From the Field to the Office: StructionSite

You can't be at the jobsite 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, right? But if you could be, what would it change? What if you didn't need to physically be in the jobsite but could still see everything as clearly as if you were there? And let's say you are already on site, but have a question about what's going on in another quadrant. Would you rather take the 30 minutes to walk over to the other side of the site and check on things yourself, or stay where you are and get the same information? Most people, we would assume, would rather stay where they are. That's the functionality that the developers of StructionSite software have designed in. 

StructionSite creates a 3D reconstruction of paths walked on a jobsite from a time-lapse video. Then, the computer vision and proprietary algorithms accurately map these paths to construction drawings. This creates a 360° site documentation that matches your digital floor plans. The software was already needed before the pandemic, but last year's environment which called for only critical personnel in person on a job site highlighted just how useful remote access to job sites really is. 

Ryan Companies, a $2+ billion nationwide real estate developer and construction general contractor, is one of StructionSite's enterprise partners. Following a highly successful pilot, Ryan Companies deployed StructionSite across its job sites, including the $60 million Silvergate Rancho Bernardo senior living community in San Diego. StructionSite uses SmartTrack, the first automated production tracking tool of its kind. Using either an iOS or Android application, users walk the jobsite recording a 360° video. Then, AI-powered algorithms map that to the project's drawings. SmartTrack translates the photo data into regular updates of installed work. 

Mike Ernst, VP of Insights and Innovations at Ryan Companies, describes SmartTrack as progress tracking of work that's been put up, which can apply to bricklayers laying courses on a wall, or drywallers or framers. "So if you're putting drywall up or framing up, you can essentially see how far that is gone," he says. "And you can compare that to how much drywall or framing you need to do." 

The StructionSite app organizes and stitches together jobsite photos into a database that makes them searchable by date and link locations in the drawings themselves. It is, and was, common for people to take photos on a jobsite. But if everyone's taking photos at different places and times, it is difficult and time consuming to translate all of that to actual progress. Data is stored in the cloud. Users can have access to the servers, but typically just access the website to pull down reports as needed. Users can set permissions for information sharing. "If I wanted to invite the building owner in, I could set them for view only," explains Ernst. "If I wanted to invite a sub or the GC in, I could give them more global rights. So it is up to the person who owns the software to decide what permission each individual gets."

StructionSite software offers Site Documentation (SiteDoc) services, SmartTrack, and integrations. SiteDoc features include photo and video tagging and filtering, an x-ray mode, 360° camera integration, a Navisworks BIM plugin, and a GPS fence bulk photo import. StructionSite integrates with Egnyte, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, and ShareFile for cloud storage, and NewMetrix for safety. The software's integration options allow it to be used with Navisworks, along with PlanGrid, Autodesk BIM 360, and Procore. It is workable with several 360° cameras. 

Companies like Skanska,  DPR Construction, Stiles Construction, and several others have used StructionSite and provided case studies. Skanska, based in Sweden, is the fifth largest construction company in the world. They started using 360° cameras to capture the progress of their job sites, which was a big change but also a challenge, because the images aren't helpful without some context and organization. StructionSite's filtering allowed Skanska to find the information they needed within seconds. DPR Construction, a commercial general contractor based in California, used StructionSite to document in-wall conditions before, during, and after wall closures. The project was a large life sciences research building project which was using the Takt methodology for scheduling, with different activities per Takt "area." The robust documentation with tagged photo timelines improved communication between all trades on the site as well as eliminated needless field visits. This project ended up gathering around 2,300 360° photos for a 300,000-square-foot, 9-story building. The tools proved their use for Stiles Construction in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, which used them to head off an attempt by a contractor who claimed they had installed a particular material and now would require additional charges for any changes. Using the Structionsite photos proved that  the materials were not installed, which meant the contractor needed to complete the work with no extra charges. Being able to easily verify exactly what work has been done, and when, and where are just two of the advantages to using comprehensive site documentation like this. 

Ryan Companies uses Procore’s cloud-based construction project management platform on dozens of ongoing projects. Procore works with other developers who want their applications to integrate seamlessly with the Procore platform. Procore's Embedded Experience is an interface that allows a Procore user to open other software. "For any pictures you take on StructionSite, you can both integrate them over to Procore, which is typically a group system of record," says Ernst. "Or, you could use that to identify items that need inspections, an observation, or a deficiency that needs to be corrected. You can do that directly from StructionSites and through Procore." 

Ernst says StructionSite is a good tool for transparency for all parties on a project. Vendors can know when they should arrive on a site, a mason can see that work is ready for them. "Whether it's the owner, the GC, or a sub or a vendor, you can use it to see what progresses," he says. "By looking at the pictures, they can prepare and get their schedules more appropriate or in alignment with it. Same Graphs are not great for transparency, especially with a remote supervision force like is happening in the pandemic."

StructionSite recently became the first technology provider to fully integrate with Procore’s Building Information Modeling (BIM) software. This integration with Procore BIM allows users to perform a side-by-side comparison of a model to VideoWalks or 360 Photos from StructionSite. Teams can use this to compare the actual work progression to their 3D design models. Being able to very simply tell the differences between the two can allow adjustments to be made in the moment, allowing projects to stay on track. With this integration, information is pulled directly from Procore as soon as the latest models are updated, so users will also be able to compare the most up-to-date versions. Additionally, users can share side-by-side comparisons to generate an RFI or provide information to stakeholders when there is a discrepancy. Since launching its initial product in 2017, StructionSite technology has captured more than $150 billion of construction volume. Over the past year, the company has decreased turnaround time of its 360° video processing engine by 10x while simultaneously experiencing a 4x increase in data going through its system. The company also has plans for a major expansion of SmartTrack.