With an ever increasing amount of data available to project directors and a never ending flow of problems brought to their attention, staying on top of all a projects reports is near impossible. There is much to be said for all the valuable insights that can be derived from the wave of data that has started to hit project directors desks. However, although the volume of valuable data has increased exponentially, the capacity of the human brain and the amount of mental bandwidth we have available has remained the same. Paying attention to the steady stream of data has hit a clear point of diminishing returns. There simply is no way to attend all the information at once without something else falling down the list of priorities. Do you recognise this struggle? It wouldn’t be surprising as it’s a common problem on most construction projects. So the question is, how do you make progress while tackling the ever increasing demands on your attention?
The responsibility doesn’t lie entirely on the project team to solve this problem. In fact, at Qflow, we have decided to fully embrace this problem and take a proactive approach to mitigating it. Qflow aggregates a massive amount of data on various construction projects. This amount of data is daunting to dig into and trying to derive up to date insights is an ongoing challenge. We certainly didn’t want to delegate that problem to our customers when we know that they have much more important things to focus their time and attention on. Therefore, we have engineered a warning-alert system with a threshold set against Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and regulatory metrics. This ensures that the relevant teams get only the information they need, at the exact time they need it. If there is nothing of importance to share, we don’t want to steal attention from the already busy project teams.
So, what is the primary benefit of this? From a human biology sense, we simply have a limited mental bandwidth each day. There is only so much we can pay our attention to and get the results we are looking for. When we run out of this resource, or it is overloaded with too much information to process at once, something will inevitably fail. Delegating a large chunk of the mental work to a machine will significantly improve your mental capacity, increase your ability to solve daily problems, and aid your peace of mind. Imagine that lovely feeling you have when you have put in a full week’s worth of work, taken care of all your priorities, and delegated the remainder of the work to people you trust. That sense of peace and relaxation is what you will experience regularly with a threshold alert system in place. It was obvious to us at Qflow that this was the way to go when building a data aggregation platform.
We don’t want to get you bogged down in the technology we use to make this work so we’ll keep it very brief. Basically, we use Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to collect and analyse your data. Our Machine Learning engine will detect when a piece of information is starting to move towards the thresholds of a particular metric and you will be instantly notified of the problem along with a recommended course of action. This allows you to take care of it on the spot. Once taken care of, you can once again forget about the data knowing that if anything of importance occurs, you will be notified immediately.
But wait, there is more. Keeping you updated with only the most necessary information at any given time is only part of the puzzle. All the data is stored in a log that you will have access to at any given point. Now, here is the real kicker. Since you have been sent alerts of any problems that have occurred throughout the project, presumably you have actioned these alerts once received. Therefore, you can remain confident that you have a log of accurate data for the entire project. This data can protect you and your project in any future disputes, in the event of an insurance claim, or against regulatory claims. You won’t be caught out unexpectedly with environmental non-compliance or irresponsibly sourced materials. The data will always be there to back you up and help you weather any storms that come your way. Having this level of confidence in your data provides a strong sense of ease throughout the lifetime of your project and you can happily keep working without worrying if there are any errors that have gone undetected.
Things will often happen outside of your control that have a negative impact on you. You’re probably all too familiar with this. Construction is a highly fluctuating industry. It can be infuriating at times. With Qflow in place, you take back some of that control. Even if your own team makes a mistake and you don’t notice it, Qflow will. That’s the power of machines. They never get tired, they never run out of attention, and they do exactly as they are told. Machines will never have a bad day and they will never hide anything from you. Delegate your problems to a machine and you will see significant increases in productivity and profitability, but more importantly, you will feel better and more relaxed knowing a major area of concern is being taken care of for you.
