- FMI and Autodesk's Construction Disconnected study estimated $31.3 billion of US rework in a single year traced to poor project data and miscommunication — about 48% of all rework.
- Rework compounds: a deviation caught after finishes costs multiples of the same deviation caught at install.
- The common failure isn't ignorance of code or plans — it's that the right information isn't in front of the person looking at the work.
- AR-assisted quality control moves the check to the moment of installation, when correction is cheapest.
The number nobody budgets for
In 2018, FMI and Autodesk published Construction Disconnected, a study of nearly 600 construction professionals. Its headline finding is still the most useful single number in construction quality: poor project data and miscommunication were responsible for roughly 48% of all rework in the United States — an estimated $31.3 billion in a single year.
Read that carefully. It's not saying crews don't know how to build. It's saying half of the tearing-out and redoing happens because the person doing the work didn't have the right information at the right moment — the current revision, the applicable code section, the RFI answer that changed the detail.
The same study found field professionals spending 35% of their time — more than 14 hours a week — on non-productive activities: hunting for project information, resolving conflicts, dealing with mistakes and rework. That's not a labor problem. That's an information-delivery problem wearing a labor costume.
“Half of rework isn't a skill problem. It's the right information failing to reach the person looking at the work.”
Why rework compounds
Every deviation has a cheapest possible moment of correction: the moment it's installed. A stud bay framed two inches off costs minutes to fix while the framer is standing there. The same bay costs a change order after rough-in is inspected, and a small demolition project after drywall and finishes.
The industry's QA model guarantees we miss that moment. Plans live on a table or a tablet; codes live in a book or a browser; the record of what was decided lives in email. The check happens at inspection — days or weeks after installation — precisely when correction is most expensive.
Your eyes are already in the right place
The one instrument that is always pointed at the work, at the moment the work happens, is the installer's and superintendent's own line of sight. That's why the emerging answer to the rework problem is AR-assisted quality control: put the current plan, the applicable code, and the deviation flag into the field of view, while the person is still standing in front of the condition.
This is the premise Corevis is built on. AI-powered safety glasses overlay the blueprint on the actual space, detect code and spec deviations as you walk, and pull up the relevant reference next to the issue. The check moves from the inspection — after the fact — to the installation, where fixing it is a conversation instead of a change order.
The $31.3 billion isn't going to be fixed by better meetings. It gets fixed at eye level, one caught deviation at a time.