Building smarter modular projects with data-driven insights

The Challenge

As an offsite manufacturing builder specializing in healthcare and education, McAvoy must simultaneously operate two environments — a manufacturing facility and a project site  –- that are often miles apart, demanding complete visibility into quality, progress and documentation. But much of that information was scattered across spreadsheets and disconnected systems, making it difficult to coordinate teams, track inspections and maintain the necessary compliance.

The Solution

McAvoy implemented Procore as its central digital platform, integrating inspections, observations, drawings, daily logs and analytics into a single environment used by both factory and site teams. Procore’s OpenAPI also allowed the company to connect a vast network of digital tools through a single touchpoint. The result is a connected workflow that captures quality data throughout the lifecycle of every modular building — from factory production to final handover.

The Results

• Helped reduce audit preparation time from days to minutes
• Digitally tracked module lifecycle from factory to site through QR-based locations
• Identified recurring quality issues using company-level observation analytics
• Strengthened framework bids with verifiable performance data
• Improved handover quality

Reinventing offsite construction through digital integration

For more than 50 years, McAvoy has specialized in offsite manufacturing, delivering modular buildings across highly regulated sectors such as healthcare and education. Today, a minimum of 70% of each project is completed in the company’s manufacturing facility before modules are transported to site. It’s an efficient approach that allows hospitals and schools to remain operational while construction takes place. But it also introduces some unique coordination challenges.

Each project plays out simultaneously across two separate locations: the factory floor and the job site. “Because of the nature of our business being offsite, we effectively have two sites for every project,” said Lorraine McMorrow, McAvoy’s Head of Digital. “They’re miles apart physically—and before Procore it sometimes felt that way digitally as well.”

Without a centralized system, information about inspections, quality checks and construction progress could easily become fragmented. The company knew its teams were delivering high-quality work, but it struggled to demonstrate that consistently to clients.

“We knew the guys on site and in the factory were doing great work,” McMorrow said. “But we couldn’t always evidence it.”

A platform that connects people, processes and data

After evaluating multiple construction management systems, McAvoy chose Procore as the foundation for its digital transformation. “It’s a single platform where you can truly connect all your data,” McMorrow said.

That capability proved critical as the company worked to integrate its expanding software ecosystem. Through Procore’s OpenAPI, tools such as OpenSpace, SustainIQ and Breadcrumbs exchange data with Procore behind the scenes. For site and factory teams, the experience is simple and seamless: they log into Procore only, but multiple systems are working together in the background. “Procore has been pivotal in helping us integrate and streamline all the software we have in the business,” McMorrow said.

This integrated approach recently helped McAvoy win the Best Digital Transformation Award at Digital Construction Live, where judges recognized the company’s connected, data-driven delivery model. “They could see we weren’t just implementing technology,” McAvoy said. “We were actually seeing the results of it.”

Tracking every module from factory to site

One of the most powerful aspects of the system is how it tracks each modular unit throughout its lifecycle. Every module receives a unique location in Procore and a QR code. As work progresses, teams scan that code to log inspections, quality checks and progress updates in both the factory and on site. By the time a building is complete, McAvoy has a full digital record of how each module moved through manufacturing, transport and installation. “That audit trail has been really powerful,” McAvoy said.

The data allows teams to trace issues back to their source — whether a material problem, a factory process or a site installation detail — and improve the process across future projects.

Finding quality issues before they become problems

Procore also enables McAvoy to analyze quality data across the entire organization. For example, inspections in the factory sometimes reveal steel beams that were not drilled correctly by suppliers. When those issues are captured in Procore observations, they can be analyzed at the company level. 

The team can then determine whether the issue stems from design drawings, supplier fabrication or installation processes — and address the problem at the source before it becomes widespread. “Instead of someone pointing fingers, the data tells the story,” McAvoy said. “When the machine is telling you this is a recurring issue because it’s happened in 60% of the non-conformances, it’s a lot easier for the team to accept and fix.”

Turning project data into insight and transparency

With large volumes of structured data now flowing through Procore, McAvoy is exploring opportunities to create even more efficiencies through artificial intelligence. One pilot used Procore’s AI agents to review more than 22,000 site photographs on a project, scanning for safety risks. The system flagged several issues — including exposed manholes without barriers — that might otherwise have been missed in the volume of images.

The experiment gave McAvoy confidence that AI can help teams surface important signals from large datasets, even if the technology is still evolving. “At first it felt a bit like a gimmick,” McMorrow said. “But when it actually identified real issues on the project, that was a big moment.”

The same centralized data that enables these experiments with AI also plays a critical role in McAvoy’s core business. Many of the company’s projects take place in highly regulated sectors such as healthcare and education, where clients require extensive documentation to prove safety, quality and compliance.

Because that information is captured continuously in Procore — from inspections and observations to drawings and site records — teams can generate O&M manuals and compliance reports directly from the platform rather than assembling them manually.

“If the data is there, we’re talking minutes instead of days,” McMorrow said. “That audit trail of data is something our clients expect, especially in healthcare and education, where projects are strictly governed.”

That level of transparency has also become a competitive advantage when bidding for public-sector frameworks, where contractors must increasingly publish verifiable performance metrics.

A new view of assets beyond the project

McAvoy is also participating in Procore’s Asset Management beta to support its rental fleet of approximately 1,200 modular units.

Previously tracked through spreadsheets, those assets are now managed through a centralized register that shows where modules are located, when they will come off hire and what maintenance records are associated with them. The company is even exploring whether asset tracking could extend to critical structural components — such as bolts that connect modules together — creating an even deeper level of transparency for clients.

Building smarter modular projects

As McAvoy continues to expand its digital capabilities, the company sees its partnership with Procore as central to that journey. “We see our partnership with Procore as a long-term collaboration built on innovation and continuous improvement,” McAvoy said. “If we’re successful, they’re successful, and that makes for a great partnership.”