Plato and the power of integrated project tracking.
Plato, the Greek philosopher born in the 4th century B.C., believed ignorance is the root cause of all difficulties. Construction projects, particularly those involving perishable and structural ready mixed concrete, are complicated and difficult. Given that nothing exists in the dark of ignorance that is not revealed when the light of knowledge is turned on, how can we illuminate the interconnected, opaque layers of projects?
Enter binni, a planning, tracking, and reporting platform that connects all aspects of a concrete construction operation in real time to bring them into the light. Envisioned by Alejandro Gómez Rivera and Wes Morrison, the mobile platform features an integrated ecosystem of tech tools and providers—encompassing architecture, site design, building information management (BIM), materials, placement, and quality control (QC). While binni delivers unmistakable benefits to the contractor, it helps all project partners work faster, safer, and more cost-effectively. To understand its impact, we’ll explore the platform through the eyes of a user.
Purple Line Light Rail Project
Jason Scofi of HNTB Corp. is a young, tech-native construction QC manager for the Purple Line Light Rail Project just outside Washington, D.C. The Purple Line spans 16.2 miles with 21 stations through one of the region’s most densely populated areas. With two large tunnels, many bridges, and poured-in-place rails, the light rail line will link several Maryland suburbs: Bethesda, Silver Spring, College Park, and New Carrollton. It is a massive project in all dimensions—materials, distance, cost, time, and resources—and Scofi relies on binni to shed light on its complexities.
“How did we ever do this before digitization?” he asks.
The answer is “not easily.” When manual data entry dominated construction processes, replete with fat fingers, the sheer volume of paper filled with handwritten notes and numbers was overwhelming. The paper records also generally lagged a week or more behind the actual events. For the ready mixed portion of a project, delays or mistakes carry very real financial consequences for the contractor.
Asking the right questions
Plato asserted that the right question is usually more important than the right answer—a philosophy that Scofi embraces. Before joining HNTB, he worked at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for 10 years. Now, he approaches QC with a focus on storytelling, asking “What story do you want to tell?” For QC across all aspects of a project, Scofi emphasizes the need to have a comprehensive, accurate, real-time story of each critical component to continuously improve.
The problem, however, is the industry has struggled with managing and interpreting disparate data. For instance, says Scofi, what does it mean if we are getting lower breaks on Tuesdays? Which subcontractors are calling in their pours as they should, or does the general contractor have to do it for them? Could these issues be related?
The binni platform pulls together information streams from all relevant sources and combines them into one accessible data lake for accurate reporting. To facilitate seamless data transfer, binni created numerous interfaces for both human input and automated processes. In the case of ready mixed concrete, the site foreman needs only to use a QR code from the side of a truck to capture the load information—good riddance to fat-fingered manual entry!
Power users like Scofi can then engage ample pre-made reports to view project updates as well as craft custom reports to ask the right questions that dig deeper. As the light shines brighter and more truth is revealed, they can pull information that at first glance appears unrelated to uncover connections, emerging patterns, and valuable insights.
Implementation
Scofi says adoption of the platform was not hard, mainly due to front-line users quickly recognizing its value. It can be accessed via desktop or mobile app (iOS/Android), with all versions having the same look and feel, resulting in an intuitive interface and consistent user experience. Most importantly, users can mine much more information than they ever had before. Information is power, and end users are empowered to up their game by seeing the interaction between all phases of requisition, manufacturing, quality assurance, delivery, placement, and the QC cycle.
Of course, the high-pressure atmosphere of construction projects also creates temptations to cut corners. This takes us back to Plato: “Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.” By making real-time operations more visible to all, binni holds participants accountable, discouraging them from taking shortcuts that compromise quality or safety lest they be found out.
For the last word, Plato remarked, “Better to complete a small task well, than to do much imperfectly.” But how can this be with the real-time crush to get “much” done? Through data transparency, the platform fosters more informed teams that can perform the effervescent multitude of small tasks with precision. Reach out to Jason Scofi at [email protected] to learn more about how he is leveraging binni to enable broader, more impactful progress.
Craig Yeack has held leadership positions with both construction materials producers and software providers. He is co-founder of BCMI Corp. (the Bulk Construction Materials Initiative), which is dedicated to reinventing the construction materials business with modern mobile and cloud-based tools. His Tech Talk column—named best column by the Construction Media Alliance in 2018—focuses on concise, actionable ideas to improve financial performance for ready-mix producers. He can be reached at [email protected].