Case Study

DPR Construction

DPR Construction Refines Project Analysis Processes from Precon to Closeout using Pype Software

April 15, 2020

Summary

Challenge

“We’re always on the lookout for better ways to allocate the client’s budget, whether that’s finding better value solutions to what’s called out in the specs or evaluating those specs for requirements they may not actually want fulfilled,” explained Cassie Robertson, Design Manager at DPR Construction. “On some projects, there’ll be a delegated design for something that doesn’t fully align with a customer’s vision, like an exterior aluminum curtain around an all-glass building. Mockups will also run into the same problem, such as being asked for a first-install of two inch by two inch, plain corner guards.”

After winning the bid, the project moves to project engineers like Eddie Hoy at DPR, who begins the process of managing construction. The typical procedure begins with manually creating a submittal log in an excel spreadsheet by retyping, or copying and pasting, each requirement from the thousands of pages in the spec document. “I was new to the job of being a project engineer, right out of college, and one of my first tasks was to create a submittal log. I had never learned how to do that in school,” said Hoy, echoing a common occurrence across construction education.

Solution

“Our pilot teams love Pype,” said Krupesh Kakkente, National Integration Manager at DPR. Just as AutoSpecs automates the process of creating a submittal log, Closeout automates the notification of trade partners for closeout documentation, and the creation of digital turnover packages. “There seems to be a tremendous ROI, and the users themselves are so happy with it, especially since Pype was extremely involved in helping with the setup and training.”

“Pype gives us a more data-driven approach to spec analysis,” said Robertson. When she identifies submittals that don’t fit with the rest of the project by using AutoSpecs, she uses it as an opportunity to open a discussion with the design team. “We explain to them that these don’t seem to make sense given the rest of the project or the money that would be sunk into fulfilling them, and they’re often surprised these are even in the specifications.”

“It took about 10 to 15 minutes from opening the software to having every requirement from the specs laid out in front of me,” Hoy shared. “It was pretty amazing.” After a brief QA/QC process, Hoy was ready to export the log to an Excel spreadsheet for tracking by DPR partner VConstruct, which helps tackle submittal management. “We would have spent weeks doing this by hand,” said Hoy, “but instead we used AutoSpecs. In just a few days, we were able to generate a fully QC’d submittal log.”

DPR Construction