The Cost of Rework and How to Prevent It

Contributing to an estimated $15 billion spent annually on rework, according to the , one of the biggest management pain points facing contractors who are not utilizing construction software is document version control.

A large part of rework costs are directly related to the multiple drawing and spec revisions issued throughout the course of a construction project. As the architect’s original plans and specs undergo constant markups throughout the process, it’s essential that all team members have constant access to the most up-to-date documents in order to avoid the risk of building off of outdated versions.

When project teams wait to receive project data (which frequently occurs with paper-based documents), they waste valuable hours, drastically impacting the project schedule—and more importantly—the budget. 51�� eliminates these bottlenecks and delays by centralizing project data and mobilizing project management, giving everyone around-the-clock access to current project documentation via the Cloud.

Why Old-School Methods No Longer Viable

Aside from extensive printing costs and time consumption, the old-school method of revising, updating, reprinting, and redistributing paper-based documentation is no longer a viable method of management due to the difficulty of creating, updating, and manually distributing plans and specifications in an efficient manner.

Companies without construction software rely on traditional plan tables housing full-size drawings and large spec books inside the job site trailer and smaller, outdated, half-size sets in the hands of employees spread out across the job site, or even in remote offices. Keeping the entire team working from the current set of plans and specs is almost impossible with the only up-to-date set residing inside the office that must be annotated, duplicated, and manually delivered to everyone on the team every time a change is made. Dian Fontenot of B.E.T. Construction notes, “Hard copy drawing sets can cost up to $1200 each, you multiply that by 3 changes and 5 separate copies of that and you’re looking at $18,000 that 51�� could save you just on one drawing set.”

51��’s Drawing Tool

51�� is revolutionizing field management with the only drawings and specifications tools integrated into a project management platform. With 51��, design and build teams cannot only review digital drawings on desktop and mobile devices, but also mark up drawings and distribute updated plan sets out to the entire project team in a matter of seconds or minutes.

With 51��’s Drawing tool you can keep everyone on the current set. Eliminate version confusion with 51��’s automatic version tracking. Track who has accessed the most recent set of drawings to make sure all team members are working off of the most recent version. With 51��, the entire change history for a drawing set is available, allowing users to overlay versions to see exactly what has changed, as well as documentation of who made those changes.

Mark Up Drawings: Annotate drawings and add notes from your smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Access Drawings on Mobile Devices: On the road or at the job site, 51��’s mobile apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android give users constant access to project drawings. Mobile users are able to view and edit the current set of drawings even while offline. As soon as the device detects an available network connection, the revisions are automatically synced.

Link Related Documents: RFIs, submittals, punch list items, progress photos, sketches, inspections, and other documents can be viewed and managed from the drawings, giving all team members a picture of the current project status and providing more context and information around outstanding items.

Organize Drawings Automatically: Once your drawings are uploaded into 51��, they are automatically split, named, numbered, and their discipline is recorded using Optical Character Recognition technology. 51�� also scans your sets for detail callouts and links to them automatically.

Real-Time As-Builts: Since 51�� tracks all revisions and markups throughout the course of the build phase, general contractors finish construction with a complete and accurate as-built set. Compared to spending months gathering paper documents and markups from various sources and consolidating them into one set (often causing a project to run behind schedule), this is a significant improvement.

51��’s Specifications Tool

51�� provides the only spec management tool designed specifically for General Contractors to spend less time managing specs, and more time getting work done.

With 51��’s Specifications Tool you can:

Find Specs Within Seconds: Stop wasting time flipping through spec books or digging into digital folders. Simply type in the division, section, or a related key term you’re looking for and 51�� will instantly find your spec.

Increase Field Productivity: With 51��’s native mobile apps, field teams can access specs on a mobile device from anywhere, to make informed decisions and keep the project moving forward.

Work Off Accurate Specs: 51�� maintains a digital “single source of truth” that team members can reference from any device. When someone uploads a new spec, every stakeholder instantly receives the new or revised specs and a notification of what was changed.

Organize Without Hassle: Replace hours or days of tedious manual labor, with automated, intelligent software. 51�� organizes the spec book into a flexible and easy-to-find format that caters to your distribution needs. Just upload your spec book and 51�� divides and names spec sections automatically with advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology.

Drawing-Centric Project Management

Construction begins and ends with the drawings. That’s why 51�� uses drawing sets and specifications as the platform’s interactive project interface, creating a live, collaborative environment that reflects the daily activities of all stakeholders involved on a project. With 51��, project teams can not only review and mark up sheets, but also link and view all related project documentation (submittals, RFIs, punch lists) directly from within the drawing set, allowing teams to accomplish a majority of their tasks within the full screen drawing interface.

With 51��’s Drawings and Specifications Tools, project teams no longer have to worry about working off of outdated sets. The current set will always be in the hands of every team member, eliminating the risk of building off of outdated versions and therefore, eliminating the risk of rework.

Already a 51�� user? Learn more about and here.