Planera, the leader in visual CPM-based construction scheduling, announced that its simple yet powerful construction scheduling solution is now available for iPad users. This important new capability makes it easy for project team members in the field to contribute to the creation of field schedules for pull planning and to update the status of those schedules on the job site.
Historically, there has been a disconnect between schedules created in the office and the planning that actually happens in the field. The office-created schedules are often built to meet contractual requirements—not to guide day-to-day work—and they’re rarely updated in real time. Meanwhile, superintendents and trades rely on spreadsheets or whiteboards to plan the work, making adjustments on the fly. As a result, the master schedule becomes a formality, not a functional planning tool—leaving teams to improvise without a reliable source of truth.
The visual, collaborative, and now portable nature of Planera will drive fundamental changes in the way construction schedules are developed and refined over time. Now, with the convenience of iPad access, members of the field team can easily contribute their input to the development of field schedules as part of pull planning. Trade partners can also participate in pull planning via their iPads, lending their detailed knowledge to the process. This collaborative initial approach to schedule development will yield schedules that are more accurate, and that have the trust of the full team.
In addition, project teams can create construction work packages for different construction trade teams and bookmark these for easy access in the field on an iPad via Planera.
Once projects are underway, superintendents and other field team members can take advantage of Planera’s visual, graphical interface to follow a schedule, track progress vs plan, and provide updates based on shifting field realities.
“Planera’s new iPad support will make it easy for our field team members to play a key role in the development of the schedules we create for pull planning,” said Brad Bloomberg, vice president of commercial contractor Miles-McClellan. “These team members have critical site-level experience that is essential to creating and updating effective, efficient schedules. With Planera, we can ensure that we take full advantage of their knowledge.”
“With the availability of Planera on the iPad, project superintendents finally have a powerful scheduling tool available to them wherever the work is happening,” said Nitin Bhandari, CEO of Planera. “Using Planera, not only is it simple for superintendents to contribute to the collaborative process of schedule development during pull planning, they can also easily update the status of a schedule as they walk a job site. With this new release, Planera continues to drive the democratization of construction scheduling, getting field team members more involved in schedule creation and tuning than ever before.”
