Placing Efficiency, Transparency and Accountability at the Forefront of Your Construction Business

Beth Michaelis, President of Quality Built, LLC

The economic reversals of this recession have been severe and enduring. Wave after wave of downsizing created a layer of secondary consequences. With the loss of key employees, builders lost the historians of their company. They lost process knowledge and most dramatic of all: they lost resources. With barely any time to recover, it became necessary for builders to reinvent their businesses.

Builders are completing projects on razor thin margins and, in some cases, negative margins. The intense pressure to reduce costs has resulted in downward bidding but reductions alone are not enough. Every aspect of the construction process is being evaluated. Strategies include simplifying designs, specifying quality materials without the brand name or unnecessary features, searching out tax credits and rebates, obtaining multiple quotes for all products and services rather than relying on relationships, operational restructuring, mitigating risk and redefining roles, responsibilities and processes.

The construction market will return but it would be foolish to consider today’s streamlining practices as temporary. Survival techniques will evolve into industry standards. New challenges will emerge as builders strive to create or expand a competitive advantage while maintaining controlled growth. Consumers will control the market for another decade and there will be clear winners and losers in the building industry.

Forward thinking builders are creating the “new normal”. Streamlined processes, digital technologies, transparency of data, accountability and collaboration are revolutionizing the construction process.

How can Builder Link® help?

We want to partner with you in building a system that preserves your company history, technical expertise and data in a platform that you control and manage by utilizing Builder Link.

Builder Link is a proprietary advanced data collection software and reporting system based on the same checkpoints used for more than 15 years to conduct over 500,000 inspections across the United States. Builder Link is designed to easily integrate with existing procedures to document good quality building practices as well as create electronic “punch lists” of open items needing correction. The program can easily be implemented in stages and allows for as little or as much third party interaction as desired.

Where do you begin?

Begin with defining performance expectations. With a set of plans and a construction schedule, we can quickly build an inspection template specific to your project’s needs. Prior to loading it into the system, our construction experts will provide a template to you to review, revise and approve. This process can take as little as a day and allows for continual process improvement. Additionally, it supports your internal training by promoting knowledge to field staff when they need it. It preserves technical expertise and prevents “brain drain” when you loose key technical people and ensures that your company creates long term benefits from each interaction with consultants and industry experts.

Technology allows us to communicate efficiently and effectively. Builder Link eliminates the need to copy and distribute open item alerts. Each trade contractor is automatically emailed the list of open items which they are responsible for correcting at the end of each inspection. Status emails which summarize all open items are emailed weekly or are available 24/7 on the Quality Built Information Network (QBIN) or may be printed/ emailed by the superintendent at any time. The system effectively manages Requests for Information. The user may select from the project’s contact list or send questions to our technical services department. The system will email the checkpoint, question, photos, and notes to the contact and will track responses.

With limited resources no one has time to sort through data to determine if it is applicable to them and/or requires a response/action. Builder Link allows builders to identify who should receive information and when. Information can be escalated up a chain of command or through a process for approval/rejection or as a result of lower level employees not taking action. Custom reports are available for executive summaries or to match existing reporting formats. Additionally, data can be exported to web access portals and/or auto emailed as PDF files according to your needs.

Collect data today for improvement tomorrow. The transparency and free flow of data is critical to documentation and continual process improvement. Superintendents or internal quality assurance officers can collect data on a daily basis or only at critical stages of construction. Data may be used to rate trade contractor performance, assist with analyzing claims or streamlining processes.

Involve your homebuyers in the construction process. Selected data, product information and photographs may be shared with your homeowners or potential homebuyers. Promoting select data and information using Builder Link is an efficient process. The consumer website may be skinned to fit in with each builder’s website creating a powerful marketing tool.

As builders define the “new normal”, 2011 will be a year of continued reassessment. We hope you select Builder Link to assist you with the integration of technology into your field processes to remain competitive in 2011 and the years beyond.