Commissioning Software – Order from Chaos
Quality, Consequences and the Construction Industrial Complex (part 204).
The building commissioning (Cx) industry is chaos. Think about it;
- there is no industry agreed prime qualification or certification for Cx practitioners or firms,
- project Cx specifications are inconsistent, out of date and not generally enforced,
- at my last count, in the UK there are 52 Cx codes, guides and standards,
- at my last count, in the USA there are,
- 16 different Cx certifications,
- 31 Cx codes, guides and standards (not including the growing list of local municipality requirements).
In a worldwide construction industry that selects for and rewards corner cutting, low quality and non-compliance, commissioning is generally a low cost afterthought to be avoided or done as a “paperwork” exercise to provide the appearance of compliance.
Add into this chaos the growing commoditization of Cx. It is becoming difficult for Cx providers to make a profit and hence the continuing struggle of mid sized Cx firms as they shrink, go bust or join large firms to survive.
What to do? IMHO, optimize via automation as much as possible using software and mobile technologies.
A good place to start is to reduce the paperwork and triple handling of reporting tasks. This is where software comes into play.
When I have owned Cx businesses in the past, the barriers to moving to automation and software solutions have been:
1. Development costs.
2. The overwhelming grind involved in converting an existing Cx library and knowledge base (the firms intellectual collateral) into software.
The good news is there are now software solutions out there such as BlueRithm.
Full disclosure, I am a Brand Ambassador for BlueRithm. The reason is, IMHO BlueRithm represent the best value in terms of price point and technology for Cx software.
What I really liked about BlueRithm is they addressed barriers 1 & 2 above.
1. They relieve you of the development costs and provide a low cost subscription model.
2. They have an “on boarding process” that removes all the grind in transferring the Cx and project collateral into cloud based software.
You simply provide the BlueRithm team all your paper, MS Word, MS Excel Cx, check sheets and test sheets plus other project collateral and they will quickly turn them into templates on your BlueRithm account. It’s painless and fast. Consider it an opportunity to standardize and clean up your firm’s documents and standard practices.
Once the initial “on boarding” of your existing Cx library and project collateral is done, everything is easily customizable. Going forwards you can feel confident you then have a “honed”, customizable and expandable library accessible 24/7 anywhere in the world you are working.
BlueRithm commissioning software can improve your efficiency, consistency, client satisfaction, and bottom line. Don’t let the fear of spending endless hours setting up commissioning software stop you from taking the leap to digital in the 21st Century.
Twitter: @BLDWhisperer
Related posts & links:
#82 – ASHRAE, ACG, BCA & NEBB to Merge! https://bldwhisperer.com/ashrae-acg-bca-nebb-to-merge/
#77 – Commissioning Reg’s, Codes & Guides. How Many! (Post 1 of 3) https://bldwhisperer.com/commissioning-regs-codes-guides-how-many-post-1-of-3/
#78 – Commissioning Reg’s, Codes & Guides. How Many! (Post 2 of 3) https://bldwhisperer.com/commissioning-regs-codes-guides-how-many-post-2-of-3/
#187 – Commissioning Industry Chaos https://bldwhisperer.com/commissioning-industry-chaos/
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