The construction labor shortage has become a more significant issue for the construction industry with each passing year. By the end of December 2018, the construction industry’s unemployment rate rose to 5.1 percent compared to 3.9 percent in November, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). While this problem has required the field to search for solutions — such as better construction management software — it has also left the industry reeling for answers. Why aren’t more millennials or Generation Z pursuing careers in construction such as becoming a specialty contractor or general contractor?

One reason is most certainly due to the stigma attached to construction trade schools. The increased pressure to pursue a bachelor’s or even master’s degree has made institutional paths the norm for young professionals, and the myths associated with construction trade schools have decreased attendance.

Here are three myths often linked to trade schools — especially trade schools for construction management — and a few reasons why they are not correct.

1. “Trade schools won’t get you hired”

The goal of any certificate, license, or degree is to secure a job at the end of the process, preferably one that will launch you into your desired career field. One myth attached to construction trade school certificates is that they do not lead to many job offers. However, this is especially untrue for those attending trade school to learn a skill associated with the construction industry.

According to BLS data, the unemployment rate for the construction industry (private wage and salary workers) in November 2018 was 3.9 percent, close to the national average of 3.7 percent (the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 50 years). The financial crisis of 2007 increased unemployment in construction and many workers did not return as the economy slowly made its way back.

However, many of those who continued working in construction now anticipate leaving the industry. In fact, more than 40 percent of construction workers are fast approaching their retirement. This is emphasized in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover report, which shows there were 278,000 construction job openings in September 2018 compared to 179,000 in September 2017 — more than 55 percent increase year over year.

Therefore, while the construction industry’s unemployment is slightly higher than the national average, this likely will not be the case for much longer. The labor shortage in construction is already widely reported, and the need to fill those spots will only become direr. Increased attendance to trade school for construction management will train a new group of workers to fill these much-needed spots, and it will do so with a generation known for being technologically savvy.

2. “Financial security can only be achieved with a college degree”

Perhaps the most popular myth is that trade schools do not pay off. Yes, the end goal of any education is to secure a good job and a comfortable wage. But this can certainly be achieved for a more reasonable price at a trade school for construction management.

According to the BLS Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers report, for the third quarter of 2018, the median weekly earnings for United States workers were $887 — or $46,100 annually. Comparatively, the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) released its 2018 Construction Craft Salary Survey Results showing that general contractors can earn as much as $92,523 yearly - almost double the nation’s median. The survey also showed that specialty contractors can make as much as $71,067 yearly.

In contrast, new college graduates will make an average of $50,400 annually, according to a study by consulting firm Korn Ferry which analyzed 310,000 entry-level positions from nearly 1,000 organizations across the U.S. In addition to that starting salary, there’s something else college students often receive when they graduate — significant student loan debt.

According to Student Loan Hero, the average student loan debt for a college graduate in 2017 was $39,400 — almost 80 percent of their starting salary. The organization also estimates that the average debt for obtaining a Master of Education is $50,900 and $58,500 for a Master of Arts!

3. “Trade jobs will soon be replaced with robots”

Who wants to spend time and money training for a career that might not exist in a few years? It is not a secret that Silicon Valley’s attempt to “disrupt” industries with automation has reduced employment in some fields. However, the construction industry is a complex and dynamic environment that’s much harder to automate than, for example, manufacturing and is avoiding this trend using construction management software such as Fieldwire, which aims to empower blue collar workers instead of replacing them. As Brad Bartholomew, co-owner of Bartholomew Heating and Cooling, said: “Skilled trades are very important, well paying, very well-respected jobs that can’t be moved out of the country or replaced by technology. These are jobs that are going to exist; that need to exist. We need this kind of work.”

Construction management software targeting the construction industry is helping workers — replacing older methods of communication to improve productivity and reduce busywork. Using software to automate redundant tasks enables craftspeople to focus on meaningful work and do that work for longer periods of time. Allowing robots — no fearing them — to perform physically demanding construction tasks could extend a workers career and attract more technically savvy people to the industry, especially those already attending a trade school for construction management.

What is a punch list? A punch list (also called a snag list, deficiency list, or punch out list), according to the online Business Dictionary, is “a document listing work that does not conform to contract specifications, usually attached to a certificate of substantial completion.” Put simply, it is a list of to-do’s that need to be completed before a project can be considered finished.

Now that we’ve covered the punch list definition, it’s perhaps more important to understand how they’re used. Punch lists are commonly tackled towards the end of a project when deadlines and tight and workers are exhausted. Which, in turn, increases error and prolongs project turnover. Answering the question, “what is a punch list?” isn’t quite so simple, as there are multiple types of punch lists, and debate over which is the most effective. One punch list best practice is the ‘rolling punch list;’ a real-time log of punch list items that develops as deficiencies arise. According to Michael Clippinger, the National Director of Quality at JE Dunn, an ENR Contractor of the Year, “a rolling punch list is the most common approach toward achieving the ultimate zero-punch list goal.” A zero punch list indicates that there is no outstanding punch list work at the time of project completion. For this to occur, effective planning, project management, and transparent communication is required.

No matter whether you’re working from a rolling punch list or working towards a zero punch list goal, everyone — from the project owner to the various subcontractors — must understand their role and responsibilities in the punch list process. There are some typical punch list items, but there is no ‘general punch list best practice playbook’ for everyone to follow, but rather a set of punch list best practices for each unique team, that are briefly outlined below.

1. General Contractor: Create punch list items from the jobsite

When the general contractor starts a project, they should also start a punch list. It can become like a punch list checklist. Anytime they walk through a site and notice a defect, it should be documented immediately for future discussion with the owner and/or specialty contractors. Instead of waiting until the end of a project to communicate punch list items, the general contractor should produce punch list reports that are automatically sent to each specialty contractor on a given day, week, or month. Construction punch list software like Fieldwire makes the construction punch list process easy. From any device in the field, a general contractor can annotate site issues on the fly to create a project punch list and tag specific trades. They can generate a trade-specific punch list report or construction daily report in seconds and send it to each specialty contractor in just a few clicks. Repeating this process regularly will help general contractors reach project close out faster because the more punchlist items they tackle now, the less there is to do later.

For the punch list process to be effective, there must be clear and consistent communication between the general contractor, specialty contractors, and owner. It is the general contractor’s duty to communicate punch list progress to the owner and communicate punch list items with specialty contractors. General contractors should implement construction punch list software that allows them to generate punch lists on the fly for specialty contractors to see in real-time. This process is far more efficient than having to manually take notes during site walkthroughs, type them up, and attach them to an email for subcontractors back in the office.

2. Specialty Contractor: Prioritize what needs to be done

The specialty contractor must resolve punch list items on a construction punch list. It is their job to get in and do the actual work in an efficient manner to streamline project close out. Specialty contractors must ensure that the work they do complies with drawing specifications set by the architect or design team to avoid unnecessary rework or conflict. For this reason, subcontractors must clearly understand what to do — when, where, and why — to stay within contract scope and budget. In one study, Bent Flyvbjerg, an expert in project management at Oxford’s business school, said: “It is estimated that nine out of ten construction mega-projects run over budget.”

Additionally, a study by the Navigant Construction Forum states “average rework on projects can cost between 7.3% and 10.9% of total construction cost (when both direct and indirect costs are included) and can cause an increase in the schedule (project delay) of approximately 9.8% of the planned project time.” One of the major causes of rework in construction, according to Jim Rogers, is workers in the field not having the information they need to resolve a contractor punch list correctly the first time. He said: “Plan changes, updates, clarifications, and submittals that occur throughout the building phase of a project create a constant challenge in terms of ensuring that the latest information gets in the hands of the people that need it in a timely manner.” For subcontractors to have access to the information they need at all times, construction punch list software like Fieldwire should be used to bring jobsite data and teams together in one place. A punch list for construction projects doesn’t have to be a hassle.

For example, when a punch list item is assigned to a specialty contractor in the field, he or she will be notified in real-time. From a smartphone or tablet, they can open the punch list item on the Fieldwire app, see the exact location of it on a plan, the man-hours required, and a due date. As they work to resolve the punch list item, the subcontractor can send messages, photos, and videos to the general contractor using the Fieldwire app to communicate progress. This way, punch list items are resolved efficiently, everyone remains on the same page, and there is no need for back-and-forth emails between the various parties to communicate change.

3. Owner: Use the punch process to track progress

The construction project owner should be present for site walkthroughs at various stages of a project — not just at the end — so they’re aware of construction pace and progress. However, a best practice for punch is to use punch list software that fosters transparent communication should make owners feel like they know site conditions before even entering it. It is an owner-specific best practice to ask the general contractor a list of questions — such as this example punch list from Succeed with Contractors — during site walkthroughs that may spark additional punch list items. A few example punch list questions from the owner include: ‘Does every outlet work properly?’ or ‘Is there adequate paint coverage?’ If the answer is no, the general contractor will need to create a new punch list item(s) for trade contractors to address.

The importance of communication between the project owner and various stakeholders was emphasized in a BSI report which said:

At the completion of a project, it is the owner who will sign off on a construction punch list and ensure all punch list items are resolved. Setting up permission levels in construction punch list software that gives the owner (and only the owner) the right to verify punch list items will help the project progress in a way that meets their demands, contract specifications, and original plans.

4. Architect: Verify that punch list items match final drawings

From project start to project finish, it is the architects, designers, and engineers duty to ensure all construction meets the approved, specified drawings and everything will work as intended. They must be included in final site walkthroughs to sign-off on punchlist items and confirm that the final product matches the original drawings. If the architect/designer/engineer notices something that’s ‘not to spec’ and not listed as a punch list item, he or she needs to consult with the owner to see if they had requested a change that had not been documented.

By continually checking in with the owner to align on expectations, the final walkthrough should be painless and very minor in nature. Engineering News writes:

Creating and following a set of punch list best practices is critical for attaining zero punch-list status and finishing construction projects on-time. Punch list best practices — be it those outlined above or something you created on your own — also help with accurate walkthroughs, effortless reporting, and faster close out.

Other best practices for punch lists on a jobsite

Besides the role each group we covered plays in closing out a project, there are several other major use cases of punch lists on a jobsite. They include daily box meetings where the entire project team reviews what work they need to do that day, and universal quality control to maintain a common standard across the entire project. No one should be asking “what is a punch list?” Instead, the entire team should be on the same page, and clear as to their responsibilities and expectations.

Now that we know exactly what a punch list is, we can understand its importance and how it can become overwhelming on a big project. Luckily, Fieldwire’s punch list app adds both speed and structure to your closeout process as part of our field management platform.

What is prefab construction? Look around your house or office. How many items came from a box? Maybe your desk, a couple of chairs, or that rickety stool no one can sit on.

Now, look where you’re standing. Have you ever wondered about the building you’re in, and whether it, too, came out of a box?

Also known as offsite construction, prefabricated (or prefab) construction is the practice of assembling parts of a structure in a manufacturing site, and transporting them to a different location. One prefab construction method is the idea of assembling building structures like furniture, also known as kit-of-parts construction. By using this prefab construction technique, building elements no longer need special on-site processing or handling; reducing the installation time, materials wasted, and risks of accidents. In the ever-evolving world of sustainable construction, prefabrication is helping to save time, waste, and the environment.

The IKEA-ization of buildings and parts is generating hype in the industry; with more and more owners adopting prefabricated construction methods. From McDonald’s shopfronts to residential bathrooms, prefab structures are popping up everywhere — including in Arizona, where six chicken aviaries were assembled by Texan construction company, Ag Installers. How did they do it? Here are four ways Ag Installers use Fieldwire’s construction management software for successful prefab projects:

1. Simple inventory management

Ag installers, based in Texas, is a construction company specializing in the installment of cage-free aviary systems. In 2015, they were contracted to do the aviary install work on the Lone Cactus Egg Farm in Bouse, Arizona. The owner, Rose Acre Farms (the second largest egg producer in the U.S.) wanted six barns built onsite to house a total of 2.4 million hens. The aviary system, however, which sits inside of the barn, was constructed in Italy and sent to Bouse in containers.

A total of 12 million partially prefabricated construction materials arrived onsite for Ag Installers to assemble; a process that could take double the amount of time if it weren’t partly-constructed offsite. In fact, prefab buildings go up 30% - 50% faster than traditional construction buildings, taking a project from conception to completion quickly and easily — reaching that coveted return on investment fast. With high-quality inventory management, prefab construction is almost as simple as building a bed frame — just with a few more parts.

2. Streamlined communication with the manufacturer

In prefab construction, inventory is everything. When dealing with such a high volume of inventory, it’s important to have a system in place that helps you manage everything — from scheduling to reporting — seamlessly. Hence why Ag Installers implemented Fieldwire — to help them track millions of parts and communicate with the manufacturer in China. Using Fieldwire, the Ag Installers team communicated in real-time and annotated all details about missing parts in one place. With so much inventory to keep track of across the site, a new employee was hired to solely track missing parts using Fieldwire’s construction task management app.

President of Ag Installers, Enrique Mendez, said having a platform which enables clear and transparent communication is critical for the success of prefab construction projects. He said: “When we can’t find a part we’re looking for, it gets logged as a Fieldwire task and added to the ‘missing parts’ category. The part number, a description, pictures, location, and the quantity we’re missing is also added. We assign the task to the manufacturer and leave it as ‘open’ until an order is placed. Then we ‘verify’ the task to communicate it has been resolved,” said Mendez.

This, combined with the productivity gains associated with prefab construction methods, helps Ag Installers stay on schedule and budget. Waste is reduced because various parts of the aviary are manufactured to fit according to plan, and productivity increases with Fieldwire onsite. In fact, having the ability to track and report missing parts from any device in the field saves Ag Installers eight hours every week on their prefab projects.

3. Efficient and accurate site reporting

Fieldwire is used to communicate hundreds of missing parts in a detailed report to the general contractor and manufacturer. According to Greg Schonefeld, the CEO of Ag Installers, these weekly reports are 15-20 pages long but easily generated using Fieldwire. He says being able to forward a report rather than bombard a manufacturer with emails and spreadsheets every day is strengthening the relationship between all parties involved and saving everyone time and money onsite.

4. Detailed documentation to avoid disputes

Working with individuals on prefab construction projects who are located in a different part of the world can become quite challenging without the right tools in place. If site issues or observations are not documented clearly, resolving disputes can become quite complicated, and in the words of Schonefeld, “a case of he said she said.”

Having all missing parts documented and accounted for in Fieldwire saved Ag Installers $82,000 on a single issue on one prefab project! Schonefeld said: “One of our customers sent us a bill and said we owed them $90,000 in damages and lost parts. We spent about two hours searching for information in Fieldwire and realized they had charged us $82,000 more than what we actually owed them.” Without Fieldwire as their source of truth, Ag Installers could have lost that money and damaged their reputation in the industry. As they put it themselves:

Check out our customer story on Ag Installers to learn more about the value in using construction management software for prefabricated construction projects. Or request a demo of Fieldwire today!

Change orders — for good or for bad — are in integral part of construction. While you can’t prevent or control change work, you can control how much time change orders set you back. With change order management software like Fieldwire, the headache of updating a drawing or altering the scope of a contract is almost entirely removed. But before we dive deeper into that, let’s first explore the concept of a change order.

A change order, by definition, is “a written order by a project owner directing the contractor to change the contract amount, requirements, or schedule.” If (and when) work is added or removed from the original scope of a contract, a change order must be submitted to reflect that update.

Frustration caused by construction change orders is a common occurrence in this line of work — because as we all know change means time, and time is money. When change leads to project cost and schedule overruns — often caused by initial planning oversights, administrative inefficiencies, and human error — expensive rework is required and time and money is wasted. Leveraging change order management software not only reduces quantifiable waste on projects, but ensures all change orders are handled effectively on projects.

Fieldwire for effective change order management

Fieldwire has you covered when it comes to documenting your project’s particulars, including any unforeseen circumstances and change orders. Change orders, as you know, require records to legally determine the scope of work. With Fieldwire’s construction management platform, you can keep track of every detail - big or small - using Fieldwire tasks, which are used for documenting site observations and can include photos, forms, and files such as cut sheets, RFIs, submittals, or product data sheets. When the time comes to submit an official change order form, Fieldwire lets you instantly generate a fully-timestamped PDF construction daily report (a chronological history of all relevant tasks) to further justify contract changes.

Since construction change orders can often be contentious, it’s definitely a benefit to have a clear log of work, and Fieldwire makes that possible with minimal effort.

Adapting to change to prevent delay

Murphy’s Law, that “whatever can go wrong will go wrong,” likes to take root in a lot of construction projects. Whatever the cause may be, field teams must be properly equipped to efficiently adapt to change — be it a delay in getting approval to proceed with work, unstable soil conditions, or complications with an unmarked utility on-site. You have to be able to quickly respond to change for projects to progress without major delay. Fieldwire’s construction management app enables you to do so with push notifications that automatically alert jobsite teams of project updates, ensuring everyone is always aware of change orders as soon they arise. Having a notification system that delivers that knowledge to the people doing the actual work will protect your project from costly delays.

Fast-tracking construction change orders

With any ongoing project, there’s the risk of change orders coming in late; affecting project budgets and making people skeptical about the details. For example, the project manager is assembling the construction change order form, but it was the superintendent who dealt with the issue onsite, so some important details might slip through the cracks. There are a number of tricky obstacles in construction change order management; maintaining honest, consistent, and compliant processes just to name a few. Fieldwire’s construction management platform and app keeps a record of all project updates, comments, photos, and attachments — so the details you’re looking for stay organized together.

Transferring data between teammates becomes instantaneous and reliable, and change order information is readily accessible. Additionally, when a change order template is planned before fieldwork starts, you can still organize all of the related documents in Fieldwire and access them at any time. Whether it’s an engineering change order, contractor change order, or any level of alteration along the way, you can manage the entire process — consistently — with Fieldwire

Remember, a change order in construction is almost inevitable, so make sure you and your team are always prepared for one (or several) at any time. When road bumps emerge and prevailing winds change on you, there’s no longer any reason to suffer delays. Fieldwire is specifically designed for efficient data sharing and cataloging details — so you’ll never misplace or lose sight of change orders again.

Editor’s note: Fieldwire is proud to feature construction expert Jim Rogers on our blog. Jim has decades of experience in construction management and safety, and is an instructor for LinkedIn Learning — an online library of video courses taught by industry experts from across the globe. LinkedIn Learning is a great source for construction management education and content, and it’s included if you have a LinkedIn Premium account.

Jim enjoyed learning about Fieldwire so much that he created an online course on how to use Fieldwire to manage construction drawings and processes, that’s free for everyone during the month of December. He then created this blog post for our readers who are eager to learn more about QA/QC processes.

“Quality Assurance” and “Quality Control” are often times mistakenly used as interchangeable terms when discussing the broad issue of quality in construction; however, these two terms actually describe very different activities. Although both work towards the delivery of a final product that meets the project’s specifications and customer’s expectations, they arrive at the outcome in two very different ways.

Quality Assurance (QA), refers to the implementation of proactive processes that aim to prevent defects. Quality Control (QC) simply refers to the process of inspecting the product to identify and correct defects. As a tool, QC can be thought of as a corrective tool, typically carried out by a specific group of individuals on a job site; the inspectors and project engineers who walk and document items that need corrective action. QA is a management tool that can incorporate everyone on the team through planned and systematic activities that aim to prevent defects before they occur.

In construction, we have QC down. We have building inspectors, third-party inspectors, testing labs, and an army of people walking the job site to identify any required corrective action, which may take the form of a dreaded punch list that is often generated in the final stages of a project as the pace becomes frenzied and we all work to finish, fix, and ultimately, hand over to operations and maintenance.

I think we are good at QC in construction. We tend to find our problems early and get them fixed so the client is happy and satisfied with the project. The real problem in construction is not that we hand over defective projects, it’s that before handoff we find so much that needs to be fixed! This is the rework problem that we see cited so often in the media and in the numerous studies out there that identify rework as a big issue in construction, and a major contributor to our industry’s productivity problem.

If there is any doubt, there are many studies out there that back this statement. Many reports, including this PDF from XL Catlin, put the total cost of construction at about five percent of total construction costs. One widely cited study by the Navigant Construction Forum states:

“Average rework on projects can cost between 7.25% and 10.89% of total construction cost (when both direct and indirect costs are included) and can cause an increase in the schedule (project delay) of approximately 9.8% of the planned project time.”

Where the goal of QC is to find any defects so they can be corrected before owner handoff, the goal of QA is to prevent these defects in the first place. Yes, we do QA in construction. We certainly do it in the supply chain at the materials level where quality assurance programs are in place to ensure that the materials and components we use in the course of building a project are free from defects. In general, though, we do not do as good a job focusing on QA as we do focusing on QC, and that’s partly because many people in the industry don’t understand the difference.

If the goal of QA is to prevent problems in the first place, then one of the major objectives of a construction quality assurance program is to eliminate the rework that is so prevalent in the industry. One of the major causes of rework in construction is workers in the field not having the information they need to do the job correctly the first time. Plan changes, updates, clarifications, and submittals that occur throughout the building phase of a project create a constant challenge in terms of ensuring that the latest information gets in the hands of the people that need it in a timely manner. The conditions that we are presented with simply overtax our currently used processes. These conditions are not going to change, so it’s time to look at changing the processes used to manage them.

Many of the processes in the AEC industry are outdated, manual, and paper-based processes. We need to rethink many of these processes, and in many cases, we need to ditch the old ways altogether in favor of new, digital workflows that are enabled by the tools and technology that is now available.

Anytime I discuss digital workflows, I point to the RFI process. The Request for Information, or RFI, process on most construction projects is the ongoing, often a daily routine of asking a question and getting an answer about something on the construction drawings. It is an important process. So much so that we have a very formal method of asking these questions using an RFI Form that, for every question, captures who is asking, exactly when they asked, who reviewed it, and of course, the form that documents the official answer.

It’s good stuff, it’s necessary, but it doesn’t work. The time it takes from asking a question, even a basic one, to the time it takes to get an answer, is staggering. As that process unfolds, the only person that really knows about the pending question is the person that asked it. Even worse, when the question does finally get answered, the only person who really sees the answer in a timely fashion is, again, the person who asked it. Yes, the general contractor will typically send copies of the answered RFI to all the trades on the job, but this is ineffective at best. After all, if I didn’t have the same question in the first place, then what interest is it to me and my work? And who has time to sort through all those Q&A’s as they come into the office to figure out what pertains to us? None of this even begins to address how this information actually makes it into the hands of the crew in the field that are actually doing the work.

So, things get built wrong, we rely on the QC process to find those things, and then we fix them. That’s why that process and those RFI forms are so important. Because now we have to go back and figure out who is paying for the rework, and we need the data captured on those forms, so blame can be properly placed. This process needs to go away! There is no reason for it anymore, other than it has become so ingrained into the way we build that it’s tough to let go.

Digitizing this paper process is not much help either. Instead, we need to leverage the digital tools that we have available right now to create an entirely new digital workflow. One that is simple and effective. One that looks something like this:

Paper drawings in the field are completely replaced by digital drawings. Questions that arise are easily asked directly on the digital drawing that is being shared and viewed by everyone. Now everyone, from the field to the office, from the construction team to the design team, can see a question has been asked. The question is assigned to the appropriate party who provides the answer. Not in a letter or an email, but directly on the digital drawing. Now everyone sees the question, and the answer, and they are forced to see it right on the construction drawing that they’re referencing in the field.

The implications and potential benefits are staggering. Delivery of information is instant and automatic. Questions and answers live directly on the drawings; the set of instructions being referenced by everyone. Field crews may see answers to questions that their office counterparts didn’t even know to ask. A tradesperson may see an answer to a question that is entirely different from the way they may have interpreted it. People stop asking the same question over and over because they can see the question has been asked. And in the field, they can see a pending question that may affect the way they are about to build before they build it wrong.

This is one simple example. There are many more. Adopting entirely new digital workflows with an eye towards quality assurance and elimination of rework is vital to our industry if we are going to improve construction’s much-discussed productivity problem.

If you want to learn more about how Fieldwire can help with the quality assurance process, you can take my course on LinkedIn Learning or just signup for a free Fieldwire account today.