Pomerleau

The Problem

It has become crucial for Pomerleau’s business strategy to integrate innovative technologies and streamlined workflows that enhance employee productivity by reducing the resources required to perform repetitive and often unfavorable tasks. The highest concentration of these tasks involves capturing data to monitor the progression of a project, particularly when obtaining data from restricted or dangerous areas. Pomerleau would like to use automated systems like Spot to complete these tasks and free up time and resources for employees to focus on higher-level tasks.

The Solution

Pomerleau equipped Spot with a 360° camera to allow it to capture completed work on the jobsite. Spot’s image capture capability is currently linked to the HoloBuilder platform. This integration allows the site manager to compare weekly or even daily images in order to track the site’s progress. These images can be compared to the 3D model to visually identify any differences, aiding in the coordination of on-site subcontractors and tradespeople.

In practical terms, Spot is trained by an employee of the Innovation team to follow a specific path with predefined locations where photo capture is required. In order to collect this data before Spot, this task required up to 20 hours per week of a Pomerleau employee’s time for just one site.

Spot has been programmed to autonomously take pictures on a regular basis from repeatable locations outside of work hours, requiring intervention only for battery swaps. Pomerleau is currently working on adding new features such as on-site installation monitoring to improve quality control and enhance accuracy of as-built documentation with the help of a Trimble laser scanner.

The Results

Pomerleau anticipates being able to free-up the typically assigned employee’s time by approximately 20 hours per week based on a 500,000 square foot project that requires nearly 5,000 images per week to properly document, allowing that employee to focus on the analysis of the captured data. This deployment has encouraged the team to use HoloBuilder more frequently, as a lot of labor was previously required to collect data to use within its software. After just one month of having Spot on-site to automate dull and repetitive tasks, Pomerleau has already seen a modest reduction in the time required to deliver a project based on their ability to move their workforce towards high-value tasks.

About Pomerleau

Pomerleau is one of Canada’s leading construction companies and a pioneer in sustainable buildings. It specializes mainly in the building, infrastructure, civil engineering and renewable energy sectors. Founded more than 50 years ago, the company employs up to 4,000 people at its 9 regional offices and more than 150 worksites across the country. In addition, it is a champion of virtual design and construction. Pomerleau owns Beaubois, a company specializing in millwork and architectural woodwork, and Borea Construction, the Canadian leader in renewable energy construction. For more details about Pomerleau, visit www.pomerleau.ca.

About Holobuilder

HoloBuilder, Inc. is a San Francisco-based construction technology company that designs, develops, and sells enterprise SaaS software. HoloBuilder offers reality capturing solutions for progress documentation and construction project management. Making use of 360° imagery data, computer vision, and artificial intelligence, HoloBuilder is the fastest and most insightful solution to document construction projects. HoloBuilder is being used by the majority of the top 100 general contractors in the United States. Its investors include Brick and Mortar Ventures, Tandem Capital, E.ON, Foundamental, and NRW.BANK. For more information, please visit www.holobuilder.com.