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The City of Calgary
Single Construction Permit Process
Keeping Up with the Joneses and the Joneses and More Joneses . . .
Challenge
The City of Calgary was being buried in bricks and mortar. Calgary's construction boom had pushed housing starts to levels never seen before. Activity in 2006, for example, was worth a record-breaking $4.7 billion. Even by 2004, the city's Development & Building Approvals department was working beyond capacity and had to find a better way to manage inspections and permits.
In particular, the city needed to:
- Simplify the inspection booking process;
- Increase the predictability and consistency of home inspections;
- Align the home-inspection process with the builder's home-construction process -- targeting defined phases of construction;
- Mitigate the addition of extra inspections to already overwhelming workloads of inspection staff without increasing operational costs;
- Improve customer-relationship management with industry and the community.
Solution
Calgary joined forces with the private sector to streamline, integrate and enhance inspection service delivery and quality by designing the Single Construction Permit Process. The process introduced a new approach to organizing inspections workflow and made innovative use of technology to save time for all involved.
It was all done through collaboration. Calgary's Development & Building Approvals department and the Building Regulations department worked with the Calgary Region Home Builders Association to align inspections based on key progress points of construction.
Instead of having inspectors assigned to specific trades -- plumbing, electrical and so on - inspectors were cross-trained so that one inspector could oversee different construction phases at the same site. This dramatically reduced the number of inspections needed. In addition, community offices were set up so inspectors did not have to travel from a central office to suburban sites.
A consolidated document called a Single Construction Permit was developed for use with each of three construction phases: pre-backfill, pre-board and pre-possession. Previously applicants needed a separate permit for each phase.
Builders were given more accountability to assist with the timing of inspections. At key progress points during construction, builders are now responsible for booking inspections. They can do this online or by calling 3-1-1, Calgary's non-emergency service number. This further simplifies the inspections process while increasing inspection predictability and consistency.
The inspectors themselves report their results through a Web site called My Inspections, part of Calgary's business-process management system. They can do this directly from the sites they inspect. They use document-management software accessible through IBM T42 laptops equipped with Sierra Wireless 580 Aircards and TELUS Mobility services. Clients can view the reports on a different Web site as soon as they are entered.
Results
The Single Construction Permit Process went live in 2005 after a 12-month pilot project involving nine home-building companies. It produced immediate results that enabled the city to cope with the record building activity of 2006.
Coverage of construction sites was increased without adding to staff workloads or operational costs. The number of inspections at each site was reduced to an average of 16 from 21 - more than 35,000 fewer inspections in all --by increasing the accountability of builders during set stages of construction.
The bottom line is that Calgary is saving $3 million a year on house-construction inspections, while still getting the job done.
Innovative Use of Technology
The innovative alignment of the Single Construction Permit Process with defined phases of construction enhances The City of Calgary's relationship with industry by simplifying the process for booking inspections while also increasing inspection predictability and consistency.
The Single Construction Permit Process is located inside POSSE, a client server application. POSSE is a business process management system written in Power Builder that operates on top of Oracle tables. The permit process required modifications to be made in order for the organization's workflow to meet the needs of the development industry. The main advantage gained from the changes was the continuous flow of permit and inspection data.
Innovative use of technology has placed Calgary in a position to share lessons learned with other growing municipalities across Canada on providing timely and efficient construction inspection practices.
A 2007 CIPA Winner!
For its exceptional application of information technology to transform processes and bring benefits to its stakeholders, The City of Calgary has been awarded a 2007 CIPA Gold Award of Excellence in the Efficiency & Operational Improvements, Not For Profit category.
Technology partners
Auld & Company
Computronix (Canada) Ltd.Z
IBM Canada Ltd.
Sierra Systems Ltd.
TELUS Mobility
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