A recent study released by Dodge Construction Network, published in partnership with Dusty Robotics, examines the causes of U.S. and Canadian contractors’ quality issues during the past three years—such as errors, omissions and rework—and highlights the importance of coordination and collaboration on job sites.
Following are some findings from the study.
- The study shows contractors interact with other companies on their projects an average of 17 times per day, and eight of those interactions involve conflicts. Specialty trade contractors rarely experience good resolutions from such conflicts; only 38% believe everyone involved understands what is being communicated compared with 50% of general contractors, and 48% find everyone agrees on the next steps and future actions in most of their conflicts with other companies compared with 69% of general contractors.
- Thirty-three percent of contractors find coordination issues on job sites are the root cause of the construction quality challenges they experience. Such coordination issues lead to an average 9% budget increase and an average of 10% erosion in annual company profit margin.
- Ninety-six percent of contractors agree active collaboration improves projects. However, when six approaches to actively fostering collaborative behaviors were tested in the survey, only 18% of respondents report using more than three of those methods. The two most effective approaches—implementing policies and procedures that promote collaboration and investing in technology that supports collaboration—were only used by 43% and 50% of contractors, respectively.
- The study shows only 11% of field personnel report always having access to the information they need about what and where to build on projects. Fewer than one-third of field personnel used building information modeling for coordination, and 90% of contractors use manual means such as chalk lines for layout. Automated layout currently is used by only 4% of contractors, but 34% would consider using it in the future.
