Accelerating Growth: Kiddie Academy® Reduces Construction Life Cycle by 3-7 Weeks per Project with OnsiteIQ

Kiddie Academy® Educational Child Care is a leading educational child care franchise with over 300 locations nationwide. Since opening their first Academy over 40 years ago, they’ve been shaping, fueling, and nurturing children’s natural curiosity. Their success is demonstrated by the twenty-two new franchise locations opened in 2022 and the thirty planned for 2023. The demand for additional locations is a testament to their passion for early childhood education, community commitment and Life Essentials®.

The company faces significant challenges in overseeing the construction of new locations to meet the growing demand for their early childhood education services. Acting as a construction manager on behalf of the franchisees, the Kiddie Academy in-house development team assists with location selection, general contractor selection, and more to provide a seamless experience for Franchisees during the investment process. The company and its Franchisees must ensure consistent construction for brand representation and safety standards. Although detailed designs and brand standard specifications are provided to the contracted project teams, some key details can be missed during the course of active construction. Any deviations from the specifications can result in rework and delays, which they strive to avoid. Additionally, any delays in opening a Kiddie Academy location can create a cascade of scheduling issues and potentially impact investor returns, underscoring the importance of timely and efficient construction management.

To address the challenge of overseeing construction for new Kiddie Academy locations and ensuring timely openings, the construction management team contracted with OnsiteIQ to monitor all new developments. Now, the company has visibility nationwide to hold the construction project teams accountable for milestone achievement, delivery dates and cost. This has proved invaluable to fueling the rest of the location opening process such as marketing, hiring, training and opening operations needed to bring a new franchise online. Additionally, this can help the Franchisee see the return on capital expected. By opening locations on time, the Kiddie Academy brand gets the benefit of early brand recognition via word of mouth growth and visible market presence.

• Increased Project Visibility
• Proactive Risk Mitigation
• Reliable Construction Timeline
• Improved Stakeholder Collaboration

Increased Project Visibility 

Since implementing OnsiteIQ, Kiddie Academy locations have enjoyed increased site visits by 860% with virtual walkthroughs. Furthermore, strategic physical site visits after framing, rough-in, finishes and final inspection are scheduled much more effectively based on OnsiteIQ data. This removes the guesswork on when to go to a site and makes managing a large development portfolio easier. More importantly, Franchisees investing in a Kiddie Academy location know their project is being monitored by the construction management team on a weekly basis, a significant selling point for Kiddie Academy Educational Child Care.  

 

Proactive Risk Mitigation

Using OnsiteIQ, the company was able to detect ten instances of door frames not adhering to safety standards, framing in the lobby and reception area not adhering to specifications, and countertops being installed with an incorrect color across multiple projects. Based on the availability of contractor labor, necessary rescheduling or resequencing, and any rework, any one of these issues could have added weeks, if not months, to the delivery schedule. “By proactively catching construction quality issues early on [using OnsiteIQ], we have been able to reduce the average construction life cycle by 10% for a new build, which equates to anywhere from three to seven weeks, which is monumental.” Chris Commarota, VP of Construction.

 

Reliable Construction Timeline

Our ability to provide oversight and subject-matter expertise during construction leads to more consistent delivery, improved investor returns and accelerated project timelines. By maintaining a repeatable and predictable project duration with foresight into potential delays, the company and its Franchisees can streamline operations essential for a successful opening, such as marketing, hiring and training for each location. This was crucial in the Cibolo and Lincoln Park projects. Aware that the opening date would be affected, Kiddie Academy postponed staff recruitment, thereby saving considerable salary expenses for a location that was not yet operational. 

 

Improved Stakeholder Collaboration 

Franchisees who may not be well-versed in construction or cannot travel onsite, can now access OnsiteIQ with a few clicks, and monitor their project’s progress in real-time. Additionally, they can trust that the Kiddie Academy construction management team is supervising the project through OnsiteIQ which adds a level of comfort. This facilitates transparent and expedient communication among all project stakeholders, including the Franchisee, franchisor and construction team, proving particularly beneficial when challenges emerge and collaboration is crucial.

 

Kiddie Academy Educational Child Care uses OnsiteIQ across all of its projects and keeps enjoying the advantages. They can now check their projects every two weeks [their selected capture cadence] instead of only three times per project, which helps them proactively address and resolve issues on site, saving an average of four weeks per project. The Franchisee feels more confident knowing their investment is constantly monitored by the Kiddie Academy construction management team. This way, investors and the company can open new locations more rapidly, realize better returns and positively impact local communities.The construction management team looks forward to future Franchisees being able to observe and visualize their projects take shape by leveraging OnsiteIQ’s invaluable platform. Additionally, they aim to continue fostering mutual project management and enhanced collaboration with general contractors who rely on the platform for optimal quality and project delivery. As Kiddie Academy Educational Child Care continues expanding across the country, OnsiteIQ is thrilled to support and further their growth.