Unlocking Efficiency: How VR is Streamlining Project Management in Construction
Project managers in construction oversee every phase of a development. They ensure budgets are met, deadlines are achieved, and, logistically, everyone knows exactly what role they play. And how to perform theirs safely.
It’s a tall task to take on, being the one person everyone counts on for a successful development. Stakeholders, contractors, site inspectors — everyone vies for your attention, expecting you to have all the answers and perform your role perfectly.
So whatever technology you can turn to to streamline your responsibilities—without harming quality—shouldn’t be slept on. One such technology is virtual reality.
Read on to discover the advantages of using VR as a project manager and how it’s already proving a vital addition to your sector.
3 Ways VR is Streamlining Project Management
Identify Potential Problems and Mitigate Them
Once a build is built, it becomes difficult and outright expensive to fix structural defects. With VR, potential risks and design problems can be easily simulated and analyzed by project managers before construction has even started.
Being able to enter a virtual environment of a build means you can make proactive decisions regarding safety, budget and, importantly, ensure the deliverability of the schematics you’re working from.
Make Crucial Decisions Without Being On-Site
Remotely monitoring and inspecting a site is a huge advantage for project managers. They can assess progress, identify issues and navigate a site without having to be there. Without VR, there’s no other way to achieve such an immersive, realistic understanding of a development unless you can actually visit the location.
Stakeholders looking for a skilled project manager benefit from VR as well. The top talent isn’t always local, after all, and being able to rely on largely remote professionals opens you up to a much wider talent pool.
Enhance Communication With Stakeholders, Engineers, Contractors and Developers
Communicating your visions and demands with everyone involved in a build—from contractors to stakeholders—is a lot easier with virtual reality. Sure, you can tour a build following each and every iteration, but you can also schedule meetings in VR regardless of where participants are located.
The real benefits here are that you minimize the risks of miscommunicating progress, bolster teamwork and guarantee that all parties are privy to your client’s plan.
Our Thoughts
We’re on the cusp of VR becoming an integral part of business, but it needs to make sense for people to actually put on a headset.
Adopting new technologies may seem scary at first. But, much like BIM revolutionized the role of architects and structural engineers in construction, so can virtual reality for project management.
VR can be the cement that holds all the individual bricks of a development together. Since most project managers have between two and five projects rolling at any time, as told by RGPM, they can effectively show up for every client, mitigating risks, improving communication and delivering mature operations wherever they are in the world.
