The construction industry is undergoing a fundamental paradigm shift towards lean project control, following in the footsteps of manufacturing industries such as automotive, where lean project management methods were introduced in the 1950s.

Minotro brings lean project control to the construction industry. Minotro is not just another application thought up by software engineers in a Silicon Valley cubicle, but was created by construction and engineering industry experts with decades of project control experience in multi-billion-dollar projects, ranging from oil and gas, mining, infrastructure, utilities, transport etc.

The Minotro progress reporting methodology was honed over many years as a manual exercise using spreadsheets and data in many different formats.

Teaming up with his co-founder, software guru Paul Smith, they created an AI-based, elegant, progress-reporting solution that works to any scale of project, in any discipline. And it’s so simple to use, you don’t need a degree in engineering, in-depth training, or project management experience to get started.

Minotro is the dynamic missing link between current project management and scheduling solutions. It works alongside popular scheduling software, such as Oracle Primavera P6, and is a natural extension that gives you quick, easy, real-time progress reporting with infinite flexibility. Minotro lets you drill down to a granular level on any project in the moment.

We tailor Minotro to your project, not the other way around. Minotro is not an ‘off-the-shelf’ product, as no two multi-million dollar projects are ever the same. We listen to your requirements and deliver a bespoke solution uniquely designed to work with your project requirements.

Minotro is YOUR Minotro. We structure your project reporting solution so that it uses familiar naming conventions, acronyms, and codes, which your team will recognise instantly.

Late delivery of materials, manpower issues, weather – the potential for large project delays is immense and complex, posing a constant threat to profit margins that are already squeezed. Minotro enables you to see where possible dangers lie and correct them before they become a threat, highlighting issues that our ground-breaking AI identifies as red flags. Investing in Minotro means peace of mind and an almost instant ROI.

From project controllers to quantity surveyors, we can provide the professional you require via our global network of industry partners. Independent experts ensure risk is mitigated and costs are controlled, helping to ensure your project is delivered on time and in budget.

Minotro works alongside leading industry scheduling solutions, such as Oracle Primavera P6, providing the missing link that allows you to check progress at a granular level. Within the schedule, the completed percentage of an activity/task may tell you that you’re 80% complete. But, which bits of the task are complete, in progress or not started?

For instance: the schedule data says that a one-mile pipe is 95% complete. But which spool pieces are incomplete? Most progress reports providing this information are manually collated, and can often take days or weeks to deliver. Minotro can tell you which bits of the pipe are placed, connected, supported, tested, punched and in handover.

No current software solution can tell you where you are NOW. Minotro is updated in the field, with the results refreshed in real time on screens monitored by stakeholders off-site, meaning all reports and charts are relevant and can confidently be acted upon as events are evolving.

Want to know what percentage of structural steel is completed in area ABC, by sub-contractor XYZ? Or which spool pieces of pipework are connected? Groups and filters deliver whatever you need to know, from project-wide reports to granular analysis of just one interest, such as a sub-discipline. For instance: Concrete, or Earthworks in the discipline of Civil Engineering. Lighting in the discipline Electrical.

Being able to see what needs doing NOW, in such intricate detail, gives you a competitive edge and is the very essence of lean project control.

You tell us how you want to group and filter your data, and we deliver the format. And at the lowest group hierarchy, we create a set of worksteps with weighted percentages for each step to complete the task. As each workstep is advanced, project progress is updated in real-time.

With Minotro, each task can be assigned to a system as they evolve. A few clicks and a system wide report covering WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW is at your fingertips. Without the need for technical training and by any authorised person in the field or back at HQ.

A system, and subsequent sub-systems, can cover several disciplines and are very fluid during the lifecycle of a project. Creating a system report that tells you exactly where you are with, for instance, Fire Water, could take a long time to create from the schedule data and requires expert knowledge of the scheduling solution, as well as intricate project involvement.

Minotro is available as an Android app from Google Play, and we can also provide hardware solutions specially adapted for the tough conditions of a construction environment. This also includes an offline capability for use in intrinsically safe environments. Data is uploaded as soon as the device is back online and immediately visible to all stakeholders.

The easy-to-use, intuitive app means that your team of, say, quantity surveyors require little more than a few minutes’ instruction to begin. This means stakeholders are quickly able to monitor progress of large-scale projects in real time and with the minimum of training.

From board presentations to site-manager reports, Minotro’s flexible charts can be formatted to show what you need to know, how you want to see them. Not only will they tell you what is happening NOW, Mintoro learns your processes and predicts WHERE YOU SHOULD BE NOW.

The charts feature filtering options much like the progress reports, but also include predictive algorithms that tell you when your project or filtered task category will be completed based on progress to date. It’s like having a crystal ball.

Minotro benchmarks against where you should be in order to mitigate risk. See at a glance if your project is behind schedule, then drill down to discover potential bottlenecks, or delayed tasks that are impeding progress. Minotro learns. Our core machine-learning algorithms (or artificial intelligence it is commonly known), have been taught to recognise patterns, make in-depth comparisons based on aggregate data, see abnormalities, and predict potential problems that could hold up progress. The more data the AI processes, the more it produces increasingly accurate progress predictions and optional warning alerts.