How Eiffage Génie Civil boosted productivity on its large tunnel construction project
The renowned French civil engineering company used Novade’s digital platform to streamline key site processes during construction.
12,300 Reports Lodged
80% Reduced Time Spent on Admin
Monitored Project Progress in Real Time
Generated Reports Easily
Captured Best Practices
12,300 Reports Lodged
80% Reduced Time Spent on Admin
Monitored Project Progress in Real Time
Generated Reports Easily
Captured Best Practices
Overview
Eiffage Génie Civil successfully completed the construction of Galerie des Janots water tunnel with the Novade platform. Their goals were to facilitate online data entry for easy retrieval, streamline site operations, increase visibility and monitor progress, and to increase productivity on site.
PROJECT
- Galerie des Janots water tunnel in La Ciotat, southern France
- 2.8km tunnel with increased water conveyance to 440 litres per second
- Replace existing pipelines located in a railway tunnel
- Water access to communities east of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis – Cassis, Roquefort-la-Bédoule, La Ciotat and Ceyreste
- Completed in 2019
GOALS
- Facilitate the process of data entry online for easy retrieval
- Streamline site operations
- Attain visibility and easily monitor project progress
- Increase on-site productivity
- Digitise site reports
ISSUES
- More than 4 teams and 30 people on site daily
- Seeking to digitise site reports with huge amount of data
- Reduce on-site redundancy
- Extensive time spent on paperwork that leads to low productivity
- Low visibility on the project’s progress
CONTRACTOR
- Eiffage Génie Civil, civil engineering arm of Eiffage Group
SOLUTIONS
OUTCOMES
- All data are consolidated on a single integrated platform
- Seamless monitoring of production
- Project progress was updated and accessible in real-time
- Data easily captured and managed on the Novade platform
- Paperwork processes digitised
- More than 12,300 reports lodged with approximately 8,000 photos captured using mobile devices in 10 months
BENEFITS
- Increased transparency across projects and captured best practices which led to efficient project turnover
- Improved productivity and quality; saved time and increased traceability
- Reports were easily generated and updated with Novade’s site diary software
- Reduced time spent on administrative tasks by 80%
- Saved time by taking and annotating photos within Novade forms, avoiding long explanations in reports
A Vital Tunnel
Eiffage Génie Civil were contracted to build a 2.8km tunnel to increase the water conveyance capacity to 440 litres per second in La Ciotat in the south of France. Additionally, they were tasked to replace old, existing pipelines located in a railway tunnel. This is especially helpful for the communities east of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis to access the water during the summer months as the the original pipes had experienced significant water loss and safety issues.
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A big project like Galerie des Janots comes with huge amounts of data and paperwork. Prior to this, Eiffage Génie Civil had created a sizable database from past operations but was struggling to effectively harness the data and turn it into actional insights. Furthermore, before embarking on this project, Eiffage Génie Civil had already anticipated low productivity rates and was seeking out a digital solution.
The team also foresaw a substantial workforce on-site daily. This would have inevitably created more paperwork and delayed site reports, with low levels of oversight from the management.
Introducing the Novade Platform
After speaking with Novade’s service consultants, Eiffage Génie Civil decided to adopt Novade’s digital contruction platform to digitalise and streamline their entire site process. Their goals were simple: to facilitate online data entry for easy retrieval, streamline site operations, increase visibility and monitor progress, and boost productivity on site.
Eiffage Génie Civil used the Novade construction app to fill forms such as their shift reports, excavations reports, concreting reports and other checklists. The Novade platform helped the management to collaborate, manage and monitor works in the field, all while remaining contactless.
Seamless project monitoring
Novade’s real-time capabilities and convenience quickly won over Loïc Thévenot, Underground Works Division Director, and his colleagues.
The photo function within the application enabled site engineer Thomas Delorme to simplify long reports and explanations. The photos, which can be annotated, were integrated into quality control forms and reports to allow his site teams to communicate better and faster.
Project Director, Marc Dhiersat shared, “The purpose of digitisation is to avoid redundancy on site throughout the entire quality and information monitoring process. The objective of having the information online allows us to recover and utilise data that is continuously updated.”
“Having the (digitised) information online allows us to recover and utilise data that is continuously updated. The Novade platform allows users to find information easily.”
– Marc Dhiersat, Project Director, Eiffage Génie Civil
Keeping up in real-time
With more than four teams and 30 employees working on the Galerie des Janots each day, the process of recording, collecting, and analysing site reports as well as site diaries, became a tedious process. Not only was it difficult to track progress, but it also limited their abilities to integrate best practices for this project.
“There has been an immediate productivity gain. We have access to the database at any time, and we have dashboards available on different projects which gives us instant updates on the progress of the site(s).”
– Loïc Thévenot, Underground Works Division Director, Eiffage Génie Civil
This reduced administrative tasks by 80% – an immediate productivity gain. According to Thévenot, the dashboards have made it easier for him and others to monitor the project’s progress and systematically retrieve data for analysing and identifying patterns, trends, and best practices across all projects.