SNAGGERR: A LEAN-DIGITAL MOBILE APP FOR CAPTURING, PREDICTING, PREVENTING & CLOSING OF DEFECTS/ SNAGS FOR TALL BUILDINGS

Subhash Chandra Rastogi, V. Srinivasa Rao

Abstract: Real Estate construction has many issues dealing with high-rise Towers requiring global Product Quality. Some of these includesnagging done independently by several stakeholders (Contractors, Quality Teams, PMCs, Architects, Sales Teams and Clients). Thereafter, these captured snags are rectified, involving lots of rework cost, further project delays and higherfinance Costs. Often final product finishes are not as desired, because those are not done right thefirst time. It has been observed that same snags recur at several floors of tall buildings because of several contractorsengaged or poor quality of contractors involved. Poor skilled workers are another reason. Cost of such rework & extra delays can be 4-5% of the total cost of the project. Most Construction companies practice or hire Quality Management Service. But they often fail to address the above-mentioned problems amicably. Although checklists, standard work methods for construction processes etc. are available as a part of ISO certification, but these documents are found not very user-friendly or useful. These are used more for „marketing" or „references". Besides, there is too much of documentation involvedin preparing snag-lists at several levels. Tracking their closure and preparing various reports for the complete lifecycle management of the Snags, is very tedious and time consuming. To resolve the aforementioned problems, a paradigm shift is required for construction projects involving tall Buildings (Hotels/ Apartments/ Commercial buildings) fromthe currentpractice of “Finding & Fixing Snags” tothe next generation"spractice of “Predicting & Preventing Snags”. Digital technology willplaya significantrole in achieving this paradigm shift. “Snag Predictor & Preventer” is a new concept for Quality Assurance for Tall Towers projects. This was developed,by the authors, based on real-life experiences on few multi-national projects in UAE and India. This is for managing the complete LIFECYCLE of SNAGS comprising of five steps of Capturing, Predicting, Containing, Preventing and Scheduling balance rework for snags. SNAGGERR, a Cloud-based App for Users" Smartphones, helps in achieving this objective, as a digital solution thatworks anywhere anytime and on anydevice (mobile, tablets , Laptops, Desktops). SNAGGERR also provides many real time insights, a customizable and informative dashboard, and recommendations for do-it-yourself actions, in an instantly collaborative environment. This paper illustrates an application of conceptbehind SNAGGERR, used in many projects including a30-floors twin-towers for a premium hotel & Apartmentsin UAE, having an area more than5 millions Square feet

Keywords: SNAGGERR, Snag Prediction, Snag Prevention, Snagging, Quality Assurance, Quality Management, Quality Control, Construction Rework, Handing over

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2016.0532010