B.R. & Co. Centralizes Construction Workflow, Integrating 3D Spatial Data with Procore
For building and construction companies that specialize in hospitals and healthcare facilities, patient safety, infection control, and the protection of everyone in the building is paramount. With growing regulations on healthcare construction, understanding and adhering to codes and compliance are difficult, yet necessary.
Design and construction firm, B.R. & Co., is known for fully understanding the challenges of statewide healthcare regulations. Health system operators in California rely on the firm to oversee the construction of their hospitals and systems, including Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Children's Hospital of Orange County, and the Thompson Autism Center at CHOC.
Centralizing construction information with Procore
B.R. & Co. manages thousands of project files, including documents, drawings, contracts, project schedules, safety inspections, requests for information (RFIs), change orders, budgets, and site survey images. This information is key to all project stakeholders, including owners, architects, engineers, contractors, and inspectors. But, accessing all of this data hasn’t always been easy or efficient.
Gary Pellant, Vice President at B.R. & Co. says the team needed new digital construction platforms. “With Procore, we consolidated files and information into one platform, helping us accelerate projects by connecting stakeholders to data that informs decisions,“ Pellant said.
Rebuilding the construction workflow with 3D spatial data
Using Procore project management analytics, B.R. & Co. directly linked project delays to in-person site surveys. Coordinating site visits with multiple stakeholders often required days, sometimes weeks, based on everyone’s availability and travel time.
“We needed accurate, immersive 3D tours of the job sites to improve collaboration and meet deadlines when in-person walkthroughs were not possible,” Pellant said. “Now, with the Matterport integration for Procore, our project managers capture and share the job site every week, helping stakeholders ‘remote-in’ to 3D digital twins of the sites to solve problems, track resolutions, and save time and money.”
Resolving requests for information anytime, anywhere
Thanks to the combined power of Matterport and Procore construction solutions, B.R. & Co. is streamlining RFIs, inspections, and meetings like never before. For example, for the Glendora Oaks Behavioral Health Hospital project, the firm is connecting RFIs directly to Matterport 3D digital twins of the job site. Within Procore, architects and engineers can access the digital twin of the hospital to answer the inquiry accurately - as if they were on-site - and deliver a faster response. This simplified workflow eliminates overruns due to the uncertainty of 2D photos and saves the stakeholders days of response per RFI.
Pellant estimates project managers are resolving 75% of project issues independently, without escalation thanks to the accuracy of Matterport 3D spatial data.
Reducing in-person surveys with weekly 3D documentation
Inspections have become a lot easier with the Procore / Matterport integration. Complying with the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) regulations requires a complete inspection for each phase of construction before the next phase of development may move forward. In the past, the verified compliance report (VCR), required five individuals, including the lead architect, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, structural engineer, and inspector, to attend site walkthroughs to complete inspections forms.
“We are seeing OSHPD embrace digital construction technologies, alongside all stakeholders of the construction project,” Pellant said. “By connecting Procore and Matterport, we’re reducing in-person inspections throughout the construction lifecycle, saving team members one day per milestone. For the owner, that means saving thousands of dollars per milestone through the elimination of travel and costs associated with team members on the job site.”
Teams can walk through, view, and accurately measure all areas of the digital twin - such as ceiling heights, outlet locations, or size of elements - and use Mattertags to transport colleagues to specific items or locations, embedding notes, links, videos, or photos to collaborate.
As COVID-19 continues to spread, B.R. & Co. and its partners are reducing visits to job sites. Capturing the job site weekly is central to minimizing risk and progressing projects.
“Both Procore and Matterport allow us to collaborate more widely with our stakeholders and drive productivity,” Pellant said. “The integration of these digital construction platforms has reshaped our day-to-day operations.” Watch the Webinar