Do more with less. That's the objective of many construction companies as they navigate today's market. Between tighter budgets, compressed timelines, and labor challenges, enhancing efficiency isn't just a best practice or good idea—it's an absolute must.
Erik Johnson, Project Manager at ACME Construction Co. Inc., knows this well and says his team manages to maximize productivity, improve collaboration, and reduce errors with the help of technology.
We caught up with Erik for our latest Behind the Build feature, and he spoke a great deal about ACME Construction's digital transformation. As someone who worked his way from electrician to foreman to superintendent and then project manager, Erik has a unique perspective on how firms can digitize their processes to enhance outcomes at every project stage.
Check out what he has to say below.
Acme Construction is a family-owned mid-sized general contractor in the Central Valley of California. The company has been around for quite some time, and we just celebrated our 75th anniversary last year.
We focus on mid-sized projects. We specialize in schools and hospital work, so that's our niche. As for me, I'm the Project Manager here at the company, but I wear a lot of other hats. I'm involved with a lot of technology, among other things.
Being the size we are, we're not really specialized, so we do many different things besides running the job, including estimating.
I was pulled into the role to help bring the company up to current times with technology. When I started, things were still old school; we were mailing stuff out, that type of thing. We've grown by leaps and bounds in that respect over the last four or five years for sure.
I started as an electrician. I got hired as an electrician knowing nothing, so I started from there and learned the trade. As I got more experience and knowledge, I worked myself up to foreman and superintendent and moved to the office a little bit. I project managed there and estimated. That was a process of over 18-and-a-half years.
As an electrician, I did a lot of work with Acme Construction. Then, I was ready to move on, and I went to another company, which I really didn't enjoy. I got a phone call from Acme and it was perfect timing. They hired me there, and that's how my journey with Acme started.
One of the sons who will eventually take over the company realized where construction is going. He recognized that with technology, it's kind of a "Get on that train, or you're going to get left behind" type of thing.
He was all for going down that road. He knew we might swing and miss a few times and was fine with that, which was nice. So, we were able to test many different things and start heading down that path to get more up to speed with today's construction.
One of the biggest challenges is that construction seems to get faster every year. Being able to keep up with the information is a big deal. It's about making sure you're working with the current and correct drawings. Plus, you need to get information to and from people faster to speed up that process and maintain the schedules.
With technology, the internet, and whatnot, we can upload and download things at faster speeds, which makes that process a lot easier.
That was always one issue we faced. It's getting information from the office to the guys in the field quickly so they can resolve things faster and keep projects moving. That was always a big issue and technology definitely helped.
Other things with technology are that it allows us to digitally sign things, process things faster, and become more efficient. You deal with fewer errors of handwriting. You can input data once, and instead of recopying it six different times where you can make a mistake, it automatically transfers over. So technology also helps reduce mistakes, whether in the office or the field.
We were missing efficiency. The processes we had prior to ACC were just very old-school traditional, going back to the '80s and the early '90s.
But with the pace of everything, you have to get things moving faster. And since we are a smaller company, we have to be more efficient because we don't have the staff that a bigger company has to take on all the challenges. ACC allows us to do more with less.
One of the things that we've implemented in our documentation workflows is to have steps for verification. That has helped us ensure we're compliant on every step along the way and not putting the cart before the horse.
That's been huge for us. It just speeds up the process, and we've got it down now, where we've standardized it based on the type of job that we're doing. It's built into the project when we create it and is ready to go.
I need to be able to see the money side of things quickly and accurately. With ACC and its integrations into our financials, we've been able to pull that information right into the cost side of ACC. It keeps me in that system, so I don't have to pop out and look at another platform.
We built in many integrations now, and it's pulling everything into the system. I can go in quickly and see the status of any change order, contract, cost payment, budget payment application, and more. I can see where that's at and push it along if I need to or do whatever I need.
All our RFIs and all our submittals are right there within the system, so they're very easy to find, read, and understand.
Obviously, we've got all the drawings. It's huge to have all the drawings right there instead of reels of paper hanging all over the place.
The main benefit is being able to be current. It's having the current information in front of you, not working on something outdated you don't know about, and having it readily at your fingertips—whether on your computer or an iPad, for the guys in the field.
If a change happens or something needs to be updated, it can be done almost in real time. You make that change, sync it, and then a guy hundreds of miles away could have that information.
It's a game-changer. It's huge being able to do that.
I value transparency and openness. I've worked with similar companies, but it hasn't gone well. I never felt like I was being told the truth.
To be honest, everyone I've worked with at ACC or Autodesk in general has been wonderful. Everyone has been open, honest, and transparent about what's going on, and that's huge to me.
If something changes, there's a reason; they explain it, and it's good. I don't feel like there's this secrecy or something weird going on.
I think that's yet to be seen. It will be an interesting ride over the next ten years. The only thing that I can really see, at least from my point of view, is AI speeding up workflows. Particularly on the architectural and engineering side, I'm sure there's data coming out of the wazoo that they can process so much faster now.
That said, there will still be a human touch to all of this, especially when it comes to taking liability.
AI is going to make things faster in one way or another. I'm just not sure where and how that will happen yet. Are we going to trust a computer to make a decision for us? I don't know. I'm sure someone's got a bigger imagination than me, and they'll figure it out. But it's going to be interesting for sure.
Being a little tech-savvy will be important. It's also essential to be open-minded and understand how computers work and the processes behind them.
I'm still shocked at how many people don't know how to use their iPhones or iPads. Even today, they still know little more than the bare basics. It's helpful to just dig into settings, be curious, and figure things out. I think that will be a huge benefit to anyone entering this trade.
