Electronic system helps construction firms increase productivity

June 3, 2013

When the recession hit in 2008, the construction sector was one of the industries hit especially hard, since the burst of the housing bubble caused a huge decline in home purchases. However, now that the market is picking back up, more homes and other buildings are as well.

For one construction firm, in addition to seeing an increase in work, has also increased the number of tools they are using to help them avoid errors and improve productivity, namely, iPads and modeling software. Instead of printing out thousands of pages of blueprints, Balfour Beatty Plc, a design firm, is working from tablets.  

The devices, as explained in Bloomberg, contain not only work order requests and other administrative information, but three-dimensional images of a building's designs. This way, engineers can see where problems might arise and has allowed them to solve these errors before construction begins. Senior engineer Steven Denbow said to the new source, "This saves time and money in the long run, which is what everyone wants."

One company that uses this software said that this helped cut down time a project takes from seven months to four, since the modeling software allowed them to plan better, and request significantly less information from others that were involved. And since no papers need to be printed or filed, there is little administrative work as well, cutting down on data. 

Of course, these advantages go beyond the construction industry. With all information in the electronic form, and using a bulk scanning service to get there, companies can send and find information much more easily. By saving time, businesses can increase productivity, and as a result, improve the bottom line.

Tab Service Company is a Chicago based company with over 53 years of experience as a data processing service provider.  We provide business with outsourcing solutions for document scanning services, data entry services and mailing/lettershop services.  As a SOC2-approved service organization, we apply industry-best practices to our approach with clients.