Build Group Taps ALICE to Drive Savings on San Francisco Mixed-Use Project

The Challenge

San Francisco-based Build Group was looking to challenge the construction schedule it had developed for the 5M Project. Located in a dense urban environment between San Francisco’s SOMA and Mid-Market neighborhoods, the 5M Project would transition the site from a mix of office buildings and surface parking lots to a balance of residential, office, retail, cultural, and open space. Build Group had developed its schedule using traditional tools, but these tools had not enabled the company to explore multiple scheduling options as it developed its plan. Convinced that it could do better, Build Group partnered with ALICE Technologies to explore alternative, more efficient schedule options.

“ALICE challenged what we thought was a solid construction schedule. ALICE beat our original plan in an afternoon -- and then helped us to find a much more efficient path.”

Mike MacBean Project Director, Key Accounts

The Solution

With ALICE, the Build Group team quickly created hundreds of alternatives to its original schedule. “We pushed ALICE hard to find new choices for us,” said Mike MacBean, Project Director - Key Accounts at Build Group. “We tried to break it. And we couldn’t. ALICE is incredibly robust.” The Build Group team then reviewed these new schedule options and selected the most profitable path.

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The Results

With ALICE, Build Group created an improved production schedule that enabled the company to save several weeks and millions of dollars in its development of the 5M Project. What’s more, when the COVID pandemic hit and the company had to adjust its plans to account for smaller, socially-distanced work crews, Build Group was able to resequence its plans in ALICE and make up for the time it otherwise would have lost. “Traditional planning tools don’t enable contractors to shift plans nimbly when circumstances change. And they change all the time! With ALICE, we were able to quickly revise our construction plans to account for the complexities of COVID-19. And in the midst of a pandemic, we still delivered ahead of schedule and under budget.”