We build tools for builders

PlanVera was born out of the frustration caused by the fact that the construction industry is riddled with inefficiency. No solutions to ease, speed up or boost their performance were available for the people doing the actual physical job – like electricians and HVAC installers, painters, carpenters, etc., or for their foremen.

The inefficiency of the construction industry is a globally recognized and acknowledged fact. Dissertation research by Aalto University in 2024 states that “up to 80 percent of the work done at the worksite does not actually move the construction work along”. This waste includes, for example, discussion, doing things over, searching for things and other tasks unrelated to the actual work.

Time wastage is such an everyday occurrence in construction that the majority of the people in the industry view it as a natural part of the job.

That was the conclusion of another research project from 2020 (“Hukan mittaaminen suunnittelussa ja tuotannossa”), funded by the Building 2030 consortium. The Construction Quality Association RALA has on their part reported that productivity in construction has not improved in decades, even though other industries have boosted their efficiency with the aid of digitalization and new practices. There is room for optimization.

The fix: better communication and field guidance

However, the dissertation also discovered an easy method to increase construction productivity and simultaneously enhance well-being: improving communication and field guidance, i.e., individual-level supervisory support.

The broad strokes of projects are often reasonably well managed and organized, but an individual installer too often has to spend many hours trying to figure out the answers to their own “W”-questions: what to do, where to do it, what to do it with and sometimes even why.

In addition, the supervisors have their own questions: what’s been done, how it’s been done, when it’s been done and why something couldn’t be done.