QR codes are enhancing precast concrete management

How Icon leveraged Visibuild’s QR code system on a current project to improve transparency, accountability and quality for off-site precast manufacturing.

QR codes are a familiar tool for most, often used for quick access or information sharing. During COVID, they became our golden ticket into pubs and restaurants, showcasing their versatility. Now, they’re transforming how we track precast elements from manufacture to installation. QR codes are simple, cost-effective, and universally accessible with any mobile phone, making them the ideal solution for real-time project tracking. So how are Icon’s site teams making the most of them?

Precast concrete goes from paper to QR codes

Previously, managing quality checks involved manually updating Excel spreadsheets – a process fraught with inefficiencies and potential for errors. Visibuild’s QR code system eliminates this hassle by offering a live inspection tracker that provides up-to-date information on all quality checks associated with each precast element. This advancement simplifies and streamlines the process, ensuring accurate and efficient tracking. While Visibuild’s platform already featured QR codes for location-based inspections, Icon’s Travis Hewat took this a step further by independently creating QR codes for each individual precast panel. This initiative was driven by Travis’s desire to streamline the inspection process, allowing him to gather, view, and complete quality checks more efficiently.

Precast concrete has been an important advancement in construction efficiency, but it’s not easy ensuring every panel arrives in perfect timing to be incorporated into the project. Now with Visibuild, ensuring every panel can tell it’s own story, from the casting bed to the delivery truck, to ensuring the safe lifters allow it to be craned into position and grouted into place.

Efficient management of 197 precast concrete panels and over 1,000 checks

The project involved tracking 197 precast concrete panels, each with it’s own QR code, facilitating over 1000 quality checks. By implementing QR codes for each panel, the project team was able to:

Streamline inspections: With QR codes, inspections were conducted more swiftly and efficiently, reducing the time needed for manual data entry and check management.

Improve accuracy: Each panel’s unique QR code provided detailed, real-time information, ensuring that each quality check was accurately recorded and monitored.

Enhance coordination: The live tracker allowed all stakeholders to access up-to-date inspection data, improving communication and coordination among the 3 involved companies.

Ensuring compliance with precast concrete ITP

The two QR code inspections capture the quality assurance procedures outlined in the precast concrete ITP, encompassing the inspection and testing activities required during the manufacture, transportation, and installation of precast concrete elements.

Precast fabrication ITC: Auscast Constructions conducted precast fabrication procedures outlined in the precast concrete ITCs per precast element to ensure they were constructed as per approved shop drawings, with correct reinforcement detailing and concrete mix.

Precast installation ITC: Once the precast elements were delivered to site, Icon and CK Formwork conducted precast installation ITCs, covering pre-start checks and pre-install checks; ensuring the support concrete and precast element had gained sufficient strength for lifting and propping; ensuring the precast element had been delivered damage-free and clear of blockages to dowel/grout tubes. After the element is placed into position, the same precast install ITC covers post-install checks, ensuring all elements have been grouted, panel junctions are caulked, and stitch plates welded.

The entire precast chain

Additionally, this system allows project teams to have vision over the progress of precast manufacture, assisting with coordination of works on-site and off-site, streamlining communication, time spent on follow ups/updates, identifying potential problems early in the process and making informed decisions quickly.

Ensuring compliance and documenting the precast concrete ITP through Visibuild’s QR code system has introduced a new level of transparency and control to the project. This innovative approach to tracking and managing quality checks ensures that every stage of the precast concrete process is meticulously monitored, from fabrication to installation, streamlining inspections and empowering stakeholders to stay informed and engaged throughout the project.

What started as a targeted solution for one project is now influencing Icon’s entire approach to quality assurance, showcasing the power of innovation in driving industry-wide improvements. By adopting Visibuild’s QR code system, Icon has set a new benchmark for efficiency and accuracy in construction management, reshaping the industry’s approach to quality assurance and ensuring that every project element meets the highest standards from start to finish. The success on this current project is a compelling example of how embracing technology can lead to significant advancements in efficiency, communication, and overall project success.

To learn more about Icon, visit their website.