JE Dunn Construction Company (www.jedunn.com) is a leading commercial contractor that leverages SketchUp to enhance quality control and reduce costs.
Founded in Kansas City in 1942, JE Dunn is currently the largest contractor in the United States, generating nearly $3 billion in annual revenue. The company operates 19 offices nationwide and employs over 4,000 professionals. Their diverse portfolio includes projects ranging from medical centers and commercial office buildings to government facilities, higher education institutions, hospitals, and more…
Challenge
Each JE Dunn project involves multiple critical tasks, including assembly, delivery scheduling, construction coordination, and safety planning, covering every phase from start to finish. The company’s engineering service team consists of in-office designers and on-site engineers who ensure construction quality. This team collaborates closely with project owners, architects, engineers, and specialized subcontractors to guarantee that complex systems and components integrate seamlessly and are practical for on-site construction teams to implement.
Solution:
Necessity drives innovation. Facing challenges in communicating critical information across diverse project teams, JE Dunn adopted SketchUp as a clear, effective tool for sharing and exchanging ideas throughout complex, project-wide efforts.
Coordination among different teams is especially vital during installation, where precision is crucial to ensure all components fit perfectly. By visualizing intricate project elements through 3D SketchUp models, JE Dunn enables all stakeholders on site to better understand complex details and workflows.
For everyone involved, SketchUp acts like a bright light, illuminating the project’s complexities. Its use has deepened collaboration across contracts, improved proactive problem-solving, helped identify issues early, and facilitated stakeholder approvals—ultimately securing high-quality construction outcomes.
Results:
Building on this success, JE Dunn expanded SketchUp use across more projects. The company standardized SketchUp as a core tool to enhance construction quality, reduce expenses, and support 3D visualization services for projects valued at $20 million or more.
Today, JE Dunn integrates SketchUp throughout the entire design and construction process. The company and its subcontractors rapidly prototype and compare alternative designs, significantly improving the efficiency and accuracy of building facade installations.
LayOut drawings created with SketchUp Pro (Professional Edition) facilitate clear communication of construction details among all parties.
Using LayOut, SketchUp Pro’s 2D drawing and documentation tool, JE Dunn combines traditional 2D blueprints with rich 3D model data to produce comprehensive documents that construction teams use on site. “LayOut helps us standardize everything and put it together like glue, beautifully bonding all components,” says Rodd Merchant, Vice President of JE Dunn’s Rocky Mountain Engineering Services Group.
LayOut drawings enhance communication throughout the construction process
In partnership with Google Earth, JE Dunn employs SketchUp for project logistics planning—from fencing and delivery scheduling to organizing site workflows. This approach provides clients with clear visualizations, improves understanding of project status, and supports informed decisions about temporary workspace adjustments during different phases—such as temporarily handing over a wing of a building during construction.
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