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Construction Progress Monitoring: Saving Time & Money with FEDS

January 14, 2021

construction progress monitoring

The most common challenges in construction revolve around saving time and money while simultaneously improving the safety of employees. Keeping rework costs to a minimum through construction progress monitoring is an important aspect of any job. However, it becomes even more significant when one recognises that rework increases total construction costs by 5% on average. Identifying and dealing with the various hazards posed on construction sites is another ongoing process due to the site’s ever-changing nature. While it is typically a time-consuming and labour-intensive task, this need not be the case, as we will address later in this article. It is no secret that time is money, and labour costs only increase with time.

Identifying and dealing with the various hazards posed on construction sites is another ongoing process due to the site’s ever-changing nature. While it is typically a time-consuming and labour-intensive task, this need not be the case — as we will address later in this article.It is no secret that time is money, and labour costs only increase with time.

Keeping in mind the time that goes into traditional versus drone construction progress monitoring, we will now look at how drones are making it possible to save time spent on previously labour-intensive tasks; and how they are therefore saving money on construction projects.

Monitoring Construction Progression with Drones

Hours can be saved during construction by actively monitoring progression at a faster pace while providing the opportunity to identify hazards and issues — on a daily basis if required — before they result in rework or safety incidents and accidents.

Due to their small size and powerful payloads, far more progress can be made via drone in a far shorter period of time when compared to manual surveying using a person on the ground or helicopter, as is the traditional way; not to mention the costs that are eliminated by using a drone over manual monitoring costs, or helicopter and photographer hire. FEDS constantly improve their fleet; however the current favourite for speed and accuracy is their fixed wing drones, which outcompete the older multi-rotor drones quite significantly.

On average, clients using FEDS drone services for construction progress monitoring have seen a 25% increase in reporting turnaround; a 32% decrease in snag list completion times and 25% reduction in rework costs; saving 5 hours of unnecessary meetings per week. As time is such a valuable commodity, the very fact that overlays can quickly and effectively gather this data with the tap of a button is a game-changer for construction companies.

Achieving Construction Deadlines

In a report published by KPMG, only 25% of projects using traditional progress monitoring techniques were found to have completed within 10% of the original deadline, over the past three years. This was certainly not the case for Sweihan’s solar plant; the largest single-site solar farm in the world. Drones monitored construction progress, surveyed, mapped and provided aerial filming at the plant as it was constructed. The gathered data and provided deliverables resulted in successful completion three months ahead of schedule, without any rework requirements, for the largest solar panel farm in the world.

With such a large scale project, there was huge potential for costly mistakes to occur and for deadlines to be exceeded; however the drone monitoring allowed these to be addressed before costly and time-consuming rework needed to occur. Keith Symmers, the Sweihan Project Director of Sterling and Wilson Middle East, said: “FEDS is the most professional and capable drone service in the region. Their team has the diligence and creativity required to generate great content in complex environments and circumstances. I highly recommend them.”

Drones Ensure Rework Costs are Eliminated

Prior to enlisting FEDS services, a road within Dubai Pearl experienced misalignment issues that resulted in rework costs. In order to correct this issue, they brought in FEDS drones to monitor the construction progression and ensure a repeat of this costly procedure would not happen again. As a result of using drones, no further rework costs were incurred as the aerial data and progress monitoring software used allowed work to continue correctly and smoothly, without further issues.

Had FEDS been a part of their project from the beginning, the construction progress monitoring drones would have flagged up costly rework issues far earlier and resulted in a more timely, more cost-effective project without rework requirements. However, this case illustrates that at whatever point FEDS are brought in, the versatile drone technology on offer will be able to cut costs and ensure projects are delivered correctly and within deadlines, without further complications.

Staying On-Schedule and Within Budget

As the above case studies will have highlighted, the time-effectiveness and accuracy of drones during construction progress monitoring benefits a multitude of projects by replacing the previously time-consuming and labour-intensive traditional monitoring, with near-real-time data analysis and reporting.

Budgets are more effectively met by reducing/eliminating rework costs and achieving set deadlines. The efficiency, speed and accuracy of data with which drones are able to capture necessary data, cannot be competed with by traditional monitoring methods. The data appears almost instantly, and the software used presents the deliverables in a way that allows data to be shared and understood across multiple disciplines.

Overall, drone technology is undeniably helping the construction industry to advance and achieve greater success at faster speeds, with the appropriate efficiency and accuracy that our modern world demands.

Overall, drone technology, including drone surveys and mapping, is undeniably helping the construction industry to advance and achieve greater success at faster speeds, with the appropriate efficiency and accuracy that our modern world demands.

If you would like your project kept on schedule and within budget, contact FEDS today.