News & Events
Can-Flow - Data-Driven Communication for Efficient and Optimized Workflow
True North | Fall 2021
Communication Challenges
One of the reasons for project failure is lack of communication. Reliable communication is an essential ingredient for making any construction project successful and the stakes are especially high on worksites. Miscommunication leading to mistakes could mean rework at best and safety issues at worst. There are three communication challenges that could result in the project's failure.
The first challenge to communication is the team's silos which exist between field and office. Some project managers try to mitigate this with emails, text messages and phone calls however, these methods sometimes introduce new problems. Multiple team members can read and respond to a message simultaneously, and with data in several different places, there is no way to quickly share relevant, up-to-date information with every team that needs it. With a cloud data model, teams in the field and office can send and receive their data and keep their project information synchronized and updated, as shown in Figure 1 of Trimble model.
The second communication challenge is the communication centralization (sources of communications) and the amount of communicated information (communicated package). In several situations, decentralized communication presents a challenge for teams to track down all the disparate data sources and condense them in ways everyone can understand. Also, the size of the communication packages could result in data loss, leading to misunderstanding and miscommunication on site. Some of the data communicated in engineering and construction projects could be unused due to several reasons such as delayed information, lack of clarity, and misunderstanding.
The last communication challenge is project timeline. This requires that the information is received on time as the project progresses. Delayed information will directly affect decision making which is a common problem in construction projects. Trimble Connect connects all teams to collaborate over a centralized data model, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Centralized Data Model with Trimble Connect
Data-Driven Communication
Data-Driven communication can help overcome all the communication challenges discussed above. Proper use of data can take the guesswork out of decision-making and provide reliable and accurate information on time. Data can also provide value in helping project managers schedule work, allocate resources, increase efficiency, reduce costs, and effectively manage risks. The key means by which project managers leverage data is through use of business intelligence and business analytics. The goal is to remove all the sources for communication challenges mentioned earlier and focus on the data transfer between field and office in real-time. With the use of data cloud storage for both field and office, the user will be able to access the data anytime, anywhere. As a result, all team members will be able to update the data by synchronizing their machines to the latest versions, perform QA/QC, send and receive real-time comments on the data.
Can-Flow data communication
With Cansel’s Can-Flow data structure, the project data between field and office are connected through all platforms and synchronized in real-time, enabling all teams to communicate based on the project data with real-time synchronization.
Figure 3: Can-Flow Data Streams
With the Can-Flow communication model, companies will reduce risk and increase efficiencies for all teams. Can-Flow will eliminate any communication challenges and possible bottlenecks with the ability to go back and forth between platforms, field to office and vice versa. In addition, all teams will be able to access the project data stored in the cloud. This increased efficiency will come without errors caused by miscommunication, or data loss encountered by exporting precious data via memory sticks. The Can-Flow process is comprised of two components; the communication channel such as Trimble Connect/Trimble Sync and a reliable database system such as GIS systems. Ask your Cansel Account manager how Can-Flow can help your business today.
Akram Afifi
Professional Services, Technical Sales Consultant
Cansel - Ontario
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