System and method of work management

• US 20040236619A1
• Filed: 05/05/2004
• Published: 11/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Warranty Management Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: Warranty Management Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Gundersen, Tracey A., Gundersen, Charles J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,835,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment

Abstract

A method of managing construction work including creating a work request regarding a building in a database coupled to an owner user interface and a builder user interface, assigning the work request created in the database to a trade contractor to complete the work request, and tracking the status of the work request in the database. The method further includes storing the work request, the trade contractor, and the status in the database for subsequent access via at least one of the owner user interface and the builder user interface.

Claims

1. A method of managing construction work, the method comprising:

creating a work request regarding a building in a database in communication with an owner user interface and a builder user interface;

assigning the work request created in the database to a trade contractor to complete the work request;

tracking the status of the work request in the database; and

storing the work request, the trade contractor, and the status in the database for subsequent access via at least one of the owner user interface and the builder user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

logging records of communications between the owner user interface and the builder user interface in the database.

3. The method of claim 1, further including:

scheduling a time for the trade contractor to complete the work request; and

recording the scheduled time in the database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein scheduling a time for the trade contractor to complete the work request includes viewing a trade contractor schedule of previously scheduled work stored in the database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigned trade contractor is associated with a trade contractor interface coupled to the database via a network communication link, and the work request, assignment, and status stored in the database are accessible by the trade contractor via the trade contractor interface and the network communication link.

6. The method of claim 1, further including:

determining if the work request falls within a builder'"'"'s limited warranty.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein assigning the work request only occurs if the work request does fall within the builder'"'"'s limited warranty.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

viewing reports related to the status of the work request for at least one of a builder and the trade contractor.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

sorting the reports based upon parameters chosen by one of the builder and the trade contractor.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

conducting a building orientation and the work request is generated as a result of an issue identified during the building orientation.

11. The method of claim 1, further including:

denying access to the database by an owner via the owner interface after a warranty period has elapsed since the owner closed on the building.

12. The method of claim 1, further including:

assigning an owner selectively utilizing the owner interface and a builder selectively utilizing the builder interface on each one of a plurality of access levels, each access level defining at least one area of permitted access in the database.

13. A method of managing construction work, the method comprising:

creating a work request regarding a building in a database coupled to an owner interface and a builder interface;

assigning the work request created in the database to a trade contractor to complete the work request;

tracking the status of the work request in the database reporting the work request as complete to the database;

storing the work request, the trade contractor, the status, and the report of completion in the database for subsequent access via at least one of the owner interface and the builder interface.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein tracking the status of the work request includes tracking the time between assigning the work request and reporting the work request as complete.

15. The method of claim 13, further including:

generating empirical data based at least in part upon the tracked status of the work request.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein generating empirical data is completed for each of a plurality of builders, the method further comprising:

comparing the empirical data of the plurality of builders.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein tracking the status of the work request is repeated for a plurality of work requests, and generating empirical data includes generating a Builder Efficiency Rating equal to a number of assigned work orders not reported complete divided by a number of buildings a builder has falling within a warranty period.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein tracking the status of the work request is repeated for a plurality of work requests, and generating empirical data includes generating a Builder Warranty Average equal to an average number of days required for completion of and report of completion of the work requests assigned to the trade contractor for the builder.

19. The method of claim 15, further including:

approving a work request to be assigned to the trade contractor;

wherein tracking the status of the work request is repeated for a plurality of work requests, and generating empirical data includes generating a Pre-Closing Management Ratio equal to an average number of unverified, unapproved work requests created during an orientation of the building divided by an average number of work requests that are approved and assigned to the trade contractor as a result of pre-closing inspections of the building.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein tracking the status of the work request is repeated for a plurality of work requests, and generating empirical data includes generating a Pre-Closing Completion Average equal to an average number of work requests assigned to the trade contractor and completed before a closing date of the building divided by the average number of work requests assigned to the trade contractor prior to the closing date of the building.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein tracking the status of the work request is repeated for a plurality of work requests, and generating empirical data includes generating a Trade Contractor Productivity Ratio equal to an expected completion time for the work request divided by an average time of completion for similar work requests assigned to a trade contractor.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein tracking the status of the work request is repeated for a plurality of work requests, and generating empirical data includes generating a Trade Contractor Completion Average equal to an average number of days required for the trade contractor to complete the work requests assigned to the trade contractor and reported complete.

23. A construction work management system comprising:

a database storing a builder warranty, work order information relating to the builder warranty, the work order information including a work request, a trade contractor assigned to the work request, and the status of the work request; and

a network communication link coupled with the database;

wherein the database is configured to selectively interface with at least one of an owner and a builder via the network communication link.

24. The construction work management system of claim 23, further comprising:

an owner user interface configured to facilitate the owner in accessing the database via network communication link.

25. The construction work management system of claim 23, further comprising:

a builder user interface configured to facilitate the builder in accessing the database via network communication link.

26. The construction work system of claim 23, further comprising:

a trade contractor user interface configured to facilitate the trade contractor in accessing the database via network communication link.

27. The construction work management system of claim 26, wherein the database includes at least one index formula for creating empirical data regarding the efficiency of the trade contractor.

28. The construction work management system of claim 23, wherein the database stores at least one index formula for creating empirical data regarding the efficiency of the builder.

29. The construction work management system of claim 23, further comprising:

an administrative user interface configured to facilitate an administrator in accessing the database via network communication link, the administrator configured to perform at least one of maintaining the database, performing accounting tasks, and performing administrative tasks.

30. The construction work management system of claim 23, wherein the database additionally stores profile information for each of the owner and the builder.

31. The construction work management system of claim 23, wherein the database defines at least one of a plurality of access levels assigned to each of the owner and the builder.

32. The construction work management system of claim 31, wherein each of the plurality of access levels defines at least one area of the database that is accessible to the owner or the builder assigned to the respective access level.

33. The construction work management system of claim 23, wherein the database includes a log of all communications between the owner and the builder communicated via the network communication link.

34. A computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method of managing construction work information comprising:

creating a work request regarding a building in a database coupled to an owner and a builder;

assigning the work request created in the database to a trade contractor to complete the work request; and

tracking the status of the work request in the database.

35. The computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method of claim 34, the method further comprising:

automatically logging communications between at least two of the owner, the builder, and the trade contractor to the database.

36. The computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method of claim 34, the method further comprising:

calculating empirical data regarding the work request based upon index formulas.

37. A method of managing construction work, the method comprising:

creating a work request regarding a building in a database coupled to an owner user interface, a builder user interface, a trade contractor user interface, and an administrator user interface;

determining if the work request falls within a builder'"'"'s limited warranty;

assigning the work request created in the database to a trade contractor to complete the work request, including scheduling a time for the trade contractor to complete the work request;

tracking the status of the work request in the database;

reporting the work request as complete to the database;

storing the work request, the trade contractor, the scheduled time, the status, and the report of completion in the database for subsequent access via at least one of the owner user interface, the builder user interface, the trade contractor user interface, and the administrator user interface;

logging records of communications between at least two of the owner user interface, the builder user interface, the trade contractor user interface, and the administrator user interface in the database; and

generating empirical data based at least in part upon the tracked status of the work request.