Tried digital punch lists on a 40-unit reno, half my crew hated it

Ran a 40-unit apartment reno in Columbus last month and switched from paper punch lists to a tablet app. Three of my six foremen refused to use it after day two, said it slowed them down on the stairs. But the ones who stuck with it cut their final walkthrough time from 4 hours to 90 minutes per unit. Has anyone else split crews on digital tools and had to go back to paper for some people?

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gray_patel2d ago

The 90 minute versus 4 hour difference is the whole ballgame right there. That's not a small improvement, that's a game changer for anyone running multiple units. I get why the older guys balked, stairs and tablets don't mix when you're used to a clipboard and a pencil. But you gotta think about the bigger picture, if you keep paper around for them, you're basically running two systems and that kills the whole point. Maybe offer them a hybrid week, let them use paper but they have to transfer everything to the app by end of day, that way they see how much extra time it really costs them. Eventually they'll either come around or they'll weed themselves out, because nobody wants to be the guy doing double the work.