Construction Industry Embraces the iPad

PlanGrid was developed by a company called Loupe, with the intention of diminishing the costs and frustrations of dealing with paper-based plans by delivering, "blueprints as PDFs directly on the tablet...When a modification needs to be made, that can be directly noted on the plan, in the app."

Despite the relative lack of time the average person in the construction industry spends in front of a computer, the app has several economic and technical factors going for it, reports Lunden.

"PlanGrid claims that because it is easy to send out and use updated blueprints, this can help reduce the need for rework and other fixes. Typically, 6% of rework is due to outdated blueprints, and in turn around 15% of construction costs are due to rework, which means 1% of total construction costs are due to the blueprint problem."

"PlanGrid also claims that at its most basic level this app could eliminate the heavy printing costs associated with those building projects: typically for every $1,000,000 in building costs, there are $3,500 of printing costs."

Demonstrating the tremendous value offered by the app, "[Ryan] Sutton-Gee [CEO of Loupe] claims that in fact what the app has done in its early days of sales is drive more purchases of the iPad by those in the construction industry - just so that they could use PlanGrid."