Time is also of the essence in the construction industry so projects delivered must be efficient. Estimating in construction specifically is a cumbersome task that may take a considerable amount of time and labor if conducted manually. Nonetheless, contractors have failed to explore the depths of how they can use technology more efficiently in enhancing the construction process productivity and minimizing the time and costs taken to complete the contracting process. In this blog, strategies that can be effective in addressing the challenges of construction estimating from data collection through bid preparation will be discussed.
Gather Accurate Data Efficiently
For mechanical estimating services, one has to gather all the necessary project data for the estimating process to be complete and accurate. Earlier an estimator would go through paper plans, make takings off quantities using measuring tapes, go to the site, draw rough sketches, do a lot of calculations, and so on. This is hugely inefficient. New technological tools can vastly simplify this process in several ways:
- Laser Scanners and Drones for Remote Quantification: Laser scanners and drones help you capture the existing site conditions at the site and quantify work in a way that you do not need to visit the site. This is a time saver and also does not involve assumptions which are usually very misleading.
- Cloud-based Plan Access for Digital Takeoff: When it comes to the blueprints of a project, instead of having a paper plan that leads to a mess, cloud storage helps eliminate it and the digital take-off means that you can get the quantities with a few clicks.
- Mobile Solutions for On-Site Efficiency: Mobile estimating apps make it easy to enter the measurements, descriptions, and photos of site visits, all the data being neatly compiled. This makes it easier to avoid the entry of data that was not captured in the initial data collection process at a later time.
When data gathering is progressed, you will have the complete project data encompassing productive estimate creation at your disposal.
Create Estimates Intelligently
When it comes to creating the actual estimates, then smart tools also help in adding efficiency gains with accurate data collected. In the past, an estimator would start with the takeoff quantities for each component of the work to be done, would look up prices in trade journals or bid books, would apply some amount of estimator judgment to these prices to arrive at a set of projections, and would then add up all of these in a series of complex spreadsheets for each cost category, and repeat this process for each of the various cost categories. Modern solutions help streamline this in innovative ways:
- Automated Pricing for Instant Unit Costs: With timely access to updated supplier and subcontractor price data, the cost of the takeoff quantities can be computed on the fly using the current unit costs. This does not allow manual search guessing or estimating.
- Risk Analysis for Accuracy: New risk analysis functionalities can sift through thousands of bid results of trades and external indices to identify and analyze variability and uncertainty for various trades and regions. This leads to accurate ‘smart’ lump sum, contingency, and escalation estimates.
- Assembly Level Modeling for Speed: Accurate high levels of detail 3D BIM assemblies and material libraries increase bid efficiency as you can create custom yet dynamic cost estimations that adjust as you build your estimate and make changes. This cuts down on data duplication and data entry time since everyone is entering the same data in the two systems.
Such technologies are helping these quantity takeoff services contractors to reduce their estimating time to as low as half or 80% less with added precision. Reaching a good bid faster is therefore a key advantage on the road to greater efficiency.
Streamline Approvals & Submission
Estimation being the final step, the subsequent bid packaging, approval, and final submission also play an important part in efficiency.
- Role-based Workflows for Collaboration: An example would be the use of cloud-based estimation software which can dictate internal approval workflows and avoid continuous back and forth but at the same time, keep all relevant departments informed. Submittals can also be set up to align with the general contractor cycle.
- Instant Report Generation for Professional Bids: Some of the benefits of cloud-based data storage are that with the help of bidders, bidders can obtain a proposal requirement that includes real-time collation of cost, such as a cost breakdown, schedule of values, allowance summaries as opposed to manual collation. This leads to a holistic bid package, while also ensuring that it is not burdensome with unnecessary information.
By cutting the friction across functions and wrapping the steps, contractors ensure that they do not experience repeated delays or have to redo work to submit quality bids on time.
The Way Forward
Challenges of estimating Efficiency in residential estimating services include getting new definitions through the usage of process improvement initiatives as well as technological advancement such as BIM; AI and analytics. Those contractors who embrace modem cloud-based estimating solutions and tools are the ones who stand to benefit most due to increased competitiveness. However, having embraced technology is not the ultimate solution to the problem. This true transformation means that the concepts and techniques of LEAN are complemented by the optimization of the main legacy workflow and cross-functionality with tools that are relevant to construction estimating. Estimating teams ready to think and act differently about how they approach estimating will be best placed to leverage the benefits in the future.
Conclusion
It is crucial to understand that construction estimating effectiveness defines all the processes – from the increased chance of winning more tenders to the higher project profit. New solutions have indicated that the long-awaited complete ERP estimating process streamlining is now within reach. Contractors that focus on productivity through automating processes and the application of other changes will be among those setting the pace. Those who continue to rely on the old paradigm and traditional paper-based process may experience market degeneration. Now is the time for change and construction estimating must be a part of this process.
