For the majority of civil infrastructure, internal resources are being stretched thinly and project managers are struggling to steadily deliver the needed performance. In order to keep projects moving, most construction companies try to control and manage construction risks as much as they can within reason, which means there is still a lot of room for uncertainty.
Nevertheless, a well-planned risk management strategy is crucial to the security of your company and project. So, how do you know where to appropriately invest your time and resources in order to minimize major construction risks and control what often feels uncontrollable?
To help you prioritize your risk assessment, we identified the main classifications of risks, as well as the top 6 risks that you can actually control with the right construction software.
How Important Is It to Manage Construction Risk?
It’s important to know and understand the variety of risks in the major areas of the construction process because ineffective risk assurance often results in carryover legacy issues, which then becomes a burden for the project for the rest of its construction lifecycle.
Without proper risk assessment and control, project officers and civil engineering consultants will find themselves in a position where they are relying on those who manage the construction risks to report on them, creating a cycle of delays and rework.
But because of the development of construction software, project managers can actually lessen the delay and rework, and provide a higher level of transparency to stakeholders by allowing for timely access to data, documents, and reports, enhanced transparency, and higher quality of work and integrity.
To better demonstrate how software can reduce your construction risks, we highlighted the top 3 construction risks with the greatest potential to impact your project cost, schedule, and design performance.
Risk 1: Safety Hazards
Hazardous work conditions on construction sites are one of, if not, the biggest risk in a construction project and construction labor force. We all want to make job sites safer, for the well-being of the workers and employees, and for the project’s progress and completion.
However, with today’s modern and diverse workforce, language obstacles and other forms of miscommunication have become a problem when it comes to safety. Because of language barriers, Hispanic workers face increased risk on construction sites. Despite these workers being highly skilled, if an issue or information wasn’t fully translated at the moment, you put your employees, project, and company, on the line.
An industry-wide commitment to language training and multilingual support materials will help alleviate the problem in the long term. Implementing construction software programs that have dual Spanish and English support, makes the job site safer.
When everyone is up-to-date, you don’t have to worry about anyone missing important issues and safety updates.
Risk 2: Inconsistent and Erratic Reporting
If your current reporting process has room for delays and errors, you are risking your project’s lifecycle and budget.
If you’re on the job and you found an area with damaged electrical wiring, a paper-based system will need you to wait until you’re in the office to record what you saw so a team can be dispatched to resolve the issue. That process delays crucial information for hours or even days later and you may risk recording erroneous or outdated information.
Using mobile construction software includes options for timely field reporting so you can see if the issue has already been reported, and if not, you can submit your report immediately to ensure schedules are unified.
Another added benefit of mobile software is the automation of reports which helps in reducing the risk of human error. You can spend less time creating reports and more time moving towards the project’s progress.
Risk 3: Legal and Non-legal Disputes
It is well-known for civil contractors and mining contractors that construction is one of the most dispute-ridden industries. All construction companies avoid litigation all costs due to the financial impact and schedule delays they cause. Disputes are caused by poor contract administration, payment issues, errors in designs, and poor-quality work.
The best way to reduce the risk of disputes is to document everything. Building information modeling can significantly improve documentation processes throughout the construction lifecycle. It can help provide the clarity to avoid disputes as well as provide the enhanced documentation needed to speed up litigation.
Conclusion
If you haven’t noticed yet, these construction risks have one thing in common: uncertainty.
When projects are left to chance, there are unforeseen circumstances that could significantly impact your project, not to mention cause unnecessary stress for you and your team. With the many uncertainties in construction that are out of your control, avoid risking the ones that you can control.
By integrating construction software into your project at the beginning, you’re choosing not to risk the things you can control to chance. With the help of technology, you can create a more fool-proof risk-management program that will significantly impact the progress and the success of your project, along with your team, personal well-being, and of course, your overall profit margin.
4D BIM construction is important for the construction projects either big or small, new construction or a re-build for the successful BIM progression. Each and every stage of 4D construction scheduling that utilize manpower management, materials, machinery, and other activities require effective planning and scheduling of other construction activities.
