How Rosendin Electric Builds on Its History of Quality with a Common Data Environment

A lot can change in a company over the course of 100 years—its product offerings, its technology, its approach to talent. But for Rosendin Electric, one thing has stayed the same since the company’s establishment in 1919: its commitment to quality.

Rosendin founded its reputation on building quality equipment, building value for clients, and building its people. Brandon Floyd, Director of Quality and a sixteen-year veteran of Rosendin, is responsible for the processes and workflows that help teams deliver highquality work for clients.

“We make sure that the products we turn over to our customer is what they expected and what they expect from us,” says Brandon.

But even at a company with $2.9 billion in revenue and regular top-ten listings on the ENR 600, Rosendin is always looking for ways to improve. And when the quality team at Rosendin saw an opportunity to improve their internal processes with Autodesk Build, they took it.

By managing their quality workflows in Autodesk Build, Rosendin can accurately capture data, standardize information capture, and reduce rework.

Bridging the Data Gaps

Rosendin has been using Autodesk construction solutions for over a decade, empowering the field and office teams to do their best project work. But Brandon realized that solutions like Autodesk BIM 360 and PlanGrid had their own data environments, which could lead to gaps in data sharing between the two platforms.

“We need accurate data to drive continuous improvements,” says Brandon. “The strategy is to get all that data together, so we can start figuring out where we need to improve as an organization and improve for our customers.”

To close the data gap, Rosendin gathered a committee to evaluate the systems and processes of a new, holistic construction management solution. Two important criteria on Rosendin’s evaluation list were data sharing processes and ease of use project teams.

“We asked, ‘Is it going to be something that the teams can easily grab and start using?’” says Brandon. “If it’s not intuitive, it’s going to make their jobs more difficult.”

Given Rosendin’s familiarity with Autodesk’s construction solutions, the two companies’ history of partnership and open dialogue, and the robust product capabilities, Rosendin felt confident selecting Autodesk Build.

“What Rosendin looks for in a partner is collaboration: a relationship where we can communicate about what challenges we’re having and what improvements would make the product easier for us to use,” Brandon shares.

“Autodesk Build brings everybody together in one platform to where we can easily extract data, visualize it, and figure out how to improve. You’re not going to have gaps in data or information with Autodesk.”

Building Relationships with General Contractors

Rosendin tackles many different types of projects from data centers to industrial facilities to highrise hospitals. The company began piloting Build by deploying the technology on specific projects across multiple industries and locations.

“Based on our experience with other Autodesk construction solutions, we wanted to make sure all the standard workflows were available to different teams,” says Brandon. “It was important to us to make sure we had the right people reviewing it based on our previous processes and make sure there were no roadblocks, so we could roll it out completely in the future.”

Having the general contractor on the project using the same tools has also helped decrease any data gaps. With Autodesk Bridge, Rosendin can share files from Build with the general contractor, but still maintain ownership of the files after a project is completed.

“When general contractors also use Build, that drives consistency and transparency on projects,” says Brandon. “We can still keep the data in our own environment, but also provide them with the data they need.”
 

"Autodesk Build really brings everybody together in one platform where we can easily extract the data, visualize it, and figure out how we need to improve."

Brandon Floyd
Director of Quality, Rosendin

Setting the Standard(s) in the Quality Program

Many of the projects Rosendin works on have tight schedules or are in remote environments, making it crucial to maintain information in one place that is quickly visible and accessible.

Having a common data environment within Build gives Rosendin teams confidence that the information they’re looking at is the latest and greatest—and help them get the job done faster.

“You can save time by going into one location and not having to bounce back and forth between multiple applications,” says Brandon. “Autodesk Build really brings everybody together in one platform where we can easily extract the data, visualize it, and figure out how we need to improve.”

Standardized data is key to producing and completing a project that is on schedule and on budget. During a project, forms and checklists help identify work that needs to be addressed immediately, with preset formfields so that teams enter data in a structured manner.

“Build has made my job easier because it is that one complete tool that brings the field, quality, and project management together in the same spot,” says Brandon.

“Having that standardized platform, templates, and data is going to help us drive improvement, understand where any potential issues are, and mitigate that.”

Minimizing Issues from the Start

Brandon and his team aren’t content to wait until the end of a project to check on quality. They’re taking steps to control quality from the project outset, utilizing forms, checklists, and project templates so that information capture is standardized at every stage of a project.

For example, when a new project is started, the team can find a template for a previously completed one, with all checklists and assets from start to finish.

“We want to be proactive when we’re talking about quality and flagging things early. The key piece is utilizing Build on the front end from the preconstruction side to find those potential ‘gotchas’ before they get out to the field,” says Brandon.

Offering a single source of truth, Build allows the team to review the project specifications, create any RFI, and flag any potential quality problems with Issues early. The Rosendin team can then ask questions and mitigate any issues before the field team starts building the project.

Delivering on High Expectations with High Quality

Having a single source of information minimizes issues during the handoff of information to the field team, which is key to improving efficiency and quality overall. Within Build’s quality management workflows, Brandon and his team can find issues, track their resolutions, and close issues out before they share documentation with the client.

The quality management workflows also help minimize rework, which reduces the risk of potential safety issues.

“Any time there’s unplanned or unscheduled work, that opens up additional risk and potentially opens up issues for safety as well,” says Brandon. “Autodesk Build is a big benefit [to our team] to reduce costs and safety incidents.”

Overall, quality control paves the way for Rosendin’s path toward client success.

“We need technology that can help us overcome them to deliver high-quality projects to our customers,” says Brandon. “With Build, instead of our client being worried at a ribbon cutting for a project, they’re confident it’s up to their standards and they can simply start their operations on day one.”