Soil-Build (Pte.) Ltd. is a renowned Singapore-based contractor firm. They undertake futuristic projects that are backed by environmental benefits and have sleek building structures. Verticus, a high-end residential project, is one of their reputable projects where VisiLean was deployed. It is a freehold condo project situated on the fringe of the city. This project was destined to offer supreme connectivity to future residents for all their basic amenities.
Insides of Verticus Soil-Build Project-
Verticus project is situated in the neighbourhood of Balestier and contains 28 levels hosting a series of 1, 2, 2+1, and 3-bedroom apartments amidst beauty and serenity. The enormous magnitude of the project was further divided into 3 levels of multi-storey car parking.
Verticus project used the configuration of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA). This enabled prefabricated production assembly in a controlled environment, backed by safety and quality. Its execution required the adoption of an Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD) approach to keep the communication between off and on sites stations in a loop with the relevant stakeholders. This is when VisiLean as a digital collaborative tool came into the picture.
An Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD) Platform- VisiLean
VisiLean is a Lean-BIM integrated construction management solution. As a cloud-based tool, it’s capable of incorporating production management and control in a single space. When implemented on the Verticus, the workflow was tailored to SoilBuild’s needs. This helped in tracking the progress of the project accurately. Moreover, digitalised documentation eliminated the need for paper-based reels.
Why VisiLean?
VisiLean is the sole software that can link tasks from the main contractor’s master project schedule with the subcontractor’s detailed weekly and look-ahead plans. Furthermore, this integrated schedule can then be linked to the BIM (Building Information Modeling) model for accurate visualisation of the works and progress. Such detailed information can be swiftly reviewed by all project stakeholders, allowing everyone to be on the same page in real time.
How did VisiLean work for the team?
To ensure SoilBuild’s requirements are met, VisiLean was able to tailor the solution to include multiple baselines for effective control purposes. This allowed them to effectively map the key changes in scope and design while allowing the teams to develop realistic plans for the work to be executed on the ground.
Having baselines at every stage was useful in tracking collaborative planning to the master schedule simultaneously. It would pop up any variances in the project on a real-time basis for its addressal.
The mobile application, VisiLean LiveSite, was accessible to the precast/ PBU fabricators and the onsite teams. With the fabricators on board, they would update their task progress immediately on its completion. Such updates would ensure clarity amongst the entire supply chain to ensure production, delivery, and installation were in sync at all times. This allowed SoilBuild to ensure flow and minimise waste in each step of the process.
Summary of challenges that VisiLean addressed-
| Process | Traditional Approach | The VisiLean Approach |
| Planning & Tracking | The Master schedule failed to track all the on-site updates effectively – the lack of planning input always meant looking back at the progress. | No sooner was the Master schedule imported into Visilean than subcontractors, fabricators and suppliers could visualise their work and prioritise it. Providing planning input to the consolidated programme on the same platform allowed all stakeholders to be on the same page at all times. |
| Weekly Meetings | A central platform to track the weekly updates of the contractors, subcontractors and fabricators was missing. | VisiLean as a central platform helped the project managers and sub-contractors to review, update and monitor the status of the tasks in real-time to learn from roadblocks and variances. |
| Communication | WhatsApp/SMS was a central channel for onsite and offsite communication. This led to a loss of information in between and created traceability and responsibility issues for management. | With VisiLean, each task was specifically assigned to the subcontractors and fabricators who reported real-time updates on it. This allowed for clear ownership as well as traceability of all actions revolving around the job done. |
| Manual Updates | All updates from the ground would be collected and recorded manually in spreadsheets and then in schedules, which led to isolation of the two sources. It was immensely time-consuming and difficult to track. | VisiLean’s LiveSite app helped users to deliver live updates from site with photos, notes, and also assign constraints that hindered the progress of work. All of this data would be directly connected to the programme, hence replacing the need to recreate these manually. |
| BIM Implementation | To maximise BIM-use for the project, the Digital Engineer would update the project status in the schedule and then link it to the latest model version to derive a 4D simulation on a separate platform. Although this 4D BIM model would show planned vs actual status, it was always a snapshot in time contained significant lag from the status of works onsite. | The project teams could review onsite live progress through the integrated BIM setup within VisiLean. With a direct connection to the schedule which was fed with live updates from site, the 4D visualisation offered by VisiLean was live at any given time the team wished to review the status of works. This allowed the team to skip creating simulations, and rather focus on reviewing the project progress effectively. |
VisiLean’s demonstrated Achievement-
The project team had clarity about the exact work to be done and by whom. VisiLean led to digital task assignments which then allowed for real-time status updates from the ground. The teams were immediately alerted if certain tasks were left unchecked or undelivered. A separate constraints log would raise onsite issues pertaining to tasks, track, monitor, and update it as well as help in assigning it to the respective individual for its resolution.
VisiLean as an agile Lean and BIM-integrated cloud-based platform enhanced accuracy in the planning and monitoring of the SoilBuild Verticus project. Through a live 4D sequencing and scheduling setup, planned vs actual progress was reviewed with accuracy through a BIM-integrated visualisation. It improved the performance of the project via continuous review of variances and issues.
The project teams also witnessed a drastic change in the PPC. The Percent Planned Complete took a steep jump from 38% to 63% within the first week of using VisiLean. In a timeframe of six months, the PPC had jumped to 86% followed by regular reviews by main contractors, fabricators, suppliers, and sub-contractors to be more collaborative in their production and task delivery.
Let’s enable your project teams to make more data-driven decisions in their production planning. Book a demo with our technical team to unlock the potential of VisiLean for your project.
