case study/AI Workflows
Case Study
How a Deep-Foundation Contractor Put 1,372 Piles on One System of Record
Managed AI WorkforceConstructionField Operations
Design through certification on one platform, with every rig record reviewed overnight and the machine values never touched
1,372 piles on a single job, one record each, with a full shift of drill data reviewed in 18 seconds and zero machine values modified by AI
Key Achievements
Shipped 12 modules running live jobs, from guided job setup and the pile design library through the tolerance engine and a generated closeout dossier
Built an in-product review layer that runs 6 checks on every rig record overnight, surfacing a 1.68× grout take against a 1.21× job average across 212 piles of rig history
Synced 1,400+ daily-log entries from the construction-management system to the piles they describe, searchable by date, rig, and phase
The Challenge
The client, a deep-foundation contractor installing auger-cast and drilled piles on marine terminals, industrial plants, and commercial projects, routinely runs jobs past a thousand piles. Every pile generated its own trail of artifacts and none of it lived together. A spreadsheet row, a drill record on the rig, a concrete ticket on paper, and a drawing revision in a shared folder meant every pile lived in five places. Rig data landed in drop folders, where field crews wrote readings on paper and re-keyed them at night. The same pile list was rebuilt three times, once for the estimate, once for the schedule, once for the closeout package. Job history was tribal: finding the 16-inch piles tested on a job two years ago meant asking whoever might remember.
From Inputs to Business Outcomes
1
Field & Design Data
- Rig records: stroke counts, grout volumes, drill and pour times
- Survey northing and easting on the state plane
- Pile types, capacities, diameters, reinforcement
- Mix designs and production rates
- Load tests and concrete breaks
- Daily logs from the construction-management system
2
One Verified Record
- Tolerance checks per project: horizontal, concrete, cage, center-bar
- Supervisor verification and sign-off in the app
- Overrides that never overwrite the original machine data
- Coordinate conversion from survey grid to live map
- Versioned drawings, data files, and test files
- Role-scoped views for inspectors, pump operators, and clients
3
Operations Outcomes
- A live schedule, not a snapshot
- Pile-level progress on a map
- Searchable daily logs beside the piles they describe
- Load test history structured across jobs
- A closeout dossier generated from field data
- A sharper next estimate on every job added
Our Approach
The platform starts where the work starts, with a guided job setup that captures pile types and their capacities and reinforcement details, estimates and production rates, mix designs, load tests, cap configuration, and project documentation. From there every pile on the schedule carries its design identity through drilling, inspection, testing, and closeout, so as-planned, as-built, tests, and concrete breaks become tabs on the same pile list rather than four different files. Built on the contractor's live rigs, surveys, and job records, it converts survey northing and easting on the state plane to a live map, runs horizontal, concrete, cage, and center-bar tolerance checks set per project, and records supervisor verification in the app. Overrides never overwrite the original machine data.
Our Solution
Metacto designed and built the platform, ships the AI review layer inside it, and operates it end to end, schema to field deployment.
Guided Job Setup
Twelve configuration steps from milestones and personnel to cap and constants, with pile types defined once and referenced everywhere the pile appears.
Field Data Ingest
Stroke counts, grout volumes, drill and pour times, survey coordinates, load tests, and concrete breaks structured on arrival and mapped live.
In-Product AI Review
An overnight first pass checking every record against project tolerances, theoretical volume, the rig's own history, and nearby test data, with the reasoning attached.
Managed Operations
Metacto runs the platform in production, with role-scoped access for admins, pump operators, inspectors, and clients, and a closeout dossier generated from the same data the field entered.
Measurable Results
The goal was to give a thousand-pile job one record: design through certification on a single platform, with rig data verified as it arrives, paperwork attached to the piles it describes, and a closeout package that generates itself from what the field already entered. Review is where digital jobs quietly go analog, when someone scrolls a grid and bulk-approves after running out of afternoon. Nothing is auto-approved here. Every approval is a human action, stamped and audited, and every flag names the values, the comparison set, and the reasoning behind it.
1,372 Piles, One Record Each
Tracked on a single job, with 1,400+ daily-log entries synced to the same project and 6 field data streams in one view.
18 Seconds Per Shift
To review a full shift of drill data, 6 checks per record, in place of a spreadsheet reconciliation.
0 Machine Values Modified
Corrections are recorded through the existing override system. The machine's values are preserved verbatim, forever.
Why Choose Metacto?
Built on experience, focused on results
20+
Years of App Development Experience
100+
Successful Projects Delivered
$40M+
In Client Fundraising Support
5.0
Star Rating on Clutch
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