After a year of beta testing, LJP Construction Services has launched a new digital quality assurance App to document and report on project-site quality assurance of real estate construction projects ranging from single-family homes to residential high-rises, office towers, hotels, resorts, and other product types, it has been announced by Don Neff, company president.
CaptureQA, the new quality assurance app is compatible with the iPad and deployed through the Internet. It combines project images with the associated narrative that provides a real estate developer and/or general contractors with real-time quality assurance reporting and related analysis in one easy to access digital package that can be acted on almost as quickly as it’s received.
To further simplify the continuous, on-site inspection and analysis process, which is conducted solely by LJP’s trained personnel, the construction images are separated into green, red and yellow frames: green is for good assemblies; red for deficiencies; and yellow for course-of-construction or scheduling progress.
The password protected CaptureQA web-site portal enables clients to almost immediately assess the color coded photos to quickly gauge where construction issues might be present and how their field trade contractors are performing. Metadata information captured includes location coordinates, type of assembly, responsibility, date, time, evaluative notes, and other proprietary information providing managers with insight about their projects’ performance.
“With the power of digital production and communications, CaptureQA gives us the ability to conduct detailed construction inspections and send a report to the client almost immediately after a survey is completed,” Neff explained. “With this real-time system, clients can quickly track where deviations from architectural plans occur, such as an incorrect building assembly that needs attention and also identify where workmanship issues are found in the field, allowing for the fastest possible resolution.”
Eric Turner, LJP’s vice president, construction operations, pointed out that the faster reporting time helps enhance production efficiency and provides the ability to quickly and precisely produce performance insights by clients and field construction managers that can result in faster response to potential construction issues or fix problems before they get worse. With CaptureQA, a report on one of the client’s projects can instantaneously be shared via Internet between divisions and across multiple regions with the client’s construction teams on other comparable projects such as home building.
“The more traditional method of quality assurance investigation is a construction manager walking a project site with clipboard and pencil, taking notes as he or she sees issues and then going back to the construction trailer or office to write a report which is then delivered to the client two or maybe three days later,” Turner said. “In the meantime, a small problem could become bigger and a big problem could become a major construction issue. That lag will not happen with CaptureQA.”
Turner said another important benefit of CaptureQA is that it provides a consistent and accurate project assessment from macro to micro levels, giving a more complete and coherent view of the project site and construction work from top to bottom as opposed to a bunch of unconnected pictures and notes.
“This all-encompassing view of the construction site tells a more complete and comprehensive story about the project as it progresses, making it easier to identify anomalies that could be potential trouble spots,” Turner explained.
Another advantage is that CaptureQA can clearly identify construction and vendor problems that could exist across several different projects and thus act quickly to rectify problems before they become a trend that could turn into costly construction defect litigation for the builder and their insurance carriers.
Turner said that, for instance, one of the most common defects, especially in residential construction, is water intrusion. CaptureQA has been very effective in identifying potential areas of water intrusion such as roof and window assemblies so problems can be resolved in all comparable projects while still in the construction stage.
“Catching these types of problems before they become defects by an ongoing, methodical quality assurance process such as CaptureQA can save a developer and contractors millions of dollars in repairs or in lawsuits, not to mention damage to reputation,” Turner noted. “Our experience shows that it’s well worth the investment.”
