Connected Construction: A Futuristic Tech Savior

Construction project workers often have to deal with dynamic parts, controlling all elements crucial to project success. To ensure smooth operation through connected construction sites, BIM engineers create a structured workflow, integrating data at various stages of construction and ensuring the availability of apt information to stakeholders. Connected construction sites facilitate collaborating people, processes, and information using Augmented Reality (AR), VR (Virtual Reality), AI (Artificial Intelligence), robotics, and wearables. IoT technologies, integrated with AI, enable predictive logistics to enhance workers’ safety during the construction process and optimize inventory for reducing wastage and other costs. Computer visions allow instant support and guidance, connecting construction sites to the main office. Such solutions let managers make faster and more informed decision making as per real-time data.

Construction Reinvented – Technologies Shaping the World:

Operational Challenges Addressed through Connected Construction Technology:

The technology could be a savior for an industry, infamous for delays and cost overruns. Construction happens to be the largest industry in the world, comprising 13% of the global GDP. And while construction projects are the most visible and concrete signs of economic progress, other statistics don't reflect its dominant position. Productivity growth in construction has resulted in 1% over the last 20 years, and earnings and taxes still hover around 5%, as per McKinsey.

The operational challenges addressed through connected construction technology unify project elements, automate processes, and enable streamlined functioning. The full-surround connectivity is poised to transform the construction industry. Now everyone is on the same page starting from feasibility and design to handover and operations. To take an instance by sitting in Washington DC, you can visualize what’s happening in Houston.   Further, you can monitor various elements using the command center of connected construction.

Connecting the Disconnected Chord:

Through a wide array of software and mobile applications, construction companies manage all project elements, from design and scheduling to project management. Contractors face the challenge of handling several standalone tools that don't contribute to an integrated vision of the workflow. This is difficult to manage, but siloed setup requires repetitive data entry, preventing compartmentalized data from informing the bigger picture. While dealing with a patchwork, companies keep up with managing different systems - all administrating things without sharing data. Technology managers are greatly interested in finding a way for tools to talk to one another or in adopting a single platform, encompassing all functions in a single system. Shifting to this direction minimizes overhead, reduces risk and provides flexibility in data management and use enabling improved communication among stakeholders.

Connected Construction – An Ecosystem of Connected Jobsite:

Connected construction is actually an ecosystem of connected job sites, workers and machines that improve operational efficiency and safety for a smart and connected future job site. In a connected construction environment, technology facilitates communication and enhances visibility and control of processes during the design and construction. Sensors and tags connect job sites, machines, and workers, enabling real-time visibility and analytical capabilities. Such technologies facilitate connection among machines in several locations, enabling collaboration among work sites, and improved oversight of worker safety. Connected construction components encompass asset tracking, synced time clocks, computer vision, augmented and virtual reality, real-time data analytics, as well as predictive maintenance. All such elements are integrated to support centralized decision-making and project management.

The connected network never sleeps, providing an invariable stream of information and analytics for guiding project management. The single platform has capabilities to span across different phases of construction, supporting design, planning, and construction process in-field or in-office, and also during handover and commissioning phases when facilities are handed over to facilities management. To take an instance is the drone technology for conducting feasibility assessment of construction sites in remote locations. Drones map sites and transfer digital photography for 3D model creation of a project. Through drones, there are minimized resources on the ground, reducing construction costs. Working with the connected technologies help on-site and off-site facilities get connected.

6 Benefits of Connected Construction:

How connected construction is transforming the AEC industry?

Connected construction establishes the AEC industry for a new era of robust collaboration, transparency and control, as well as data-driven decision-making. These changes affect the day-to-day operations of the companies and shift the entire approach to create and manage construction projects in several ways. Whether its risk minimization, quality enhanced collaboration or providing certainty around time, connected construction is an automated process. And novel avenues for applying technology become apparent as workflows proceed in new ways.

Invest in Digital to Realize Value Throughout Project Lifecycle:

Connected Construction Ecosystem Building for the Future:

Construction happens to be the biggest industry, accountable for 13% of Gross Domestic Product and employing 7% of the workforce. However, it tends to be conservative and is slow to adopt new technologies. To enhance productivity and efficiency construction embraces and leverages digital and data better than before, expanding across the value chain. As per the report provided by McKinsey’s Reinventing Construction, construction has seen about a 1% increase in productivity growth in the last two decades.

 Some technologies deliver tangible value for the construction sector. Building information modeling allows construction companies to create 3D BIM models, including cost and resource savings, enhanced efficiency, shortened project lifecycles, improved communication, project coordination as well as prefabrication and modularization. BIM uses historical data and predictions for facilitating companies to plan and forecast accurately in ways not possible through traditional blueprints.

Role of Digital Technologies in Making Construction More Connected:

 IOT Sensors Playing a Big Role: The Internet of Things (IoT) has started playing a significant role in construction, with IoT-connected devices and sensors increasing productivity, operational efficiency and site safety. Sensors enable improved site visibility, improving productivity throughout the construction project lifecycle. Instances of IoT solutions in construction include unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), autonomous trucks, wearables and IoT sensors in concrete during casting to gauge compressive strength. IoT facilitates the construction process and beyond from design, manufacturing, engineering and procurement, to facility operations and maintenance.

Augmenting Reality Finding its Niche: AR simulated scenarios provide construction workers with a safe training environment and virtual walkthrough of the project site, allowing safe monitoring of work progress.

Robots in Construction Gaining Momentum: Robots traverses construction site for checking the status of building components on ongoing projects. Their data collection helps to analyze and identify potential problems at an initial stage. Usually, the robots used throughout the construction workflow are long-armed, laying bricks quicker than human workers. They use data for predicting fluctuations on-site in real-time like movements from vibrations or wind. Robotics in construction is expected to be worth $7.9 billion by 2027.

5G Mobile Connectivity with Ultra-Fast Speed: 5G mobile connectivity has the potential of taking digital transformation to the next level. It enables “augmented workers,” who are equipped with BIM, AR and other tools to help them be more informed and more productive on sites. 5G’s ultra-fast speeds and low latency empower new solutions like building visualization, real-time design display and instant access to on-site data.

Dynamic Construction Ecosystem - Data Driving Visibility & Efficiency:

Connected construction creates a dynamic, ecosystem empowered by data and analytics. Every project is different, or a unique prototype, developed by consultants, contractors and other suppliers who never worked together again. The construction ecosystem thus comprises different procurement systems responsible for different elements of the building project. As soon as you move past first-tier suppliers like the design consultants working directly for the client, the ecosystem splits into various contractors, who have supply chains of subcontractors and specialist suppliers. Complex projects extend down the supply chain to numerous suppliers, where project management at the top of the chain has less visibility. Inaccuracy of budget and subcontractor scheduling are the prime reasons for delay in the construction projects. Building projects usually take 20% longer to complete than the original schedule and could be about 80% over budget.

Connected Construction Site – Dashboard Enabling a Scheme to be Monitored:

A connected construction site helps you explore the rise of connectivity and its impact on the construction sector. This reveals how teams around the globe are leveraging the full potential of connectivity and transforming schemes, bringing people together. Consolidating real-time digital information into the powerful dashboard and dramatically improving productivity, the connected world provides a fundamental impact on culture and way of life.  The “connected construction site” serves people in the most useful way. They bring people and the various elements of digital information about a construction project into one place and act as a powerful dashboard, enabling a scheme to be monitored, coordinated and controlled. A single source of truth gets created through a reliable connection to real-time project data that drastically reduces the time spent on information or checking the correct information. The centralized, cloud-based dashboard connected site helps to pull in data from every aspect of a project. The correct drawings or 3D data from a building information model can be placed into the hands of everyone who need to access them, irrespective of where they are, while version comparison and overlay tools enable easy interrogation.

Win with Connected Construction and Build the Future:

There’s always a rate of change experienced by the world but they are not likely to be slow.  Connected construction sites are now effectively turning the sector into a platform for technological innovation and substantial improvements are being made to IT infrastructure in developed nations around the world. 5G connectivity is already landing in some markets, including the UK and unlocking new levels of site efficiency. Heavy equipment manufacturers continue to innovate, where we see connectivity enabling machines to be operated remotely from different countries. Such progress is particularly advantageous for high-risk activities or sites facing extreme weather conditions. Connected sites would accelerate the rise of autonomous vehicles. Data collected from autonomous construction vehicles and wearable technology across a project team could be leveraged for providing trend-level overviews of incidents with team productivity, performance or site weather conditions. This enhanced level of intelligence around building stock helps to improve building support while reducing the impact on the climate. Starting from uniting teams, catalyzing productivity to breaking down silos, there’s the rise of new technologies and transforming the way of delivery of the built world.  It is evident that the age of the connected construction site has dawned, and the buildings we all live our lives shape cultures and govern the impact of the planet, set to be improved dramatically.

Priorities & Future Vision for the Success of Connected Construction:

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Created on Feb 15th 2022 02:11. Viewed 750 times.

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