A project management software that keeps track of deadlines, progress, and problems in a clear and concise manner and thus assists project planners, can mean significant time savings in large projects while at the same time saving resources. However, the reality often looks different: a simple question – "What is the current status of the construction site? – becomes an overflowing process.
Important time and resources are taken up by working with confusing amounts of data. Project planners consequently need software that addresses this weakness in project coordination and sorts this data. COMAN meets this challenge with Smart Objects, which are integrated into the solution.
Project management software should already embody the principles in its application that will later characterise the project to be managed. In mechanical and plant engineering, these are coordinated processes that run as error and delay-free as possible. Currently, however, work on large construction sites is often still extremely inefficient. Passing on information via leaflets and the carry-over of important data and deadlines is more the rule than the exception and data must be collected, sorted and analysed from various sources. Therefore, there is a lot of room for improvement in the process.
How can large amounts of data be organized in such a way that the newly formed information gathering process represents a significant added value compared to the status quo? Is there an alternative that summarizes the above steps for all participants in a fluid, easy to understand and to use process?
Our project management tool makes use of a novel visualisation approach to solve these tasks. The so-called Smart Objects bring the reality of the construction site to the digital level and thus create an image that can be viewed by project planners as well as employees on site. For this purpose, the original CAD layouts that were already established for planning the project are used. The entire project structure is divided into many smaller subgroups or objects, accordingly prepared and colour-coded. This enables a much more precise viewing and control.
Elements and assemblies can be linked to data from lists or schedules, creating a clear representation of the real world on a laptop, smartphone or tablet. Thanks to the extensive app integration with several applications, employees can mark tasks as completed or display errors – the status of the object in question then changes.
This display makes it easier to determine progress and calculate possible delays, because authorized persons can select these Smart Objects and get an overview of all relevant data without any time loss. For example, up to 70,000 individual deadlines are always at hand – a great help if the project schedule is to be kept to. COMAN's software also supports numerous interfaces to other programs and can also incorporate information from other sources.
The functionality of Smart Objects makes COMAN the perfect project management software for project coordination. Countless information is combined into a status in real time. The individual objects are therefore smart in the truest sense of the word – they are linked to the current data and always adapt to the situation on the construction site. Project planners can trust the Smart Objects – and thus take the next step towards a more efficient project management.