When the GC tracks progress with cameras, your percent complete stops being a number you report. It becomes a number somebody measures.
What happened
Buildots, a company that tracks jobsite progress with AI, announced on Oct. 28 that NCC Building Nordics signed a Master Services Agreement naming it a preferred supplier. NCC is one of the big builders in the Nordics, and this part of the company runs work in Denmark, Finland and Norway.
Here's what Buildots does, per the announcement:
- It uses AI and computer vision to turn what's happening on site into progress data.
- It checks that progress against the schedule and the 3D model, so risks show up before they turn into delays.
- NCC has used it for years in Finland and Denmark on residential, commercial, school and healthcare jobs.
What NCC says it got out of it:
- Production pace risks and sequence deviations caught early, so projects corrected course before the schedule took a hit.
- Percent Plan Complete (PPC) tracked by the system. More tasks finished on time, and one project saw its PPC go up 230%.
- Objective data to verify milestones and hold trades accountable.
- Risk reports for executives built from the same data.
NCC's Kati Tauriainen summed up the result as "faster decisions, fewer surprises."
Keep in mind this is a company press release, and the 230% number is from one project.
Why it matters to you
On most jobs, percent complete is what the foreman says it is. You eyeball it, round it up a little, and fix it later.
With a system like this, the GC already knows. If you said 60% and the cameras show 40%, that gap is in a report somebody above your super is reading. And if your crew is out of sequence, it can get flagged before you even bring it up.
That's not all bad. If your crew is waiting on another trade, the data backs you up. You're not just the guy making excuses at the coordination meeting.
How to use it on the job
1. Keep your lookahead honest. Plan what your crew can actually finish this week, not what looks good. A real 80% plan beats a fake 100% plan when the system is checking.
2. Flag sequence problems early. If you have to work out of order, tell the super before you do it and why. A planned change looks a lot better in the data than a surprise.
3. Know how your work shows up. Ask the GC what the system counts as done. Is it rough-in, or rough-in plus inspection? Report the same way it measures.
4. Use the data when it helps you. If you're blocked, ask the super to pull up the progress view. Let the data show who's waiting on who.
The bottom line
More GCs are going to measure progress instead of asking for it. The foremen who plan straight and speak up early will look good in that data. The ones who round up won't.
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