The case study of Walbridge's industrial factory expansion project in Michigan, and their strategic implementation of PLOT's TV Mode, underscores the critical role that technology and transparency play in the construction industry.
Walbridge is a full-service construction company headquartered in Detroit and has built projects both big and small in a variety of geographic locations ranging from Midland, Michigan to Chennai, India. Experienced with a versatile range of project sizes, sectors, delivery methods and more, Walbridge relishes the challenge of turning their owner’s visions to physical reality.
On the larger end of their project sizes is an industrial factory expansion located in Michigan, spanning across an incredible 12-building project site. The overall quantity of buildings on the site, coupled with the multitude of delivery entrances, major roads, and dynamic construction schedule made for a challenging logistical environment. At a minimum, the project required a way to show delivery routes through the massive site for subcontractors, delivery drivers, and other project stakeholders, in addition to a superior logistics delivery method for high profile deliveries.
Being an industry leader, Walbridge’s technologies group strategically introduced PLOT to the project as a way to stress test the solution and experience its capabilities. The project team was then able to leverage the platform’s TV Mode, a visual landing page of all the relevant site information as constant screen saver image on any TV monitors that were located in various trailers, offices, and other central meeting locations. PLOT’s TV mode was a complete game-changer for communication across the project. Ben Sparks, Senior Project Engineer on the site notes it’s impact on the team:
“Anyone who is in a meeting room can look over and see what is delivered today, what is coming up next, the weather and more. This is the biggest benefit for anybody and everybody to see what’s going on at any given moment.”
This type of transparency also created an easy tool for conversations about logistics and weather in daily foreman’s meetings, and made it easy to share with the Owner and any project site visitors relevant information on day-to-day operations, upcoming delivery activities and more.
In conclusion, the case study of Walbridge's industrial factory expansion project in Michigan, and their strategic implementation of PLOT's TV Mode, underscores the critical role that technology and transparency play in the construction industry. Walbridge's ability to adapt and leverage innovative solutions such as PLOT not only improved communication and collaboration within their project team but also extended the benefits to project stakeholders, including subcontractors, delivery drivers, and the project owner.
