Smile, you’re on camera

Every Monday morning housebuilder David Green or one of his staff goes to Green Family Homes’ site at Newboundmill Lane in the village of Old Pleasley near Mansfield to take photographs. The weekly photo session is over in minutes but its effect on the housebuilder’s product is much longer lasting.

The company is trialling Virtual Site Management which monitors progress on site remotely using still images of one home, still and video images of another, and still, video and a mobile camera attached to a palmtop computer of a third. The images are made available to subcontractors and even homebuyers via the internet, providing an instant check on site progress, and giving the potential to cut down on build time and improve build quality.

Site progress is also being monitored by the housebuilder, with help from the University of Derby, to see which Virtual Site Management combination is most effective, and the houses are being benchmarked against other newly built homes and against each other on build quality, speed and defects.

Recouping the cost

The housebuilder has spent £10 000 on hardware and cameras for the trial and is looking to recoup the cost, as well as get benefits in build quality and site productivity. Build performance targets are: to reduce subcontractor return visits to rectify work by 50%, reduce defects at handover by 10% and increase accuracy of predicting and scheduling work by 20%.

David Green already took digital photographs of his sites for his own use. “I realised that if my subcontractors had access to accurate and up to date pictures, they could see for themselves how work was progressing. They could decide if and when a site visit was appropriate.”

The web was the obvious means of communication. “A lot of subcontractors didn’t realise they had access to the internet via their banking systems,” says Green. “They do their salaries by BACS, so they already have a modem attached to a computer in their offices. At the start I sent them all a disc for one of the free internet providers like Freeserve, and gave them all a password to log on.”

Access to the website is available at different levels. At level one, costing £25 per company, anyone connected with the project can see a handful of images showing general site progress. Extra password clearance allows each subcontractor to see pages with images of their work, allowing them to monitor quality. Password clearance can also be given to homebuyers.

Still images on the website have already improved productivity, says Green. “It’s cost effective for subcontractors, reduces build time, and helps with the early discovery of defects or clashes. A subcontractor viewing the pictures can see how another company is carrying out work, and offer advice on alternative methods, or how to make it easier for other trades to follow on.

“I also hope it will change how work is valued: instead of going to site to re-measure, a QS can make a visual assessment from the web images and issue payment on the volume completed.”

Third-party acceptance is vital, as if building control officers and utilities suppliers accept the images it can cut time spent waiting for site visits to approve work. “The building control department locally is quite happy with it,” says Green, “but elsewhere it will depend on relationships with contractors: there will have to be a good relationship.”

Monitoring site progress

Green monitors site progress using a video link comprising four mast-mounted cameras, similar to conventional security cameras, controlled from a keypad in his office. He can change angles or zoom in for a close-up. “Instead of visiting the site every day, I monitor progress and co-ordinate subcontractors by logging-in to the video images twice a day,” he says.

Subcontractors can link into his system by videophone, or via a computer with videoconferencing facilities. They cannot operate the cameras, but can access the images relayed by all four of them - again using a computer keyboard, or the keys on a videophone. The system gives them access to a short video diary, filmed every morning to show what has changed in the previous 24 hours, both internally and externally. Also connected to the system is a videoconferencing facility inside the show home that subcontractors can use to communicate with their head offices.

The system has been developed to encourage a co-operative approach to building. “We’re looking at this as a way of improving communications, not for keeping tabs on people,” explains Alan McGowan, lecturer at University of Derby. “If it’s used properly it makes information exchange a lot easier and has the potential to draw the construction team closer together. If you’re transparent with it there’s less scepticism and fear.”

It can also help meet Egan objectives, he says. “The construction industry is very dependent on information being sent from one person to another. If people have access to the information at the same time, it will make the whole process quicker and more accurate. Egan is about improving the product and this project is to see how we can do that and make a better product for the customer. We see the technology as adding value.”