One of the Nation's leading homebuilders providing homes for first-time, move-up, luxury, urban, and active adult buyers. Lennar was founded in 1954 in Miami, Florida and currently builds in 19 states and more than 44 markets. Since 1954, Lennar has built over one million new homes across America.
It’s safe to say that Lennar knows a thing or two about growth. The company was named the #1 Most Admired Homebuilder on FORTUNE Magazine’s 2021 list of the World’s Most Admired Companies. “We are honored to be named as the #1 homebuilder in the world on the FORTUNE World's Most Admired Companies list which we believe is a reflection of our excellent operating platform coupled with a comprehensive technology strategy,” said Stuart Miller, Executive Chairman of Lennar. Additionally, Lennar was recently recognized as the #2 homebuilder in the United States.
Lennar faces challenges that are currently shared by every homebuilder: how can we grow, take on more projects, and do so efficiently? With the record-high demand for houses, it's hard to find time to focus on process improvements let alone implement them. However, this is essential for success and growth. In addition, the entire homebuilding industry is facing a labor shortage. Finding and training new employees can be a very long, expensive process homebuilders know all too well. In the meantime, current employees could be expected to take on more than they can handle - a surefire path to mistakes and burnout.
Prior to using TraceAir, Mateo Burbano, a Land Development Manager for Lennar in Morrisville, North Carolina was able to manage about 5-8 projects. He spent countless hours on the road driving to and from job sites. Once on site, his visuals were limited and he would spend a lot of time conducting manual measurements.
By using TraceAir, Mateo was able to double the number of projects he could manage. He is now able to successfully manage 10 to 15 projects mostly all from home. “I was able to pick up how to use TraceAir very quickly. It was very easy to learn”, shared Mateo. Lennar began using TraceAir in 2017 on one project. Today Lennar uses TraceAir on over 50 projects throughout several states and is quickly expanding. Lennar uses TraceAir to:
Managing so many projects at once is no easy task. Small issues can quickly snowball into major catastrophes. TraceAir enables the Lennar team to remotely monitor construction progress through high-resolution aerial site surveys, saving valuable time and money from conducting regular site inspections. TraceAir’s user-friendly platform can be accessed from anywhere by anyone who is provided access. “Our division president uses TraceAir daily to oversee all of our projects. It’s great for him," stated Mateo. Additionally, the ability to view this data from anywhere saves the Lennar team countless time and money from commuting to project sites.
No project ever goes perfectly. Project drawings and documents aren't always aligned, and human errors can result in expensive rework and delays. Errors like over-excavation, placement of utilities or objects on-site, and simple miscalculations can happen before being noticed and can be very expensive to correct. Overlays are extremely useful in providing context for your job site. You can upload almost any 2D design document such as phasing plans, lot layouts, street layouts, and utility plans. Organize your Overlays using our folder structure for ease of navigation. Overlays make it easy to measure the site as-built against as-designed.
Recently, Mateo caught a potentially costly issue using overlays. “We graded three construction entrances. We try to build them where the road will be in the future. By using TraceAir to overlay the site plans over our drone scan, I was able to see that we were about to be out of boundaries. I was able to tell my team to move ten feet to the right to be in the proper area. This saved us from a potential issue with city inspection which could have been costly to fix.”
Tracking site balance regularly is good for project budgets but can be very labor-intensive and difficult without the right tools. Inaccurate site balance calculations have major cost implications due to import/export costs for dirt. TraceAir's site intelligence software enables teams to stay on top of their site balancing by conducting regular scans and using our stockpiles tool to create ad-hoc planes from the existing grade in order to measure the volume of a pile (or pit) above the existing surface. Mateo uses TraceAir to maintain site balance.
Engineers do their best to design a balanced site. When construction is in progress and everything is moving and changes are being made, stockpiles can add up quickly. Measuring our site balance through TraceAir has been great!”
— Mateo Burbano, Land Development Manager at Lennar Homes
Changes with Confidence
If there is one thing you can count on during any project, it’s change. Depending on the size and complexity, changes can cause major chaos if the right tools are not in place. The data provided by TraceAir is extremely valuable when changes arise. Rather than making decisions using your best guess, TraceAir allows you and your team to make decisions using real data.
That is one of the big advantages of having TraceAir grade our job sites. Sometimes we have to add features to the project such as adding a retention wall. Knowing the elevations through TraceAir makes this an easy field design change through our contractors.”
— Mateo Burbano, Land Development Manager at Lennar Homes
Lennar’s willingness to embrace technology has played a major role in their success. If you’re looking for a way to take on more projects with confidence and empower your team to do more, TraceAir is for you. To learn more about TraceAir, request a demo.
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