Construction Planning

Delays are a persistent problem in the construction industry – without proper software for construction planning. You’ve got to get your project completed—on time and budget (whether it is a general building, power, manufacturing, transportation, or industrial project).

Construction worker angry because of bad plans.

Construction Planning Challenges

As a construction project manager or trade contractor, you are facing the following problems with construction planning:

Everything keeps slipping. Your drywaller is sick, your wiring and wood are late, everyone is waiting on a decision from the owner/architect, and your electrician redefines the term “Sloppy Joe.” In fact, 75% of all projects fail to come within 10% of the original deadline and only 31% come within 10% of the budget.
Hard to collaborate. Your subcontractors can’t coordinate with each other or with suppliers. Nobody but you knows your project slipped (including upper management) –and it takes dozens of calls, texts, and emails to re-coordinate with your suppliers and subcontractors. In fact, construction is one of the only industries to experience a reduction in productivity in the last 50 years – largely due to the difficulty of collaborating among sub-contractors.

No Project Insights. You have no way to see potential problems that will cause delays. Management can’t identify what is causing delays—including a possible resource issue. The superintendent doesn’t realize the subcontractors are consistently delayed. You can’t improve what you can’t see.
Wasted time… waiting. You get to the job site…but it’s not ready. You could be working another job, but you are waiting (again) with nothing to do. Or, you had no idea that you could have started your work two days earlier. Unfortunately, this is all too typical, only 27% of a construction worker’s day is spent doing direct work.

Your alternatives look bleak.

Alternatives

Burning up your phone. You could make dozens of phone calls & texts to coordinate between multiple teams, suppliers, and contractors.
Piles of Sticky Notes. Or, conduct on-site group huddles each morning moving sticky notes to keep organized–then taking a photo, or worse yet dumping it into Excel to email everyone. What a waste.
“Sophisticated” Project Management. Of course, the office has high-end project management software–but it takes a master’s degree to understand. You need something simple, on the ground, in the trailer–on the site that “you” can use for day-to-day changes.

So, how do you collaborate effectively, reduce the daily chaos, make better decisions, and keep everyone informed–automatically?

Perhaps you should consider software for Construction Planning.

There are four main reasons to consider software for Construction Planning.

Reduce Delays
Easy collaboration
Data-Driven Insights
More time working = more profits

Let’s consider each of these in detail

1. Reduce Delays with better construction planning

Software for construction planning will help you seamlessly manage all aspects of your project without the hassle of manual entry and endless phone calls. Recognize and remove roadblocks before they derail your project.

Live Task List. View and edit tasks in real-time—from the field—to keep everyone on the same page.
Weekly and Daily Planning. Use digital tickets to create daily & weekly production plans faster. This breaks down milestones into detailed tasks to keep your project on time and under budget.

Project Management. Maintain a unified view of your project to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal, knows what to do, and is able to do it.
Request Management. Project managers can assign tasks to team members, and they can confirm acceptance. It is easier to delegate and ensure everyone knows the work that needs to be done.
Trades/roles. Segment tasks by roles to maintain a clearer view of who is doing what and when they’re doing it.

2. Easy Collaboration

Collaboration throughout a project improves handoffs and communication between trades. According to McKinsey Global Institute, enhancing collaboration can improve productivity by 8-9%.

Mobile Access. Access your schedule and plans from your phone or iPad. Plus update tickets, assign tasks, view the weekly look-ahead, and make changes to the plan—even from the comfort of your couch.
Team Participation Tracking. Track who is doing what and how it is getting done. A clear view of team member performance increases accountability and efficiency.
Virtual Pull Planning. Take your pull planning from the trailer to the cloud—coordinate quicker with your phone or tablet–no need to re-order sticky notes, take photos and email to the team. Plus, enables remote planning if a team member can’t be onsite.

3. Data-Driven Insights

Constant updates of your project’s status allow you to learn from your data and improve for the future. On-site productivity can be increased by as much as 50% by incorporating data & analytics tools.

Real-time Updates. Automatically send real-time updates out to specific team members based on project events. Keep everyone informed automatically.
Data Visibility. Monitor, display, and analyze project data in real-time to immediately access if you are on time and easily identify ways to improve project efficiency.
Data Visualization. Converts numbers into graphs and charts to better visualize your project status.
Data Across Multiple Projects. Ability to visualize and analyze data/trends across a portfolio of projects—perfect for mid to upper managers to know exactly which areas need the most help.

4. More Time Working = More Profits

According to a Construction Industry Institute study, only 27% of a construction worker’s time is spent doing direct work. The software reduces time wasted planning & communicating to maximize Time-on-Tools.

Enable your team to collaboratively create detailed work schedules for the day, week, and month, allowing team members to own their activity to ensure accountability and responsibility.
Collaboration tools. Enable your team to collaboratively create detailed work plans with other subs for the day, week, and month. Subs own their tasks to ensure accountability. Spend less time in meetings and more time on tools
Mobile Ticket List. Enable your team to quickly view and edit tickets directly from the field to reduce meeting time and keep everyone on the same page in real-time.

Unfortunately, not all software for construction planning is the same…

Some of the alternatives have serious challenges…

Some won’t auto-detect issues and re-plan. When you hit roadblocks in your project, some systems cannot automatically detect the delay and re-plan to stay on schedule.
Missing detailed analytics. Many don’t have detailed project data & analytics so you have no visibility into variance reasons, your labor, your materials, health & safety issues, and overall project health. You’re left in the dark without a way to improve.
Missing collaboration. Some software is not truly collaborative because it is not used by everyone in the field due to cost or difficulty of use. “What? No sticky notes?” Ain’t gonna work!
Too hard to use. Some software is extremely difficult to use (requires a degree), and it “doesn’t look like Sticky Notes,” so it is harder, not easier to use.
Poor Support. Many companies just sell software, assuming “you can figure it out.”

So how do you leverage construction planning software that can…

Auto-detect issues and replan, provides you with actionable insights, makes coordinating easy, is dead simple to use, and is well-supported?

Perhaps you should consider…

Awards & Recognition

“Touchplan tops G2 relationship and momentum rankings as a construction project management leader” – August 12, 2020
“Touchplan Featured in Construction Tech Review” – July 3, 2019
“G2 Crowd: Touchplan a ‘High Performer’ for Spring 2019”
“Touchplan on Best Construction Project Management Software List” – G2
“Constructech Names Touchplan a Top Product”
Touchplan Earns “High Performer” Badge From Review Site G2 Crowd
G2 Award for “Best Relationship 2020”
G2 Award for “Users Love us”
G2 Award for “Momentum Leader 2020”

Successes

$52 Billion Construction Cost Optimized
Used on over 2,800+ Construction Projects
Used by more than 40,000+ Construction Planners

Best Software for Construction Planning

There are five main reasons to consider Touchplan

BEST planning & replanning
BEST project data & analytics
MOST collaborative
EASIEST to use
BEST customer service

Let’s consider each of these reasons in detail

1. BEST construction planning & replanning

Unlike alternatives, Touchplan has collaborative pull planning with weekly work planning to enable teams to efficiently keep projects on schedule with plan finish, milestone dates, path length, and lookaheads. All stakeholders have the tools to continuously update plans and remain on schedule. When a project hits roadblocks, real-time updates and detailed variance reasons aid in the re-planning process.

Digital Pull Planning. Transform your whiteboard Sticky Notes to a collaborative plan that updates instantly on everyone’s phone, tablet or computer. ALL stakeholders are involved in the process while project templates and bulk ticket functions make it easy to plan and re-plan.
Master Schedule Alignment. Align your master schedule easily. View your project plans side-by-side with your master schedule to ensure that milestones are reached, and the project is moving forward as planned.
Look-ahead planning. With six-week lookaheads, path length lookahead, Touchplan’s look-ahead planning enables team members to accurately sequence tasks, keep members aligned, accountable, and deliver on time.

Real-Time Updates. Real-time updates for ALL stakeholders are made easier with Touchplan for mobile. Easily view tasks, updates, and the overall plan to stay on track in the field.
Variance reasons. Track reasons for why a task was not completed on time. These insights help you re-plan and improve on the fly.
Supply Chain/Materials Tracking. Track when materials are needed and where they are being used to increase the efficiency of your supply chain management. Ensure materials are delivered just on time or know when materials are delayed.

2. BEST project data & analytics

Through a comprehensive suite of data & analytics features, Touchplan provides actionable insights to proactively deliver projects faster.

Actionable insights. Review accurate, real-time project metrics down to the field level, enabling you to see problems in advance and proactively avoid future delays (like Waze with traffic jams).
Dashboard Views. View all of your data in a simple visual dashboard to easily understand where your project is and where it needs help.
Top performers. Track promises made vs. promises fulfilled for each team member making it easier to identify which trades need attention.
Reliable Promising. Calculate a reliable promise date for milestone/project completion. With more accurate forecasting, projects can stay on or ahead of schedule.
Budget and time overrun. Track where and how much a project is going over time and budget to identify areas that need attention.

Architects and Engineers Planning on a New Project

3. MOST collaborative

Touchplan combines the benefits of pull planning with best-in-class digital collaboration tools, enabling construction teams to collaborate safely when they cannot get together physically, and build better together.

Collaboration tools. Team members can collaboratively edit, view, and develop daily, weekly, and look-ahead plans, promoting accountability and transparency.
Unlimited Users. One license includes all users. Easy enough for everyone on site to use to maximize collaboration.
Mobile Access Anywhere. Users can access Touchplan from anywhere on any device. The team can modify, change, and view project details remotely from the field.
Team Participation Tracking. Displays the participation history of team members, to help managers understand performance and drive improvement.

4. EASIEST to use

Touchplan’s interface “looks like sticky notes,” and is touted as the easiest to use. All team members get up to speed quickly, maximizing the benefit of collaborative planning.

Looks and feels like Sticky Notes. Simple and visual like Sticky Notes and a whiteboard to reduce the learning curve and ensure that everyone uses it.
Unlimited Users. Touchplan does not charge on a per-user basis, enabling all team members to easily use the product without cost barriers.
NO IT Required. Enables project managers to set up new projects, and easily add and remove users–without IT admin help.
Cloud-based. Enables team members to access projects from anywhere via the internet.

5. BEST customer service

Through a dedicated Customer Success Team, Touchplan remains with clients throughout the life of the project, not just through the sale. According to customers, the dedicated support team is a paramount reason for choosing Touchplan over the competition.

Dedicated Support Team. A dedicated customer success team works with you to solve pain points and facilitates onboarding. Help is just a click away with a median live in-application chat response time of 36 seconds.
Product Videos. Dozens of videos describe detailed and general product features and how to use them to ensure you get the most out of the product.
Product Training. Dedicated training resources efficiently onboard you so you are up to speed in no time.
“How-To” FAQ Help Resources. An FAQ section (with ~60 articles) is accessible within the application describing all features and how to best use them.

What’s holding you back?

Now that you can see some of the advantages of Touchplan, what’s holding you back? Following are common questions:

How does it compare? Please see the competitive matrix.
I am already using master scheduling software. Primavera P6 and other master schedules only provide a high-level view of project milestones. Touchplan translates your milestones into sequenced tasks and helps you re-plan along the way—in the trailer, on-site.
I use Sticky notes and a whiteboard to plan. Great, since Touchplan has similar “digital” sticky notes—but everything can be done digitally, notifying everyone of changes automatically, and eliminating the time-consuming aspects of manual planning

Testimonials

“The relationship with Touchplan is outstanding… extremely receptive to our feedback on how to make the product better.” – Joe Breen, Project Executive, Lee Kennedy
“Touchplan has acted as our common denominator of communication… our subs/trades… actually see what their progression was on the project.” Lee Kennedy Superintendent Brian Senk.
“Field crews for us immediately start owning their plan information and helping populate content… leads to a more cohesive team.” – Eldon Parry, Senior Project Manager @ Apollo

“Touchplan makes it easier to break up the work into bite-size pieces and have solid information for each task.” Britt Jordan, Project Engineer @ Andres Construction
“Using Touchplan we were able to see that interior construction was beginning to outrun the exterior construction,” said Jordan. “Using Touchplan allowed us to identify these issues months ahead of time and adjust our work to keep the project on schedule.” Britt Jordan, Project Engineer @ Andres Construction
“… you have a visual of what’s supposed to be done that day. [You use] that visual in your afternoon promises-made/promises-kept conversation….” Mike Kissane, Senior Project Manager at Granger Construction

Picture This

Life Before

Your sweaty crew and subs are standing around a whiteboard moving sticky notes
Everything has slipped (AGAIN). Someone takes a picture and starts to email it to the teams (drops his phone on the dirty floor and swears).
A sub grumbles, “They won’t be happy”
Your wood is late, the wiring was sent to the wrong site, your plumber caught Covid. @$##%^^&%
You’re gonna have a “Come to Diety” call with your main office in a few hours

Life Sucks!

Your New Life

Your team arrives, but they’ve all seen the delays and problems in advance.
You move the sticky notes (electronically) to re-organize your day’s project (but there’s not many changes).
Everyone has pre-coordinated. One found a different worker who can come in mid-day. Another saw the wiring delay and already has the truck bringing wiring in from an older site.
It’s like a well-oiled machine.
You lose a few hours (not days)—nothing you can’t cover. The meeting time was 20 minutes—not hours.
And you can’t wait for your weekly coordination meeting. Of course, the office already knows you’ve got it covered. That’s why they’ll be speaking about a promotion.

Life is VERY Good!

What’s Next?

Check out the product videos
See the features & benefits
Attend a free webinar
Access a free trial version of Touchplan
Get the price
Email [email protected]

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Construction Planning