Colas Rail streamlined site operations for its Jabodebek LRT rail project with Novade

The railway leader adopted Novade’s digital construction platform

Colas Rail constructed the Jabodebek LRT, a light rail transit system (LRT) that provides mass public transportation to the Greater Jakarta area. With Novade’s construction management software, Colas Rail met its deadlines, reduced paperwork, and analysed data in real time.

Preventing quality & productivity loss

Jakarta is one of the most congested cities in the world. In line with the Indonesia Government’s objective to reduce congestion, the Jabodebek LRT was constructed to provide public transportation to Greater Jakarta. Managed by Colas Rail (Indonesia), the 43.5km double track rail system connected Jakarta to Bogor, Depok, and Bekasi (hence the acronym ‘Jabodebek’).

Founded in 2008, Colas Rail (a subsidiary of Colas Group) offers turnkey systems for railway infrastructures. With a presence in more than 20 countries, Colas Rail is an international leader in its field.

Colas Rail was responsible for the design, procurement, building, testing, commissioning, and maintenance of the entire Jabodebek LRT project. Prior to digitisation, the Colas Rail team generated massive amounts of data and paperwork. That led to a potential loss in quality, productivity, and increased delays. To digitalise and streamline the LRT project’s workflow, Colas Rail engaged Novade in 2017 for its construction management software.

As a result of the collaboration, Colas Rail met its deadlines and reduced the amount of paperwork. In addition, the team could easily access and analyse the data generated through Novade’s construction software in real time.

Visibility through digitisation

According to project director Jean Jacques Largent, the construction industry is heavily reliant on teams in the field for data. The teams generated a considerable amount of paperwork with no centralised method of recordkeeping. This made it harder for teams to track data and attain full visibility.

The Jabodebek LRT rail project had more than seven teams and 203 employees and subcontractors on-site daily. All tasks were digitalised and entered in the system by each worker and then synchronised with Novade’s construction platform.

“With a cloud-based system, we had access to real-time data collected on mobile devices. It allowed the team to quickly act upon them,” said Largent.

“Technology assisted the team to better perform their day-to-day work. It greatly improved our productivity and enabled us to achieve good results.” – Jean Jacques Largent, Project Director, Colas Rail

Quality control in construction projects

With Novade’s Quality module, quality managers conducted site inspections, managed defect rectifications, and captured data with their mobile devices. Using standard descriptions, annotated pictures, and locating defects on a drawing, the team has lodged over 13,000 defects on their smartphones. Each defect lodged and report submitted decreased the overall time spent on manual administrative tasks, which led to improved productivity.

According to quality inspector Hasan Basri, “We did not have to manually send physical reports to our clients. We only needed to submit the reports through the Novade system, and the clients could see them. It saved time and paper for us.”

Novade’s construction defect management software improved productivity and collaboration between teams. Supervisors had real-time visibility as soon as workers on-site updated their reports. They could also easily track and identify outstanding issues which were then communicated with the worker or team in charge.

“Novade was used in Colas Rail at every level of supervision. Once we uploaded a report in Novade, all our supervisors could see what was reported.” – Krisna Aditya, Site Engineer, Colas Rail

Apply workplace safety & health in construction sites

Syahrul Mawardi, Colas Rail Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) department, enjoyed a streamlined workflow during his toolbox meetings. Novade’s Safety-HSE module also enabled Colas Rail to have digital site safety forms, checklists, permits, observations, and non-conformance reports (NCRs).

The Colas Rail team conducted over 2,000 safety toolbox talks, created more than 1,520 safety forms and permits to work (PTWs), and managed 3,041 safety observations.

Novade kept the teams connected through digital forms. Workers could create, update, and sign forms on their mobile devices.

“Novade was very useful because the project required us to be mobile and move to various locations. The paperless process certainly saved us a lot of time.” – Syahrul Mawardi, HSE Department, Colas Rail

Find out how the infrastructure industry, especially the railway segment made use of Novade.