Micromanagement of resources in the construction industry can save ₹33,345 crore annually and around 5.3 million man-days of productivity. These figures emerge from a study by QwikSpec, a platform that addresses pain points on construction site.
The report titled “Smart Ways to Tackle the Colossal Wastage in the Construction Industry” is based on 150 million data points gathered from construction sites over a period of three years through observation, images and from engineers, contractors, builders, material suppliers and owners and tenants. The study says issues with quality, and not just efficiency, plague the sector.
According to Ajith Alexander, MD, Qwikspec, Cost of Poor Quality (CoPQ) stems from rework in matters of fixing of doors, ventilators, grills and railings or laying tiles. For instance, in matters of fixing of doors and windows, 37% of the CoPQ is owing to gap between shutter and frame. Damage of the frame/ fixture/ shutter constitutes 30% of the wastage whereas 11% of wastage may be due to misapplication of sealant between the wall and the frame. By avoiding the wastage, builders can save ₹21 per sq. ft.
Timely alert
Reckoning of wastage due to issues in fixing of tower bolt* in doors in an under-construction premises with a two million square feet area could have resulted in losses to the tune of ₹25 lakh. But a timely alert by Qwikspec platform not merely averted the wastage but also saved potential loss of 3,200 man-hours on reworking.
The data collected by Qwikspec also reveals that close to eight man-days are lost per 1,000 sq. ft. of constructed area due to poor workmanship. These losses occur all across the activity from door & window fixing and tiling to grills and railing, ventilators, granite cutting, plumbing, electrical works and painting.
Overall assessment reveals that 89% of the wastage results from poor workmanship while material-related defects and faulty design account for 7% and 4% wastage respectively.
Ranjit John, Director, Business Development, says it is clear from the larger picture that industry wastage on a square foot basis is nearly 80% more than what is considered Best Practice i.e. 1.81.
“It could be concluded from the data that cutting down on CoPQ and its approximation to a cost that is considered acceptable by the industry’s standards will result in a saving of ₹17 per sq. ft. in terms of material, labour and supervision.”
SMART way to save
So, where lies the solution? Having pored over the vast data which was gathered from nearly 200 construction sites comprising over 30 mn. sq. ft. enabled the company to come up with a five-stage technological solution called ‘SMART’ which stands for Streamlining, Monitoring, Analysis, Review and Technology.
The Qwikspec platform (to be downloaded on any smart phone) lays out the process on the lines of a production system right from material selection, supply chain management, and fixing accountability for greater level of transparency in the workforce, to laying down an audit trail at every stage and fixing key performance indicators.
At the review stage the work gets aligned, figuring out correctives to be applied, incentives or penalties to be awarded and identifying the areas where upskilling or training would be needed.
And all this gets done in real time without delays as periodic reports from the sites could be viewed by executive engineers on their dashboards.
Less tech penetration
Ajith says the construction sector spends less than 1% of its revenue on software in comparison to aviation or automotive industry where technology expenditure accounts for 4.5% and 3.5% respectively.
More than 150 ongoing projects across the country are using Qwikspec to manage the daily operations.
Set up by Ajith Aexander and Roby Kurien in 2015, Qwikspec has Mohandas Pai as one of the investors and Anil Menon of Cisco as one of the members of the board to advise and guide.
* Tower Bolt is a rod-shaped bolt for fastening a door or the like, attached to one side of the door at the edge and sliding into a cylindrical casing on the frame of the opening.
