Construction process optimization in Upper Swabian – 123onsite makes it possible quite simply

The construction company H & M GmbH from Bad Wurzach in Upper Swabia is pushing ahead with process optimization. Saving time and costs is the keyword, because this is the only way for management to face new challenges and for employees to focus more on their actual activities. That’s why, at the end of 2017, they decided to use the time recording software and construction site management solution 123onsite. Today, Baugeschäft H & M GmbH is engaged by planning offices, the public sector and private builders. The construction company focuses mainly on building shells, but its portfolio also includes outdoor facilities, turnkey construction, modernization and refurbishment measures, and repairs.

Simple handling was desired

In order to advance digitalisation on the construction site, Johannes Häfele was looking for software that would allow employees to record their times as well as document what was happening on the construction site. It was important for Junior that, in addition to being easy to use, the software had been developed by construction experts and thus precisely covered the requirements of construction operations. After an intensive market research, the medium-sized company decided to use the solution of the software house 123onsite from Lohne at the turn of the year 2017 / 2018.

The construction company H & M GmbH equipped five team leaders with tablets on which the 123onsite app was installed. At the start of work, the team leader logs in and records his and his employees’ times – with just a few clicks. The system assigns the times to a construction site and, if desired, to the components and construction areas and automatically supplements the time entries with time stamps and GPS coordinates. The resulting results are transmitted to the payroll department by 123captures via radio. There, the colleagues check the data for plausibility and completeness. At the end of the month, the audited data is transferred to the tax advisor for the Construction payroll accounting.

Photo documentation saves time

Photo documentation is enormously important for construction operations. The photos are saved in the app with the GPS coordinates, assigned to the construction site, project, construction section and construction area and uploaded to the server. This enables the management to provide the client with detailed evidence of the work performed, so that any discrepancies can be clarified quickly, but also past work can be easily traced. This is especially important for civil engineering/duct work.

“The work on the outdoor facilities usually takes place many months or even years later. If, for example, you need to find out where the drainage pipes were laid at that time, it is relatively easy to do so using photo documentation, in which notes with measurements can also be sketched,” says Häfele.

Since the company started using the 123onsite app, Wilhelm Häfele and his son don’t travel to construction sites as often as they used to. If the foreman has a question about an issue, he takes a photo of it, transmits the photo to headquarters so that management can make a decision based on the photo.
“Thanks to the time saved, I can now intensify customer support, because the demands of clients have increased a lotrecently,”

, comments Johannes Häfele.

Log material consumption

While the initial focus was on time recording and photo documentation, the construction company has also been recording material consumption and logging machine use since October 2019. The system contains various materials such as steel, bulk materials, bricks, concrete, insulating materials or , pipes… and these are stored in different formats. The foreman records the delivered pallets, photographs the corresponding delivery bill and notes the delivery bill number in the remarks. “This way, we can quickly compare the quantities indicated on the invoice with the quantities on the delivery bill. If a delivery bill is lost on the way to the office, we look up in the program whether the material has arrived at the construction site,” says Johannes Häfele.

Machine use at a glance at all times

The use of machinery is also logged at the H & M construction business. For this purpose, both the staging equipment such as cranes etc. and the power equipment are recorded. In some cases, this is also done by scanning a device-related QR code. If the provisioning equipment only has to be registered once and then deregistered when it is removed from the construction site, the SME records the operating times, meter readings and the output of the power equipment on a daily basis. The recorded data of the power equipment as well as the material consumption is assigned to the construction site. The resulting results can be automatically transferred to the appropriate cost centers for exchange and further processing in the final costing. When Johannes Häfele receives the invoices for rental equipment, he checks the meter reading indicated there against the data entered at the construction site.

Processes are documented and traceable

With 123onsite, the construction company has documented the services rendered and can document them at the push of a button and can prove them at the push of a button, which was previously only possible with an enormous expenditure of time. “A daily construction report written on a piece of paper may be lost or submitted days later. Today I have everything immediately in the central office and no longer have to run after the notes“, explains the managing director. Also, the transfer of data to payroll has saved both the SME and the tax office a significant amount of time; in the past, the data was transferred to the system manually in the office and the tax office then had to import it into Datev Lohn und Gehalt. Further steps in the digitization of processes are planned, because Häfele wants to use the construction site data in all essential further programs.

Image credits: 123onsite/Timo Lutz Advertising Photography.