Why project managers may need site inspection software
Project managers are responsible for ensuring project delivery in accordance with the contract. This includes the plans or blueprints that detail how to build a facility, the specifications that indicate the materials to be used, and the contract that dictates payment and acceptance of the completed project.
Verification that the work is proceeding as per plan usually comes through inspection. This may include internal inspection from a superintendent or project engineer and oversight from an independent entity acting on your client’s behalf. It’s critical that inspections are conducted regularly and consistently, and using inspection software for field service industries may help with it.
First, a complex project may have multiple inspectors and inspections lasting for as long as several years. Some occur daily, while others take place at certain phases or milestones of a project. Some inspections may be required for activities of a certain level of complexity or risk. Most common inspections of field service projects are pre-construction, daily work reports, safety management, quality management, surveys, materials testing and sampling, critical work inspection, environmental checks, project closeout.
Two people can observe the same thing and capture different information without a consistent process. An inspection workflow means that no matter who’s doing the inspecting or where you are in the schedule, oversight is the same, making project audits and reporting easier. The office team can watch over what’s going on at the jobsite, and the field crew has access to the latest comments and reviews.
Second, your inspections need to be documentable, accountable, repeatable, and verifiable. This means you need to manage a lot of documentation: fill in checklists, generate reports, distribute latest versions of the documents between stakeholders, export data to other apps for more analysis. While paper documents require twice as much admin time and effort, mobile forms and automation tools save your time, at the same time reducing human error.
Third, when working in the field in often heavy weather conditions, it’s better to operate with a single device than tons of paper sheets that can get wet or blown. Professional software products such as Fluix, Procore, Fieldwire, etc., support working on web, iOS and Android, meaning you can use a computer, or mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets irrespective of operating system.
Finally, there are many other features of inspection software project managers can benefit from. Inspections apps allow you to take photos and add them to the checklists as evidence proof. Their cloud-based architecture eliminates the need for hard copies that take up space and are vulnerable to destruction and loss. Various levels of access and control are tailored to your operational needs. Managers can create templates that are customized for the project and the type of instruction.
Team collaboration is also a big advantage. Completed forms, checklists, signed contracts, and more can be distributed to the appropriate personnel for review and approval. If docs are not approved or signed, or violations or deficiencies are identified, the responsible people can get notifications, in-app or emails, so that they can be addressed immediately.
Integrations with other project management functions and metrics, such as schedule updates, resource allocation, cost control, change order management, auditing, etc. are also helpful when you use several platforms to manage your projects. They are needed to generate accurate reports that are the backbone of your project’s progress. Regular, consistent completion helps you stay on top of your project’s needs, anticipating issues and solutions in advance.
An inspection software platform maintains a record of every inspection that can be accessed, audited, and distributed in accordance with owner preferences, contractual requirements, and corporate objectives. The best software approach facilitates real-time usage so your inspectors don’t have to recall details from their memory or handwritten notes.
To sum up the above, inspection software can simplify and improve project management for field industries such as construction and engineering, energy, oil and gas, roadbuilding, shipbuilding. The bigger the project, the more benefits. Modern market offers many solutions, and sometimes it can be overwhelming to choose the one you need.
Luckily, most tools have demos and trials, often free, which you can apply for and test everything directly. It’s better not to fall on every feature offered, and test those you do need for your goals. You may never need sophisticated adds-on, so focusing on basics is what helps with getting started. Test checklists, workflows, data extraction and if they fit you, stick with this solution. Although it technically isn't part of software, onboarding speed also matters, so pay attention to customer service and the quality of communication with support teams.