Efficient task and defect management on building sites

How IKK Engineering GmbH is taking full advantage of PlanRadar for its local site inspections

IKK Engineering GmbH is one of the leading design companies for structural and civil engineering in Austria and is headquartered in Graz. It has other offices in Vienna and Wels and a team of around 100 civil engineers and architects. The company takes care of general planning projects. The team cover everything from commercial construction to road and tunnel construction and are involved from the planning to the building phase.

Philipp Anegg from IKK is the local site supervisor on the ground at a technical college in Villach, Austria called HTBLVA Villach where the college building is being reconstructed and renovated. He uses PlanRadar software for task and defect management at the site. The tool’s simple task assignment and time savings of up to 4 hours a week mean that it has proven to be a good investment.

The challenge: time-consuming processes within task and defect management

As the local site supervisor, Philipp Anegg is responsible for defect management, within handovers to the client, for the HTBLVA Villach reconstruction and renovation project. He routinely assigns tasks to the subcontractors undertaking the work, manages questions that arise and ensures smooth and prompt communication of information between project workers.

Within his area of responsibility, Philipp Anegg’s greatest challenge was finding a suitable solution for the company’s task and defect management process, as this process was awkward and time-consuming at that point in time. “During site inspections, many defects and tasks had to be noted first, then documented using a camera, summarised in a report as a PDF file and then sent by email to the team responsible,” the project manager explained. Valuable time was lost during this process, as any follow-up questions about jobs had to be discussed and explained on the phone.

The solution: interactive sharing of information with PlanRadar

IKK Engineering GmbH were looking for a new tool to simplify the processing of tasks and defect management and to make them more efficient. Philipp Anegg then heard about PlanRadar at an IKK information session. Since November 2020, the software has been used as part of reorganisation of the HBLVA Villach college by about 20 project workers – including Philipp Anegg himself as the local site supervisor – and by the client, planners, site managers and subcontractor supervisors. By using PlanRadar at the key points on site mentioned above, tedious creation of reports at desks can be optimised and replaced by interactive sharing of information and tasks. “The company carrying out the work receives a ticket — directly on a smartphone — which includes the specific position on the plan and a description or explanation of the problem or task in the form of a voice note. The person responsible can react immediately in the app, complete the job and respond,” he said.

For Philipp Anegg, another major advantage of PlanRadar is that physical plans can simply be left in the office. All plans are available in digital form and offline too at all times in the app.

The familiarisation process for the tool went smoothly too. After layers and users were created and the first attempts were made with the app and web browser, an email was sent to inform subcontractors about using PlanRadar and they received a quick introduction to the product. Philipp Anegg found that everyone involved could use PlanRadar independently in no time and that workers thoroughly enjoyed using a new interactive platform.

The result: time savings of up to 4 hours a week

By using PlanRadar in task and defect management, Philipp Anegg and his team enjoy time savings of up to 4 hours a week. Distributing the tasks by smartphone is in the main way in which they save time. In the old process, workers needed to take photos and these were then only sent later on in an email with other information. But in PlanRadar, everything is done in real time with all the necessary information saved as images, text descriptions or voice notes.

Philipp Anegg explained how PlanRadar is used: “At the end of a project and right before a handover, the time savings were most pronounced, as PlanRadar is used very frequently in these phases. Any tasks or defects can be addressed on an ongoing basis, and before the actual defect inspection.”