft SharePoint Online as the data store, so all your documentation and data is saved in SharePoint automatically, or externally if you need. When I kick off a safety observation report, I get a form, and a lot of the fields are pre-filled to make it as easy to adopt as possible: the system knows who I am, the current date and time, and my location from the device's GPS.

Paul Stone74:41

I can look up a different location on the map, pick a location name, upload a photograph and annotate an area of it with comments. And you can include guidance in the form. As Andrew said at the start, for adoption it's so important that the system helps the end user along, with text or graphical instructions that appear and disappear based on the data you capture.

Paul Stone76:06

The whole form is dynamic. If I record a corrective observation, it asks whether it was an unsafe condition or an unsafe act. When I select a follow-up action, a new step is automatically added to the business process, which a different person can carry out. I can add a signature, since in construction that's what you typically do, although the system already captures the full audit trail. When I submit, it can email the next person, and it generates a safety observation report that can be sent inside or outside the organization.

Paul Stone77:56

So you're filling in data on a dynamic, pre-filled form that guides the site worker, and you get a system that's very easy to adopt. The same form works on mobile; on this Android emulator it looks exactly the same. You can also use it in Microsoft Teams, like this return-to-work form. Every process has a step bar and a section of data you're collecting.

Paul Stone79:12

All the information you capture in your processes is available for reporting. This demo construction site has a built-in report analyzing materials requisitions. You can only do this because you've used an electronic system to capture the data in the first place.

Ursula Cullen80:13

We're a little tight on time, so if anyone is interested, Paul or one of his colleagues can give a demonstration of the accelerators in a lot more depth. Go to the FlowForma website and request some time with them. I've seen the accelerators myself, and they're really impressive.

Ursula Cullen81:05

To sum up the discussion: get ahead of your competitors and start your digital transformation journey; empower your business users to digitize their own processes with support from IT; say goodbye to stacks of paper and manual processes; and engage your external stakeholders, which creates better relationships and better communication. If you'd like a free trial of FlowForma, it's available on the website.

Ursula Cullen82:28

On to your questions. Someone asks: does anyone have tips on preventing project overruns with digital tools?

Andrew Gamblen82:52

In a lot of instances, project overruns come down to a lack of communication: someone hasn't been informed, there are late design changes, or the budget keeps changing because the design is fluctuating. If people engage with digital systems properly, particularly following the tenet of a single source of truth, a common data environment, there's less risk in the project length. It won't get rid of every overrun, because you never know with 100% certainty what you'll find when you dig into the ground, but you can significantly reduce the risk.

Paul Stone84:13

Risk is everything. With digital systems, everything becomes more predictable. You're capturing the data, so you can build dashboards that report it in real time and see delays as they happen. Back in paper land, you depend on people making phone calls and sending emails to know there's a problem. With a better grip on what's going on in the real world, you can manage those risks a whole lot better.

Ursula Cullen85:11

Someone asks: do you think sustainability will be a focus globally, particularly in the US? Andrew, do you want to kick off?

Andrew Gamblen85:23

Yes is the short answer. Sustainability is only going to become more pertinent as time goes on. Our sector has such an impact on the world and its resources that it will be a key discussion point, both for new buildings and for what we do with the existing stock, since most of the buildings that will be standing in 2050 have already been built.

Paul Stone86:20

It's partly cultural: people feel they should be sustainability aware. But hard regulations are coming in that will penalize people who can't prove their sustainability achievements. Under agreements like the Paris Agreement, countries face fines if they miss targets, and governments will pass those on to the people building the buildings and running the transport systems. It will have a real financial impact, so companies will have to address it, and digitalization is definitely a way to control that.

Ursula Cullen87:21

Thank you so much. We're very tight on time, so we'll email answers to any questions we missed. Thank you to Paul and Andrew for joining us today.

Selina Mosley (Oliver Kinross)87:41

Thanks, Ursula, for moderating this session, and Paul and Andrew for your great contributions. A very interesting discussion.