Making sure that building projects adhere to all the specifications and standards required in the highly fragmented environment of today is a significant responsibility. Preconstruction teams need every advantage they can get when performance, safety, money, and schedule are at stake.
Fortunately, teams are becoming more productive and efficient while also boosting quality thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) solutions created especially for builders and developers. By integrating AI into their preconstruction and QA/QC processes, creative preconstruction teams are already reaping significant benefits.
Decades of experience have taught Nibbi Brothers General Contractors, one of the best contractors in the San Francisco Bay Area, that the best strategy is one that is truthful, cooperative, proactive, and backed by cutting-edge technology. Nibbi is aware that proactive problem-solving and early team collaboration can optimize quality and prevent major issues later on. Because of their skillful use of technology, there are fewer change orders and the associated schedule and budgetary effects.
Nibbi talked about its use of AI in a recent case study and how its preconstruction team has a competitive advantage because to standardizing on the technology. Anita Hsieh, a licensed architect and Nibbi QA Project Manager, shares candid thoughts about the three key benefits that Nibbi is attaining in their preconstruction phase.
1. Effectiveness
To guarantee success, Nibbi’s QA/QC team devotes a significant amount of time to in-depth analysis of their projects (Anita Hsieh, AIA, QA Project Manager). Including AI-REVIEW in their toolkit offers a high degree of consistency and relieves the team of a substantial amount of work associated with those more tiresome jobs.
Given how many projects we have going on at any given moment, having a technology helps us turn them around more quickly. I can make decisions like, “I won’t spend more than three days looking at this because the drawing set isn’t developed enough,” because I can rapidly determine the number and scope of problems.
When the operations side of the house receives tasks from the QA/QC team, “I believe they appreciate that it does take some load off them as well.” Six months into construction, they don’t need to discover these little issues, which would waste money, time, and resources. I can sleep better at night knowing that I completed the task as thoroughly as possible with the equipment I had at my disposal,” Hsieh remarked.
2. Useful Information
AI-REVIEW analyzes construction drawings to find inconsistencies, scope gaps, missing information, and incomplete designs. It enables customers to effectively resolve issues that have been found, guaranteeing project accuracy and giving them a competitive advantage. For instance, knowing that certain sheets are missing from the start is consoling. timetables are another major problem; for instance, window and door timetables are frequently skipped or somewhat apathetic. I can discover that information is missing without having to go through the complete collection. I think that’s fantastic because instead of going through every window tag, I can concentrate on a more challenging, intricate element,” Hsieh remarked.
Depending on the developing stage, experimenting with uploading 100% DDs. Additionally, that has been helpful because I can get a head start if the majority of the DNA is present. In order to understand how can track the same project and maybe the same comments, we are also investigating performing a 100% DD followed by several benchmarks, such as a 25% CD and then a 100% CD.
“The civil drawings are one of the trends that has been fascinating to observe. The utility connections, for instance, have occasionally not been coordinated. Because the current connections aren’t coordinated with the other trades, they don’t match. It has been beneficial to observe those concerns as they are readily overlooked and, when discovered at the start of construction, result in significant coordination time issues. MEP drawings have also had problems; for instance, lighting plans and architecturally reflected ceiling plans have not been coordinated correctly. It’s merely the cherry on top of unquestionably significant things. I can compile the data and forward it to the architect for evaluation. I don’t even need to give them a synopsis. The problem is readily apparent, which has been excellent.
03. Cooperation
“The architect was impressed by our use of an AI tool in a recent project. Overall, one can tell that the level of drawing ability rises with each submission since we began scanning drawings, possibly in the middle of the CDs. The architect, in my opinion, values having a variety of tools available to them. It is more akin to a group endeavor. Over time, our interactions with them have improved. Additionally, I believe they value the time and effort we put into our reviews and how thorough they are. All of us are working to make the set as great as possible.
Because we work on a lot of residential projects, it has been able to apply machine learning to adjust to the structure of the drawing sets. There are unit plans and overall plans in a normal drawing package. The AI has learned to refrain from making duplicate remarks on unit plans that belong on overall plans. It has been beneficial to be able to adjust to the specific project type because, after learning our designs, the repetitive remarks disappeared. I don’t have to sort through a floor plan full of comments thanks to it.
The construction industry presents a significant challenge for many tech businesses looking to gain headway with AI and SaaS-based products. They don’t know the difference between how we want to use it and how they believe we ought to use it. On the other hand, it has always been composed of professionals in the field. It has made it easier to comprehend the preconstruction and design difficulties. It has been really beneficial that technical project manager has experience in design and that their subject matter expert has over 30 years of construction experience. They are aware of what I and other GC members would desire.