During site inspections, our site management can resolve queries immediately generating instantly available evidence of issue close out .
Jewell Narzoles, Façade Engineer Quality, Gunn Lennon
Gunn Lennon Fabrications (GLF) specialise in the design, manufacture, and installation of high specification metal and glass façades. As a specialist sub-contractor, GLF works with various building contractors across Ireland and the UK to provide curtain walling, architectural cladding, roof glazing and commercial windows.
At the heart of every project lies good design – that means a formidable quality management system is a must to ensure that the finished installation meets exacting criteria. It’s important that we have access to information from across our design, fabrication, and installation workflows. When working on-site or during inspection, we also need to record images and create reports so we can document information for our clients.
It’s a process that produces great results, but it also produces a great deal of data, which we managed manually until we began utilising Obi Inspect. Now, we have instant access to detailed construction quality control evidence in real-time, which is a huge advantage to our site management.
During inspections, our installation managers work on-site to check the quality of the façade itself. This involves liaising with the project façade consultant and the main contractor’s QA team to collate and compare reports and address any issues. If there are any questions regarding materials used, or quality of installation on site, the relevant detailed drawings are easily accessed for reference purposes through the Obi app file manager.
Everything in Obi is in real-time. We can take photos and format reports instantly, even communicating with our office-based design team and production facility for an immediate reaction, enabling us to resolve any issues in a timely manner.
This is a huge step up as previously, we took pictures and compiled reports and non-conformance reports in Word. Manually formatting reports was extremely time-consuming, but now we can process and annotate photos directly in the Obi software and generate formatted reports instantly. Our installation managers can record the location on elevation or floor plan, date, weather, and technical details and send a report out in just five minutes without leaving the workface.
This means we can respond to clients in real-time, but crucially, it also streamlines our record keeping as information is stored directly in Obi. As a result, we no longer need paper-based hard copies, and our inspection reports, checklists and photographic evidence are readily accessible through the app.
This is particularly useful because, as a specialist contractor, GLF is required to participate in the use of the CDE platform specified by the client on each individual project. With five or six projects running simultaneously, we will typically have to engage with several different systems concurrently.
Prior to Obi, we often used different workflows and systems across our three teams in design, fabrication, and installation. Trying to build quality management systems around separate platforms was challenging and time-consuming.
Since introducing Obi, we have now standardised our internal quality management process and are much more efficient, especially when it comes to using different platforms. We now retain project data in one effective system, the data from which can be readily shared on the client’s common data environment (CDE).
When clients request information to be uploaded on another platform, we are readily able to access the required information through Obi and upload to the client’s platform a GLF formatted report.
When conducting site inspections, this makes the whole process seamless. Obi Inspect provides user-friendly access to construction quality control information about the façades, their construction and installation, simplifying compliance with monitoring and control schemes such as BCAR in Ireland and the Building Safety Act in the UK.
Where legislation demands mandatory design certification, plans, or builder’s certification, Obi Inspect makes compliance simple.
Previously, if our team wanted to locate inspection information to submit data or respond to a client’s request, we would have to search several different sources. Through the use of Obi, our site team can easily access inspection records.
Ultimately, this helps us prioritise design and installation excellence in our work, ensuring quality control is at the heart of every successful façade project we deliver.
