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Panel Discussion: How Connected Data Helps Identify Warning Signs in Construction Projects
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Delays rarely begin with a dramatic programme failure. More often, they emerge through small changes: labour moving unexpectedly, activities being resequenced, design information arriving late or procurement decisions slipping. We asked Will Langford, Regional Planner at Bowmer + Kirkland, and Derek O’Neill, Director of Planning and Project Controls at Careys, about the cost of delays during construction projects. The discussion was chaired by Ben Taunt, Head of Business Development at Eleco and Gerry Kelliher, Managing Director for the UK and Ireland at Eleco, with Justin Stanton, editor of CM Digital and Digital Construction Plus, overseeing the session.
The result? Webinar The Cost of Delays You’re Not Tracking: How Better Planning Helps You Spot Problems Earlier and Protect Your Margin in collaboration with Construction Management magazine.
Where Do the Delay-related Costs Appear First?
Approaching the issue from a main contractor perspective at Bowmer + Kirkland, Will Langford thinks the first signs are often subtle changes on site: a subcontractor moving to another area, a new workface being opened or design information being required sooner than expected. The emphasis is on milestone movement, resequencing, and changes across design, procurement, and construction activities.
“These little chunks tend to appear first, and they should be the warning signs that something is building up,” he explained. The difficulty is that construction teams see disruption so frequently that they can become desensitised to it.
As a direct delivery contractor, Careys has detailed visibility of its own labour, plant and materials. That means Derek O’Neill can use resource tracking as an early warning system, monitoring whether labour, overtime or key commodities such as concrete are moving away from plan.
“Resource tracking is the absolute key for us,” he said. “If our labour is moving unexpectedly, we start getting insight that costs may move, and we can intervene before they do.”
The difference is important because it demonstrates that there is no single indicator of emerging delay that works for every organisation. The key is identifying the information you can reliably measure and using it consistently to spot movement early. For Careys, that may be labour and material usage; for Bowmer + Kirkland, granular milestones provide the stable reference points needed to identify when a programme is beginning to drift.
How Can Small Planning Issues Become Major Problems?
Even minor decisions can create significant commercial consequences. Will Langford described a project where delays in agreeing the colour and finish of precast concrete affected manufacture and installation. The team eventually had to redesign column liners, alter the lifting method and introduce additional temporary works.
Because the design and procurement programmes were integrated into the main programme, the team could track movement against the baseline and test alternative scenarios. The example underlined the importance of including design and procurement activities in the programme, rather than treating construction planning as an isolated site exercise.
Creating Consistency with Asta Vision and Asta Powerproject
Both contractors discussed how Asta suite supports greater visibility and consistency. Derek O’Neill described the introduction of Asta Vision across Careys as one of his proudest achievements, saying that it brought simplicity to programme registers, connected systems and made reporting and control significantly easier.
At Bowmer + Kirkland, data from Asta Vision is used to support consistent Power BI dashboards across different regions. This allows individual planners to retain their preferred working styles while giving senior decision-makers a standardised view of project information.
Will Langford also explained how project managers, design managers and contract managers can access the latest programmes through Asta Vision and use Asta Powerproject views tailored to their needs. This removes the risk of teams relying on programme versions emailed several weeks earlier.
Asta 4D was highlighted as a way to visually compare planned progress with activity on site, while Asta Siteprogress can capture progress information and photographs to create an evidence trail.
What Does Good Planning Governance Look Like?
Asked for one piece of advice for contractors improving their planning processes, Derek O’Neill recommended starting with “a standard template, consistency, and rolling it out across the organisation”, rather than trying to transform everything at once.
Will Langford focused on the end user: “Work out what information your decision-makers need to see and what drives them to make a good decision. Once you’ve got that, your planning process will fall into it.”
The central message was clear: software alone cannot prevent delays. Better outcomes come from combining reliable programme data, consistent processes, transparent reporting and a culture in which teams are encouraged to raise issues early. When that foundation is in place, Asta Vision, Asta Powerproject and other connected tools can turn planning information into timely, practical decisions.
Interested in hearing the complete webinar? Replay the webinar now.
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