Platform that collects material and waste data at source for construction teams

Using data to highlight areas of inefficiency on construction projects.

Climate Change Mitigation Resource Use Advancing Net Zero

Problem Addressed

How to reduce the amount of resources required during the construction of buildings and use data to highlight areas of inefficiency and reduce waste and resource use today.

Solution Overview

Qflow enables a positive shift in the way waste and material data is collected and used across projects. Through a combination of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Qflow automates data capture and analysis to help drive both commercial and carbon savings whilst mitigating risk. By automating data capture, the Qflow platform is able to process large quantities of data in a short space of time, allowing for more accurate analysis and insights at the right time. Making the data available to construction teams at the right time is critical to allow them to take action on it and reduce waste and resource use today instead of using data retrospectively.

By way of being a data centric company, Qflow’s effectiveness is measured on each project deploying the software. From this they have seen a handful of common outcomes for projects in terms of measurable impact. For example, on average Qflow have seen projects save roughly £180,000 in annual costs and a significant reduction in time spent reporting on a project. The actual impact varies from project to project depending on scale and how the team choose to implement Qflow.

Additionally, Qflow delivers data driven insight reports to project teams highlighting opportunities for potential carbon reductions by taking small actions on site.

The subscription cost is related to the size of the project as a function of the total build contract value. The contract value determines the volume of data Qflow will need to process during the contract period.

Contracts start at £2,500 and up depending on the size of the build. However, Qflow is also offered as an enterprise solution which affords large economies of scale. Additional costs include account configuration and training for new sites and projects.

Qflow provides a compelling return on investment realised within 3-6 months of deployment. This is made up of reduced FTE hours/£, assurance that the correct materials are being installed which, in turn, reduces potential rework costs and program delays. Additional ROI is found in reduced carbon on site, better inventory management for commercial teams, reduced compliance risks, and evidence in disputes. Qflow’s clients see an average annual cost saving of £222,000 per project.

Company name

Qualis Flow

UK availability

Yes

Solution launch date

2018

Case Study

Qflow was deployed by Skanska UK in 2019 on the £350M Oxfordshire Highways Project. The overarching client was Oxfordshire County Council and the principal contractor being Skanska UK. The contract covered over 2,800 miles of highway maintenance works and 1000 structures. Due to the nature of the works the contract generated a large amount of waste that needed to be tracked and verified for compliance and management. Qflow worked closely with Skanska to deploy the app across the project for a three-month trial. Skanska’s Infrastructure Services division, responsible for carrying out the highway maintenance contracts, produces over 150,000 tonnes of waste every year.

During the 3-month trial, over 400 notifications were sent to the team, alerting them to potential risks, allowing them to address these before they created problems such as programme delays or compliance risk. Data capture was improved by over 70%, enabling the sustainability team to deliver better forecasts of waste transfers whilst reducing risk of non-compliance. Moreover, Qflow is using the data to identify opportunities to reduce waste generation all together.

Better tracking of waste data also allowed opportunities to be explored for optimising movements in different regions, and new developments within the Qflow analytics team have since been able to map out cumulative waste volumes and disposal locations to identify alternative end-destinations closer to site. Using this analysis a central London development could save 6775kg CO2e per year by simply switching waste facilities.

£222,000

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