“This system really reduces the cost of plan distribution for us and also reduces the cost of reprographic services for subcontractors.” - NextPlans user comment

A Virtual Plan Room

Rodgers Builders finds online plans to be a time- and confusion-saver.

by Clair D. Urbain

George Jetson and Spacely Sprockets have nothing up on Rodgers Builders in Charlotte, North Carolina. This regional general contractor that specializes in health care and educational facilities has discovered a blueprint to, well, get rid of the hassles, delays and miscommunication that often come with blueprints.

It involves enlisting an online service that allows the contractor to post plans online for bidding, tracking and final plan output for the customer. After nearly three years of use, Rodgers employees report it offers much more than reducing the flow of paper.

Rodgers Builders, Inc. is a $220 million general contractor with about 300 employees. Business surveys peg it as the fifth largest health care construction contractor in the country, even though almost all of its work is in the Southeast.

The online plan system Rodgers Builders uses is NextPlans. Users there report that it can truly take time and expense out of the building process.

Rodgers first started using it at the suggestion of its local reprographic house, Sharpe Images, which is a supplier of the service.

“The first few projects were pilots for the system; once it proved its worth, we went online with our own plan room that uses the NextPlans software. That has been in place for about one year,” says Markus Hill, Rodgers Builders’ director of technology.

Paperless promise
As a general contractor, there is a tremendous amount of time and expense involved with getting plans out to subcontractors so they can build their bids on projects. Then, once contractors are selected, even more time and expense are consumed to get updated plans to them. That’s where downloadable plans save time and money.

“This streamlines the distribution process,” says Ryan Wathen, vice president of construction operations. “We now just send a list of subcontractors a link to the NextPlans Web site and invite them to bid. They can review the plans online to see if it is something they are interested in, and can download the plans and print them on their own plotter, or can request a set of plans from the reprographic house. If they are only interested in a certain portion of the project, they only have to print or order those blueprints.”

Each plan page is only 256K in size and can be easily viewed or downloaded with any high-speed Internet connection, says Hill. “A phone line connection is a bit slow, but can work. If you have high-speed Internet access, there is no problem. It allows you to check or review plans from anywhere ñ even from home at 2 a.m. if you wake up in the middle of the night and think of something.” The electronic files also allow the plans to be easily viewed on large presentation-style monitors in conference rooms.

Rodgers has set up its own virtual plan room from a link on its Web site, www.rodgersbuilders.com. For private projects a password is needed; but any information on public projects is available without a password. “;However, you do need to register with the plan room before you can get access to documents there”, says Hill.

“This system really reduces the cost of plan distribution for us and also reduces the cost of reprographic services for subcontractors,” says Wathen.

“This is especially true on health care projects where there are many revisions as the project progresses. In the past, that meant outputting sets of revised blueprints and getting them delivered to the subcontractors. That was very time-consuming and costly. Now we send an e-mail to those working on the project about the revised plan and they can download it. Plus, if they don’t have a plotter, they can just print out a portion of the plan on a regular printer where the change has been made,” says R. Brent Lyons, preconstruction project manager.

Easy access
“This helps on jobsites because often there is only one set of revised drawings and everyone wants to look at them. Now everyone has access to them and there’s no fighting over one set of drawings,” says Wathen. “It also provides an archive of approved shop drawings. There is no excuse for a subcontractor to not have the latest revised drawing.”

As with any new technology, there are early adopters and there are laggards. That’s where Hill believes having a good supplier comes in handy.

Sharpe Images set up the plan room and helped train some of Rodgers’ subcontractors on how to use it. Many understood the benefits immediately. “Our steel fabricators took to it right away because they saw how they were able to get detailed drawings so they could proceed and get ahead of the plan,” says Wathen. “Still others struggle, and we are working with them to learn and adapt to the new system.”

There is no charge to subcontractors to become registered to use the plan room, however, if they order blueprints, they are charged for them. “It can cost them as little or as much as they want,” says Wathen.

To meet the needs of subcontractors who may not have high-speed Internet access, Rodgers has set up a public space in its Charlotte office where contractors can come in and use a computer to get plan information. It also posts its public projects with links from other Web sites, such as F. W. Dodge and the Association of General Contractors (AGC) and to an online minority contractor resource room.

Freedom and responsibility
“The greatest obstacle is getting subcontractors to understand conceptually how this works,” says Lyons.

“It puts more responsibility on subcontractors,” adds Wathen. “They must learn that we won’t automatically send them plans. They must read their e-mail and log on and see what’s available and bid on it if they are interested.”

It also helps eliminate annoying 15-page faxes. “Contractors that have been dropped off the project especially appreciate this. When we used to send plan updates, we would send everyone in the fax address book a copy of the change. When you’re no longer working on a project and your phone line is tied up for a lengthy fax that doesn’t even apply to you, it gets annoying. Now, they are either dropped off the e-mail list or, if they get it, it doesn’t tie up their fax line. They can just delete the e-mail,” says Lyons.

Once the architect, engineer, Rodgers Builders and owner agree on the plans, Rodgers submits them to Sharpe Images, which posts them online in Rodgers’ virtual plan room. Lyons develops a pre-approved subcontractor list that gets sent an e-mail notifying them about the project. It’s also added to the list of projects on the Rodgers Web site.

If a subcontractor wants to have an opportunity to bid on a private job, he or she contacts Rodgers and Lyons issues a password so that contractor can access the plans. This is not required on public projects. Rodgers also requires new contractors to fill out a trade contractor prequalification form before issuing a password on private jobs.

“For pre-approved contractors, we send them their password along with the e-mailed invitation for bids. When contractors log on to review plans, the system tracks visitors and their activities. We know who has viewed documents and which ones they looked at or downloaded,” says Hill.

As bids are reviewed and accepted, portions of the bid list are locked down. “Depending on the project, we will allow the bid list to remain up so suppliers and others can see who is working on which parts of a certain job,” says Lyons.

As revisions are made, those subcontractors affected by the change are notified via e-mail that a change has been posted. From there, it is their responsibility to obtain the revised drawings. The system can show whether they acknowledged the change by viewing the document or downloading it, says Wathen.

“There are other benefits to subcontractors,” adds Lyons. “All of our active jobs are in one place and that makes it easy for a subcontractor to check out new jobs coming. Also, if a subcontractor sees a problem with a plan or has an RFI, he or she can easily e-mail those involved to point it out. We always want discrepancies to be put in writing, and this helps that happen.”

The virtual plan room remains open until the project is completed. Then all of the as-built plans are burned to a compact disc and turned over to the building owner. Contractors involved with the project can also archive the information for future reference. “We like to   keep a set because it helps us in bidding. Some architects like proposals set up a certain way or to specify certain things. We can review the files to help us meet the needs of the architect,” says Lyons.

There are other online plan systems available, but Hill says this one fits their needs best. “Sharpe Images  set it up for us and maintains it. It is a core competency of theirs, and we feel comfortable paying a monthly maintenance fee for that service. Plus, there are no subscription costs to subcontractors ñ they only pay for any blueprints they may order. Otherwise, they can send the files to their own plotter and output them,” says Lyons.

Lyons and others at Rodgers Builders report the cost of the service is far outweighed by expediting plans to potential subcontractors and then having an established record of downloads of addendums and updated plans. They also report that subcontractors like it because they can access plans without purchasing or requesting blueprints of the whole set.

 

Presbyterian Hospital Women’s Center, Charlotte, North Carolina The virtual plan room in practice The award-winning Presbyterian Hospital Women’s Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a 66,000 sq. ft. vertical expansion above an existing parking deck plus a 20,000 sq. ft. addition above a children’s hospital with a connector bridge and renovations of existing areas. It’s one of the first major projects where the NextPlans process was used by Rodgers Builders to disseminate plans and communicate addendums and updates. A regional construction magazine named it as one of the area’s most outstanding projects because of how the building team found solutions to difficult challenges, how the project was managed and used innovative processes and excelled in client service and safety. “With NextPlans, we were able to distribute approved shop drawings quickly and efficiently. This helped streamline steel, casework and windows,” says Ryan Wathen, Rodgers Builders vice president of construction operations. Once the architect approved the shop drawings, Rodgers employees posted them to NextPlans and notified all affected contractors. They then reviewed the shop drawings to ensure they knew all of the rough opening requirements well in advance of the material arriving on site. “We all had access to plotters on the jobsite, so it was easy to output the changes. Throughout the project, we had immediate access to changes. There was no waiting around for a courier. Everyone had access at any time, so the project ran more smoothly,” he says.