Mirvac is one of Australia’s leading property groups, with over $17bn of assets under management. They engage in the entire lifecycle of an asset building project across residential, office and industrial, and retail spaces - from planning through to design, construction and development, leasing and property management.
As such, Mirvac requires ongoing, detailed and real-time oversight over their construction sites, so they can monitor site progress and ensure projects are running on track. This was typically solved by sending key operational staff out on site every month, along with utilizing surveyors for as-built construction validation.
Mirvac wanted to explore the use of geospatial software paired with drone data capture for a range of use cases, such as construction progress reporting, sitewide and per build civil level tolerance checks, dilapidation reporting and comparing as-built to plans from formwork through to completion and customer handover.
Their goals were to:
To help them meet their requirements, Mirvac came to Birdi.
By switching to Birdi for their construction progress reporting, Mirvac was able to save 32 hours per site per month on manual site visits. With full implementation of Birdi across their team, Mirvac will also look to increase the capacity of its managers by 3 times.
"Birdi gives us up-to-date oversight of our construction progress, without needing to manually visit our sites. We know where everything is up to right from the office, giving us the insights we need to keep our projects on track."
Kase Jong
Regional Operations Manager
Mirvac
Birdi helps Mirvac in the following ways:
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To support Mirvac’s monthly geospatial data capture, Birdi utilizes their Australian drone pilot network. Pilots are matched to each job based on their location, experience and expertise, and are used for repeat captures each month to maintain consistency. To date, Birdi has flown over 200 missions for Mirvac, and captured over 24,000 images and videos of their construction sites.
Mirvac’s drone captured images and videos, as well as 360 degree panoramics are uploaded into their Birdi workspace for visualization. The georeferencing details within each image, video and 360 enable them to be visualized on the map at their precise capture location, providing Mirvac with real-time, contextual information and insights about their construction progress. They can then make important decisions and better manage their timelines and stakeholder engagement and expectations.
Drone mapping images captured of each site are transformed into 2D map orthophotos, providing Mirvac with a top-down view of each of their sites. What’s more, having each monthly capture transformed into a 2D map orthophoto and visualized on the same map enables them to toggle between layers and easily visualize construction progress.
This gives Mirvac greater oversight of their projects, as well as being able to utilize Birdi’s drawing and annotation tools (like polygon, lines and markers) to mark up specific site areas for further attention and follow up.
Mirvac uses geospatial data for their dilapidation reports, specifically targeting roads, kerbs channels, cross overs, authority assets and more. Mirvac’s admin team saves at least 2no days on ground inspections and 2no days preparing and documenting the report. What’s more, further time savings occur at the back-end when disputes occur. Having high definition, time-stamped geospatial data easily accessible within a single Birdi workspace makes it easy for quickly identifying locations and defects in dispute, without having to fumble through different systems or lengthy reports.
There are significant costs associated with stage 1 rectification works, such as:
Mirvac uses geospatial data visualized in Birdi to undertake levels assessments and site checks on a range of site features, such as pads, services, pits and crossovers. The 2D map orthophotos generated within Birdi are used to compare to the site’s masterplan to determine if subcontractors have delivered to specification. With this process, Mirvac’s savings in scope for their surveyors can equate to approximately $200-$300 per lot for formwork and boxing checks.
Finally, Mirvac’s customer relationship teams share their Birdi maps and geospatial data with their customers to keep them updated on their builds. Providing these updates boosts customer satisfaction and retention.
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By using Birdi, Mirvac save themselves 32 hours per site per month, by reducing or eliminating the need for manual site visits across diverse geographical areas. What’s more, their geospatial data visualized in Birdi provides real-time site visibility for contextual and accurate insights and progress reporting for both their internal and external stakeholders.