Site diaries come in many forms with many different names / descriptors. At the end of the day, whatever you call it, the form does the same thing - A Site Diary captures data from any given site on any given day.

Data can be;

• Activities (with percent completion)
• Events (and associated timelines)
• Who was onsite and what they did
• Who visited (with induction signatures)

Couple this with images, relevant narrative and electronic signature and you have a powerful tool to prove what has been done, what happened today and what is planned for tomorrow.

Site Diaries are submitted by a user, so the date and time and location can be logged to provide an auditable trail (which can be used as evidence if required).

The finao prime system allows you to generate a Site DIary 24/7 from any internet connected device.

A submitted diary can generate notifications, reminders and also be downloaded as a PDF (with images embedded) or en masse in an excel for reporting purposes.

Reasons for having a Site Diary

 

1. Task Scheduling

• Allocating Project Managers – Supervisors can program tasks ahead of time in pre-formatted Site Diary entries that are activated when the crew start work. This can clearly set out production targets for the shift / day for individual crews or sites.
• Nominate (or book in) specific activities such as safety pre-starts, delivery preparation, contractor inductions, contract or council permit conditions to be satisfied at the time
• Activities can be selected according to your WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) codes
• Planned baseline Program - Tasks can be allocated according to project critical path timelines
• Actual progress against baseline - Real time reporting against timelines / critical path
• Early identification of delays / issues
• Provides opportunity to reduce impacts of delays

2. Materials Tracking

Raw material

• Delivery confirmation of material: Condition on receipt / installation onsite
• Photo record of delivery dockets - Time and date stamped

Waste

• Record quantity of waste materials taken off site - Allows cost control against budget for tip / disposal fees
• Allows traceable evidence for environmental compliance / claims requirements

Quality

• Real time monitoring of product requirements
• Easy evidence gathering of materials type against specifications, condition of finished product at handover to client
• Evidence for rejection / quarantining of non-compliant product / materials, real-time notification to project manager for cost control / customer expectation management
• Certification activities – Engineer certification sign-offs, third-party certifier activity

Production rates

• Actual delivery time data gathered
• Allows real-time tracking against handover / commissioning deadlines
• Allocate specific diaries to critical project activities

Estimating baselines

• Allows calculation of production rates for task / project types by crew and equipment over time and against a variety of projects or geographical areas
• This can feedback into your estimating processes for improved accuracy for costing of materials, labour, plant & equipment, trade package performance over time

3. Variation management

As a principal contractor

• Allows contractors to report daily on activities
• Send images / documents and details of potential issues during works
• The Project Manager can review information in a timely manner to manage cost / provide instructions
• This function can increase productivity of Project Managers / Supervisor as you can have several contractors in an area often on separate projects
• Using this method your people don’t have to travel to each location to verify issues, it allows them to prioritise and attend high priority sites only instead of all sites - This increases overall visibility and efficiency

As a contractor

• Allows you to provide information required under contract to have variations / claims approved
• It provides historical evidence (including images and narrative) of activities, events, who was on site and visitors etc.

4. Claims Management – verification

Contractor

• Site Diaries provide the information to compare and validate contractor claims
• eg. Civil contractor provides a site diary for works each day for 4 weeks. Contractor does not report “rock” issues at any time. When the contractor submits their claim, it includes 1 week of "rock work" with increased charges. Site diary records proves or disproves this fact

Dilapidation

• Prior to work starting Site Supervisor can record site conditions before and after each shift, which then allows you to validate and manage claims for damage to third party or client assets / properties

Restoration

• Easily record evidence of completed restoration of the condition of pavements / ground surfaces against a time and date
• This allows for efficient management of civil and contractual claim issues

5. Incident / issue management - Legal exposure

Realtime diligence notification of high risk / high impact issues (this also includes positive impact reporting)

• Senior management monitoring of information in real time, by geographical region (and filter by types / categories)
• Identifying missing information / actions required
• Clearly identifying issue categories
  1. Safety – Environment
  2. Commercial
  3. Community (Reputation)
  4. Industrial
  5. Regulatory
• Automated multiple diligence reporting to key personnel based on category of reported issue
• Factual recording of;
  1. Video
  2. images
  3. Written descriptions / narrative
  4. Identities of regulatory visitors

6. Enhanced Management Decision Making

• Improved decision making based on “real” information from the operations of the company (in real time)
• Effects of decisions can be quickly and reliably validated by information flow from the income-generating activity of the organisation
• Readily adaptable / flexible formats of diaries enable management to target specific issues / activities and monitor results reported back
• Opportunities to lift customer satisfaction levels and company reputation by focussing frontline personnel on actions that are important to the client
• Allows for as much transparency of activity monitoring as is needed - Your contracting style may call for immersing the client fully into the production process
• This system can provide targeted information flow to nominated parties as required with little resource impact on your operation

 

Conclusion: Implement a finao Site Diary into your organisation to get the information you need to make informed business decisions in real time. Work proactively not reactively!