Looking into Construction’s Digital Future – Part 2

BIM, COLLABORATION AND IOT

The construction industry is no longer on the brink of transformation, digitisation is already beginning to impact almost every aspect of its value chain. In PART ONE of this series we looked at the challenges faced by construction businesses and how technology is transforming groundworks for projects. In this article we look at the next three areas in which technology is driving improvements in productivity, value and collaboration with subcontractors.

CAPTION: Must have tools for construction projects are changing project sites. Photo by Michael Browning on Unsplash

Organisations that resist the turning tide of technological advancement risk losing all. Those who step into the future and seek to adopt new technologies and, with them, new ways of working will put themselves in an ideal position to make a claim on the $265 billion annual profit pool that will be a result of the sector wide disruption. Fortune will most certainly favour the brave and forthright as technology transforms the industry beyond recognition of what it is today.

5-D BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING (BIM)

3-D computer aided design transformed the aerospace industry in the 1970s. Improvements to productivity across the sector grew as much as tenfold. Today, next generation 5-D BIM promises the same for construction, but on a much grander scale.

Along with the standard 3-D computer spatial design abilities, details such as geometry, specifications, aesthetics, thermal and acoustic properties are included. Furthermore, a project’s costs and scheduling needs can integrated in such a way as to provide a five dimensional representation of the physical and functional characteristics. This delivers the complete oversight and visibility needed to span all stages of a construction project, from planning right through to operation and maintenance of the finished structure.

While many project owners and contractors rely on bespoke software tools that don’t integrate with one another, 5-D BIM offers an opportunity to bring a ‘single truth’ to projects that integrates design cost and scheduling in ways that improve efficiencies, collaboration and reduce cost without losing quality.

Capabilities extend to scenario testing – owners and contractors can identify, analyse and record the impact of changes to costs and scheduling or run ‘what if’ situations to improve decision making. Combined with the visual aspect of BIM, contractors can identify risks earlier and better understand the full consequences of proposed changes, be they big design adjustments or minor scheduling changes.

72% of companies that have adopted BIM found the technology reduced risks on projects, had fewer delays, cost overruns and disputes. Another study found 75% realised a positive return on the investment and reported shorter project cycles along with savings on paperwork and material costs. Already, many governments – Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom to name a few- have mandated the use of BIM in public sector infrastructure projects.

5-D BIM can be further enhanced with wearable technologies such as mixed reality glasses that can show the wearer details of actual physical assets – for example an electrical board may appear with details of the last maintenance check, next scheduled check and voltage information seen through the mixed-reality lenses. The benefits of BIM are vast, implementation of the technology from the design phase of a project is required to receive all its advantages.

DIGITAL COLLABORATION

Moving away from paper is a key step for real-time sharing of information to become a reality. Online sharing of information ensures both transparency and collaboration, timely progress, quality control and more predictable outcomes.

Traditionally, subcontractors collaborate little with other trades on a project and paper processes hinder productivity. Blueprints, design drawings, procurement requests, delivery orders and more are still managed with paper trails. Information sharing becomes delayed, key documents get lost and no single version of what is actually happening can be found. Furthermore, the capture and analysis of data is difficult, if not impossible. Paper trails waste time, hinder opportunities for performance management and scupper attempts to streamline procurement processes.

Field mobility and digital collaboration tools can help to integrate project planning, engineering and budgeting. Design management is enhanced as drawings are available on-site and updates to blueprints can be instantly distributed to a wide group. Scheduling becomes proactive rather than reactive, progress can be tracked in real-time and notifications can be sent to all subcontractors with a single click. It’s a similar story for materials management, crew tracking, quality control, contract management, performance management and documentation – everything can be tracked, recorded and instantly accessed by all who need to, when it’s needed.

Miscommunication and poor project data was the reason for 48% of all rework on U.S construction sites. An American tunnel project with nearly 600 vendors, saved their team more than 20 hours per week of staff time with a single platform solution that cut reporting time by three quarters and increased the speed of document transmission by 90%. Similarly crew-mobility problems are easily mitigated with a single platform detailing daily requirements and all outstanding items that need addressing.

Increasing availability of low-cost mobile connectivity, edge computing that enables apps to record data and update when in range of a connection and the proliferation of handheld devices are making these collaboration tools not only commercially viable, but necessary and expected.

ADVANCED ANALYTICS AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)

Projects sites are getting denser with the number of people, equipment and types of work taking place. Vast amounts of data are generated daily. At present, much of this remains uncaptured, yet it offers a massive opportunity.

Sensors, wireless technology and the IoT that connects them all gives assets and equipment ‘intelligent capabilities’. This technology can enable plant, equipment and even structures to ‘talk’ to each other or a central data platform that records critical performance metrics. Productivity, reliability and functionality of assets and plant – even staff – can be easily monitored with this tech.

Maintenance requirements, inventory management and automatic ordering, quality assessment, energy efficiency and safety are the key areas when advanced analytics and the IoT can improve productivity and efficiencies.

The insights gained from the analysis of these vast amounts of data can enable better risk management, shorten project timelines and improve efficiency of teams and structures. Examples abound and a McKinsey report estimated IoT sensors and the data they collect have the potential to save manufacturing plants between $200billion and $600billion by 2025. A similar opportunity is beckoning the construction sector.

Technology is offering great opportunity for the construction industry. The organisations willing to adopt new ways of working, streamline operations and disrupt markets by adopting digitisation of all or part of their processes will lead the way to tomorrow. Ground works, end to end management with 5-D BIM, digital collaboration, advanced analytics and IoT are just some of the areas already causing ripples of change across the sector. In our final part of the series, we’ll take a look at how materials are changing and with them, the process of construction. The future is here for construction, it is time to embrace it wholeheartedly and step forward with confidence.