If we take advantage of it, technology certainly has the ability to change our ways of doing business.
At AWCI’s Convention in San Antonio this past March, there were no fewer than five classes featuring construction industry technology. I jointly taught one of those classes with Tim Wies, president of St. Louis, Mo.–based T.J. Wies Contracting, Inc. It was called “The Paperless Foreman.”
While not being professional teachers, we were glad to share how our companies use laptops and iPads to go paperless to track production, prepare daily field reports, send a request for information, instantly process extra work orders, fill out safety inspections, send time cards for import and every other form our foremen deal with. We also talked about the difficulties and expense we went through to be on the cutting edge.
Finally, we discussed how all this effort and expense was well worth it by getting forms processed quicker, more accurately speeding up management input and helping cash flow.
Other classes focused on how Building Information Modeling can be used to solve framing issues before you frame both onsite and prefab, and another class dealt with how to use social media to promote your company. There was also a course on using technology to track production every day. All of these classes also pointed out how to save time and money once you’ve put them in place.
If you’ve adopted these technologies or at least some of them, you appreciate the growing pains of implementation. One of the big advantages of AWCI membership is cutting down the cost of the learning curve. Attend, participate, and you’ll find your company more and more paperless and more and more efficient—with less pain.
AWCI has a lot more classes in your future, all there to take advantage of. Keep an eye on www.awci.org.
In addition to being 2013–2014 president of the Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry, Daley is president of Daley’s Drywall & Taping, Inc., San Jose, Calif.
