Customer Stories
Walbridge sets Scout Motors up for successful production using Hoylu
est. 1916
Detroit, Michigan
#1 automotive facility constructor in the U.S.
Hoylu Value
Tightened coordination between the owner and trade contractors
Direct, real-time visibility into crew size planning, constraints, and performance
Improved plan visualization for better scenario planning and optimal sequencing
Introduction
Walbridge, founded in Detroit in 1916, is one of the top 30 construction companies across multiple industry sectors, as highlighted in national rankings like the ENR Top 400 Contractors (#24 in 2025), ENR Sourcebook, and the Building Design + Construction GIANTS 400 Report. With over 1,500 employees in offices across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, Walbridge offers construction management, engineering, and real estate services for customers in manufacturing, hyperscale data centers, automotive, defense, higher education, health care, and government.
Walbridge began their corporate Last Planner System® implementation in 2019, training teams on the Last Planner System® using paper sticky notes. Walbridge has used Hoylu since 2020, after evaluating other solutions including Touchplan and vPlanner, and signed an enterprise agreement in 2021.
Challenge
The Walbridge team was tasked with building parts of the new campus where Volkswagen will manufacture electric vehicles under the Scout Motors emblem in Blythewood, South Carolina. Beginning with the plant’s paint shop, the team moved on to the assembly building and body shop. The $2 billion plant is on an 1,100-acre site and will eventually employ 4,000 people to produce 200,000 cars annually.
Walbridge, which is ranked number one in U.S. automotive plant construction, has significant organizational expertise in industrial manufacturing, but knew that this job would be too complex for paper-based planning methods. The team also has members who travel and can’t always be available for in-person meetings, so the ability to collaborate remotely was a must. This team was also new to paint shop construction, requiring them to learn on the fly.
Solution
Utilizing Hoylu’s online training videos and knowledgebase, the team had little difficulty onboarding their trade contractors into the platform. They also benefited from the responsiveness of Hoylu’s Customer Success team. “We never had an issue getting ahold of somebody quickly,” says Scott Ashe, project director at Walbridge.
Another feature that’s been critical to keeping the project on track is the planned versus actual crew size field. The team pays close attention to patterns in planned crew size to ensure that they are properly staffed to be able to complete work as planned.
Results: Improved owner-contractor coordination
The Walbridge team works closely with the paint shop process manufacturer, Gallagher-Kaiser, which will take over the building post-completion to install the equipment for the end user, Scout Motors.
Using Hoylu enabled Gallagher-Kaiser to be directly involved in planning, adding milestone dates, attaching ancillary information in the whiteboard space, and coordinating delivery dates.
Results: Clearer visualization of task relationships
The team was able to better anticipate the impacts of different planning scenarios by linking predecessor and successor tasks. “The predecessor/successor links have been very helpful. It just makes it so much easier, because with sticky notes if there’s something pushed, you weren’t sure what else it impacted,” explains Ashe.
Hoylu’s flexibility enables them to test different planning scenarios and work through the impacts of each to determine the optimal task sequence. “The ‘Undo’ button comes into play a lot,” says Josh Holsinger, superintendent at Walbridge. “It’s easier for everybody to see it, versus just a P6 schedule. A lot of people look at those and they freak out. It’s all the lines, and it’s just numbers,” he says.
The team also uses the constraint log consistently to document any obstacles and work proactively to mitigate them. Consistency has been key to their success, and it has paid dividends in enhanced transparency and stakeholder management.
“Across all of our projects, customers’ visibility and transparency, and improved understanding of what’s going on in the schedule makes it a whole different process,” explains Eric Twigg, a senior vice president at Walbridge who has overseen the company’s adoption of Hoylu.
“I would recommend Hoylu for its collaborative planning tools and real-time sharing capabilities. It’s an invaluable asset for any construction project,” says Ashe.
About Hoylu
Our platform offers you and your team the power of unified planning with an intuitive solution that combines feature-rich whiteboarding, planning, and task management. Plan, engage, and visualize your projects with best-in-class usability and integrations. Bring your best ideas together with your best data across disparate teams and solutions for unified, unlimited, unbeatable construction project planning.