Case Study

Confronting the Costs of Weather-Driven Disruptions in Commercial Construction

How a commercial construction leader cut costs and boosted safety with AEM's weather solutions

Overview

With more than 700,000 construction companies, many of which are dedicated to commercial projects, the United States commercial construction market is remarkably competitive. The most successful companies in this space know how to maintain tight construction schedules, avoid unnecessary risks, and keep their operations as cost-efficient as possible.

This is the story of how a leading commercial construction company managed to streamline its operations by improving its weather monitoring. The company recognized it had a recurring problem with construction sites needing to be shut down suddenly and unexpectedly due to severe weather. Those shutdowns often added unnecessary costs and delays to their projects while exposing workers and equipment to unnecessary risks. So, it turned to AEM for help.

Site Operations Manager

“The service is based on our exact location and the forecasting information is precise to our site…I have used our sitewide text messaging system to call off shifts multiple times and saved the project hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay and per diem, and every time I have done so, it has been the exact right call.”

Weather surprises create operational problems

The Challenges

Prior to turning to AEM, the company had left site managers and district managers to find their own weather monitoring and forecasting solutions. There was no consistency, forecasts and observations were not specific to the job sites, and accuracy was often lacking. As a consequence, severe weather often came unexpectedly, leading to several problems for the company.

1. Unnecessary project delays

One of the downsides of depending on questionable forecasts and observations is they can lead to false alarms that trigger unnecessary work stoppages. Every stop carries a cost and can delay the completion of the project.

2. Added project costs

When workers showed up to shifts that ultimately had to be canceled because of severe weather conditions, the company incurred substantial payroll and per diem expenses unnecessarily. These could drive up overall project costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

3. Excessive risk to employees

Without access to reliable information about current and forecasted weather conditions, managers could mistakenly assign employees to work in unsafe conditions. In addition to being bad for the employees, it could be bad for the company if it ran afoul of OSHA and other safety requirements.

4. Undue risk to job sites

When severe weather rolled in unexpectedly, job sites would need to be shut down hastily. Hasty shutdowns increased the probability of sites being left vulnerable to incoming weather threats. For example, consider the damage an unsecured crane might do to a job site in a windstorm.

5. Strained customer relationships

No customer ever wants to hear that project timelines or costs are going up. It puts even greater strain on the relationship when the customer learns those increases could have been avoided.

AEM weather monitoring & forecasting

The Solution

AEM now supports the company with a consistent, turnkey solution for accurate weather monitoring and forecasting. The solution is designed to be scaled easily to any or all of the company’s project sites. It is comprised of three main parts that can be deployed separately or together:

Sferic Maps® enables site managers to easily observe incoming weather threats and provide their sites with early warnings.
Our Meteorological Services support site managers with hyperlocal forecasts that are customized to their specific locations, so they can have additional time to plan for approaching weather threats.
Our Sferic API enables the company to repackage critical weather data into sharable reports.

Together, these tools are helping the business:

Reduce project delays

Now that site managers can more reliably see when weather threats are on the way, they are much less likely to call off work because of false alarms, which translates to fewer unnecessary project delays.

Increase operating efficiency

Now that site managers can feel confident in their weather forecasts, they can use them as a basis to proactively call off entire shifts of work. This is saving money on payroll and per diem expenses.

Improve employee safety

With AEM’s precise, site-specific weather alerts, managers can ensure workers will not be exposed to hazardous weather conditions, which results in a safer overall working environment.

Enhance job site security

Reliable forecasting is giving site managers more time to shut down their project sites in an orderly manner before severe weather hits; important assets are less likely to be left vulnerable.

Strengthen customer relationships

Now that its decision-making is backed by reliable, site-specific observations and forecasts, and weather data can easily be repackaged into shareable reports, the company can readily justify its decision-making when weather-related work stoppages become necessary.

The lasting impact of AEM weather solutions

With AEM’s comprehensive weather monitoring and forecasting tools, this construction leader has transformed its approach to handling severe weather threats. By integrating AEM’s Sferic Maps, Meteorological Services, and Sferic API, the company has successfully reduced project delays, minimized unnecessary costs, and improved on-site safety measures. This tailored solution keeps projects on track while also safeguarding workers and equipment, thereby ensuring each site operates efficiently and safely—even in the face of turbulent weather.

The Components