Rhumbix: Made for Those Who Build
The idea for Rhumbix was ignited more than a decade ago, sparked by a multi-billion-dollar project at a Chilean copper mine. Navy Veteran Zach Scheel was tasked with tracking and reporting the labor hours and production metrics for more than 7,000 craftworkers running 24-hour shifts and using paper timecards. It was complex and inefficient, with little to no actionable insights to show for it.
“There had to be a better way to create and work with real-time data,” Scheel said.
Scheel and his co-founder, fellow Navy Veteran Drew DeWalt, began developing solutions they wished they’d had while working in the field, all designed to help make work safer and more productive. Rhumbix officially launched in 2014 and today, the company is an industry leader in labor and resource management. The cloud-based platform provides “a full suite of software technology to handle all field operations, including timekeeping, attendance, payroll, production tracking, change order management and analytics to assist with compliance reporting for union contractors,” Scheel said.
Since its inception, the Rhumbix Platform has been deployed on more than 730,000 projects, including San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower and Transbay Terminal, and the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas. Clients consistently report a 50-85% time savings on administrative efficiencies, and 10-20% increase in recovery rate for work tracked on a time and materials basis using Rhumbix. Rhumbix customers have also seen data accuracy increase by as much as 90%.
“We understand a lot of people are in different stages of their digital transformation journey, and our analytics suite allows them to get value out of the data collected across different projects and different owners so they can benchmark internally and begin to automate insights,” Scheel said. “Analytics helps them go from a reactive way of managing projects to more proactive.”
The construction industry is notoriously late to the game when it comes to technology. However, Scheel sees successful companies handle it by implementing processes for change management and including everyone on the team from the top down. Enter the Rhumbix commitment of delivering value to “workers first” — one of the company’s core values — because empowering the field with solutions that work ultimately benefits the organization as a whole.
“Technology drives change, and change is hard,” Scheel said. “We say the best tool is the one your team will actually use, and the bar for usability is consumer mobile apps, such as Uber or DoorDash. If it’s not as easy and usable as ordering a pizza, it’s not going to be used. Usability in the field and office is something that really differentiates Rhumbix from other solutions in the market.”
Even as Rhumbix continues to streamline construction workflows, Scheel is always looking to improve the platform and bring more solutions to the industry — and Bay Area SMACNA members.
“We love meeting folks who are potential customers because it’s a great way to get feedback from the people representing the voice of the industry,” Scheel said. “What are the biggest things they struggle with from a software perspective? What features and functionality do they want to prioritize? We’re not going to solve their problems by sitting in our offices!”
Rhumbix is excited to celebrate the company’s 10-year anniversary next March.
“It’s a pretty big milestone for a startup,” Scheel said.