Snag Management Case Study
In the dynamic landscape of Qatar’s construction industry, our client is recognized as one of the premier construction companies in the region. As their projects evolved in scale and intricacy, the reliance on traditional paperwork and extensive project reports became a bottleneck. They faced challenges in their snag management process due to a lack of software assistance to centralize their snag management activities. Consequently, it became difficult for the stakeholders to manage work and bring effective communication and efficiency to the team. They needed a technology solution that centralized the snag management list into a single environment to enable several collaborators and contributors to work together effectively. Challenges: During the snag management process, the client had timeline constraints on certain activities due to project schedules. Fire System checks, Electrical System inspections and Security System checks could only be scheduled only after completing Structural and Floor Quality Inspections. Delays in follow ups and closure of ongoing tasks due to limited visibility were pushing the timeline further making it harder to set dates and coordinate with subcontractors and inspection personnel for further activities. Having a limited visibility of ongoing tasks also increased workflow inefficiencies for the involved personnel. The absence of a centralized snag management list also resulted in a lack of communication and transparency with clients. The client had a wide variety of stakeholders who needed to work together closely but cross functionally. This included the project owners, project supervisors, clients, engineers, contractors, MEP, QC Engineers, etc. Tracking resources through Excel was tedious and resulted in errors and omissions of important details. The client was also unable to follow a reporting structure during the snag management activities. Maintaining a reporting structure and assigning tasks was becoming a challenge as Supervisors were unable to identify personnel to assign different types and levels of QC and Inspection issues. To address these challenges the company realized they needed help and started looking for a comprehensive snag management solution. They completed a thorough requirements analysis to identify a list of requirements the new solution would need to effectively deliver. Requirements: The client approached our team and scheduled a demo of QPunch-Smart Project Management Tool. They found QPunch as an intuitive platform simplifying snag management process, designed for general contractors, MEP and QC which was able to comprehend and visualize the large number of activities at a glance and more effectively. QPunch helped them replace their multiple tracking documents and processes with one single enterprise solution that the entire team could rely on. Users benefited from a centralized dashboard view of everything they’re working on and thus saved time spent searching through archived paperwork and past reports saved in multiple file locations. QPunch also streamlined their onboarding process, breaking it down into smaller manageable steps and providing clear instructions to guide users through each stage with an easy-to-use interface. QPunch ensured the team was working as efficiently as possible. Solution Customization to fit the requirements: While QPunch offers a comprehensive product out of the box that fits most users’ needs, large organizations with complex project management requirements can benefit from an ability to tailor the QPunch solution. QPunch offered a customizable project dashboard that allowed our client to create a tailored onboarding experience for different construction segments, simplifying the overall process. They found the ability to upload the video contents, images and documents relevant to each work item in their own tasks to be immensely helpful – these were traditionally shared via email. By centralizing the content in QPunch, it also encouraged other team members to engage with, and collaborate via, the platform more frequently. The above GIF is one of the sample project dashboard views QPunch has customized – a comprehensive view of the progress of each task, coworker’s workload, identification of bottlenecks and detailing how long they are taking to complete. We have customized the field names based on the customer requirements. Labels were replaced with Building and Category was replaced with Room No. We also provided additional fields relevant for the users such as Closed Date, Disc, Floor, Remark to better understand and distinguish among other tasks. Also, we built in an additional Actioner list named as Verified By and Concurred By to identify who is responsible to verify the task and who has the authority to take decisions on this task. We added sorting and filtering functionality based on the customized field names. The user can sort the tickets based on Target date, Priority etc. Also, the filter functionality allows the user to filter punches relating to the same Building or Room No. or specific to any contractor or user. We removed some of the features like Gantt Chart, Calendar View, Punch report, Resource dashboard as the customer found these features too overwhelming for now. Our team also renamed the overall utilization report as Overall Snag Report. With the QPunch tool the customer was able to better handle multiple projects at any one time and manage with ease people, tasks and goals to ensure that every project is successful. We made it easy to view plans, track issues and schedule tasks whether you are in the office or in the field. It helped the management to communicate in one centralized place and bring everyone onto the same page and define priorities. This was delivered with the full time support, guidance and customization provided by our highly experienced QPunch team of project consultants and developers.
Solution:
We embedded QPunch at the company in a phased approach to ensure greater understanding, acceptance and utilization. During the initial stage we helped the company to manage the project and perform quality assurance tests. Later, QPunch became a necessity to their monitoring and control efforts. QPunch also greatly helped with requirements gathering by allowing easy collaboration through embedding multiple media formats such as photos, videos and documents, adding comments, and allowing flexible ways to organize and store data.
QPunch significantly increased transparency across various areas of the snag management process contributing to a product that has truly centralized collaboration every step of the way.
We worked closely with the client to deeply understand their needs and encourage their valuable feedback, so we could customize the QPunch application by providing a simple dashboard, changing the swim lane names, customizing field names and adding additional fields relevant to their workflow.
We customized and added new project roles for the users and provided different sets of permissions for each project role. Some team members have view only access, others have restricted move access to move a punch from one swim lane to another, and not everyone has the permission to create tasks as well. This helped the customer to keep the data safe, secure and controlled.
Users can access and use their snag list from anywhere – use a laptop for full access to the application at the office, or complete the report with relevant photos on mobile/tablet from site. This ease of access helps the customer get real-time analytics & insights on snag list and general quality performance.
Finally, the customer can extract, download or print a completed snag list as a custom branded excel document from the snag report to the end user or their clients.Conclusion:
