Most likely you have a personal budget that you follow to ensure you are hitting your financial goals and shed light on spending habits that you may be able to improve. Just as with your personal finances, every construction project has a budget to meet too. However, how that budget is established and managed can be very different, which can impact your bottom line. In fact, according to a study in the International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 9 out of 10 construction projects experience cost overruns. In order to make sure does not experience a cost overrun, and you instead reduce your construction costs, you need to know what the pinch points are that can cause your budget to increase or decrease.
Below are just a few examples of what you can do on your next construction project to reduce your costs by as much as 10%.
1. Implement prefabrication where appropriate.
Prefabrication offers a streamlined process that results in fewer errors, greater efficiencies and higher quality, translating to schedule and cost savings for you. The schedule savings produced allow you to gain occupancy of your space sooner, enhancing your revenue stream. Projects that utilize prefabrication can yield cost savings up to 10%, as well as a 25% reduction in schedule, which enhances your return on investment.
2. Building Information Modeling (BIM) & Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection (MEPF) Coordination.
One of the key benefits of BIM & MEPF coordination is the ability to spot clashes or design issues and solve them before material is produced and construction is underway. Projects that utilize these two systems in conjunction can expect to experience an average MEPF labor savings of 20%-50%, schedule reduction of 10%-30% and close to zero field-generated changes— all of which will reduce your bottom line cost.
3. Laser Scanning.
Making inaccurate assumptions about a building’s existing structure and infrastructure can be the root about cause of many design, collision, and field issues. According to a guide authored by Autodesk and Leica Geosystems, on a typical construction project, re-work accounts for 12-15% of the construction cost. With laser scanning re-work can be reduced to 1-3%.
4. Virtual Reality.
For many people, visualizing a 3D space based off of 2D plans is quite a challenge. Building a real-life mock-up of, for example, a room, wall, window system, etc. could waste time and money when the process has to be repeated over and over with changes. What if you could immerse yourself into a virtual 3D world and make changes on the fly? Using virtual reality gives the user the ability to look around in a 3D world and visualize how a future room will look at every angle. The end user even has the ability to reach out with their hands and ‘touch’ objects.
