Constellation OnLocation-ConstructionManager

Your superintendents and quality control staff can quickly run though a checklist and identify problems. Not only are the problems identified and stored in NEWSTAR Enterprise, but you can take photos with your mobile device for management oversight and supplier communications. These photos serve as a record of deficiencies for suppliers and trades and ensure that everyone has the ability to see problems when they occur.

Take More Photos

Now your field staff can take photos in the field using their mobile device's built-in camera. You can quickly take photos and store them in the back-office system for supplier negotiations, job history, and staff training purposes. Additionally, you can use these photos for use in homebuyer construction status updates.

Manage Trade and Supplier Communications

With OnLocation-ConstructionManager, you can schedule trades and suppliers from the field and ensure that they receive appropriate notice when changes are required. Superintendents and construction managers can schedule tasks from the field or the back office with ease. Field staff will have access to contact information for suppliers and home buyers, purchase order details, selected lot options, quality assurance information without making phone calls, or visiting the construction trailer.

Control Payment

When problems occur, they are recorded in the system as soon as the superintendent or inspection staff walks the house. Once the issue is identified, payment can be withheld until the problem has been resolved. Either the task is marked incomplete and the building schedule stops, or the task is marked complete with exceptions and the building schedule proceeds. In either case, purchase orders and invoices are not approved and payment is withheld until the task is marked complete, or the exception is cleared.

Measure Quality

With OnLocation-ConstructionManager, quality is measured by noting task exceptions or by completing a task checklist. Checklists are associated with tasks on the building schedule and can be inspection tasks, or regular construction tasks. These checklists provide a consistent list of items or deficiencies that superintendents can record when things go wrong. The checklist items can be multiple choice, text, or photo responses. In either case, the information is entered in the field and automatically stored in the back office system for additional reporting, communications, or analysis. The ability to take photos at the project, lot, task, or checklist level provides a huge amount of management insight and serves as an archive of the production process.

Respond to Issues Quickly

The key benefit of a consistent quality control process is that you can identify and respond to issues quickly and improve production quality over time. As soon as the supplier notes the exception, takes a photo, or completes a checklist, the information is available in the back office system for all staff to see. There is no more waiting for someone to update the system with information and you can be sure that it is accurate and in one place. With this ability, you can respond to production problems quickly, before they are repeated, and before it is too late or too costly to fix. This reduces production costs and helps to improve customer satisfaction.

Standardize Processes

Many builders have reduced staff and reduced home starts. In many cases, employees are doing work they wouldn't normally do and it is more important than ever to ensure that mistakes are eliminated. With the checklist functionality in OnLocation-ConstructionManager, you can standardize production processes and ensure that everyone is looking at the right things before approving payment and completing production tasks. Junior superintendents can learn on the job with photographic examples of past issues and a well-defined list of items to check.