Written by LetsBuild
Last updated October 26, 2023
It’s no secret that, the construction industry has a big impact on the global economy growth. By 2020, estimations indicate that construction will be a 10.3 trillion industry. Nevertheless, it still is struggling with severe productivity issues as a result of the ineffective way of working. Therefore, asking the right questions to the right people can bring some very useful insights.
With that in mind, we’ve asked three simple yet meaningful questions to several industry influencers in regards to our sector’s up comings.
Here are the questions that the various experts had to answer:
- In what ways do you think disruptive technology is changing construction?
- How has software improved the construction industry?
- What is one thing any construction company could do right now to improve their business? (a tool, software, marketing, business dev decision, templeting, etc)
What Do The Experts Think?
During the whole process, we heard a lot of different and very insightful opinions. After careful consideration and much thought, we’ve selected, in our opinion, the most worth-sharing answers below. Sit comfortably and enjoy!
1. Neil Parsons:
CEO of Design Build Pros
In what ways do you think disruptive technology is changing construction?
Contractors already have the tools to produce quality work. Emerging technologies are the tools that contractors need to become a professional business.
How has software improved the construction industry?
Software products have greatly improved the capability of design ability, scheduling, communication, marketing and record keeping for contractors.
All of these can lead to efficiency. A company that is more efficient can grow and become more profitable. A well-organized, efficient company also creates a better experience for its clients. That improved experience leads to both repeat and referral business.
What is one thing any construction company could do right now to improve their business? (a tool, software, marketing, business dev decision, etc).
Improve customer communication. Software technology can help improve communication in both the real and virtual worlds. Allowing clients to easily access information about the company and/or their project lets them improve the communication on their own end.
2. Jim Lillig,
Community Manager at BeThePro.com
In what ways do you think disruptive technology is changing construction?
Increases in productivity and safety. In particular achieving zero downtime on jobsites is something that IoT can assist with. Not to mention knowing where tools are at any given time decreases time wasted locating misplaced tools. Another benefit is looking at the overall daily flow of tradespeople and tools.
Using large amounts of data to better identify a workflow specific to a particular jobsite. Knowing when certain trades have completed and the area is ready for the next would streamline the flow of trades and increase productivity. When it comes to connected tools there will be huge advances but it will take time for the industry to catch up and learn how to use all the data that are coming back from the sensors installed in the tools.
Read Also: Modernise Or Die – The Need For Change In Construction
The tools will know when there is a need for a particular service thus eliminating downtime when a tool fails unexpectedly. Other than that, allowing real-time project management apps to connect to individuals for progress updates also increases productivity.
How has software improved the construction industry?
Construction software has been steadily increasing in improved usability and relevance to all job sizes. Normally a large commercial project has hundreds of tradespeople performing thousands of individual tasks. Keeping that all in step and aligned with the project schedule used to be very laborious and time consuming.
A superintendent or foreman would need to document progress on spreadsheets and then transfer it multiple times in job reporting. Now with the use of apps, and very shortly with the advent of IoT, data will flow more seamlessly, while job progress reports have already become much easier to produce.
The software that manages all this data is the heart of the equation. Without it all those sensors and data would just be a mish mosh of unconnected data points. The fact that the software is doing some of the thinking certainly makes it much more convenient and improves the efficiency of the entire job site.
What is one thing any construction company could do right now to improve their business? (a tool, software, marketing, business dev decision, etc)
One thing a construction company can do right now to improve their business is to implement job real-time management software. The days of slips of paper and a folder stuffed with notes just doesn’t cut it. Improving job site and materials flow is paramount to maintaining the job schedule. When jobs run over that means that profit is being extracted.
By maintaining a job site productivity software program it keeps everyone on task and on schedule by being able to see the “big picture” in one snapshot.
But as with any software – crap in, crap out. Thus training the entire management staff of not only how to use it but why it is being used is essential moving forward.
Construction has been slow to adopt new methods and technologies and software is an easy one that involves nothing but being more organised and inputting of data. When IoT officially becomes the norm, more data will be available to make better and faster decisions which will further increase productivity.
3. Aarni Heiskanen, Managing Partner at AE Partners
Blogger/podcaster at AEC-Business.co
In what ways do you think disruptive technology is changing construction?
Poor productivity has been a nagging problem in construction for many years. Disruptive technologies can change how we do business and lead to huge improvements in productivity.
How has software improved the construction industry?
The use of software has increased the speed of design and construction and also improved the management of the processes.
What is one thing any construction company could do right now to improve their business? (a tool, software, marketing, business dev decision, etc)
Every company should start planning how they will digitalise their internal and inter-organisational processes and start implementing the plan right away.
4. Robert Yuen,
Co-Founder of Monograph.io – Websites for Architects
In what ways do you think disruptive technology is changing construction?
We’ve just started to touch on what “disruptive” really means and I’m personally super excited to see more digital fabricated and rapid prototyping technology enter the construction space. A lot of these technologies like robotic assemblies and self assembling technologies are already being researched and developed in academic institutions.
How has software improved the construction industry?
Software has greatly improved efficiency and reduce the amount of errors that typically occurs in the industry prior to the introduction of software. I can foresee more software entering into an industry that has for a very long time been dominated by paper.
Want to know more? Construction Project Management Processes: Everything You Need to Know
What is one thing any construction company could do right now to improve their business? (a tool, software, marketing, business dev decision, etc)?
The easiest thing to do is to think about what you are doing right now that still requires paper. More or less, there is software out there that can do it better.
From time-tracking, project management, or just a simple task list, there are numerous software solutions out there now.
5. Paul Wilkinson, director of pwcom.co.uk Ltd
Construction collaboration technology consultant and writer.
In what ways do you think disruptive technology is changing construction?
Construction lags every other industry sector in terms of digital transformation, and so is ripe for change. But it’s not just about technology, it’s about changing industry cultures and processes.
Unless we can get people prepared to change “how we’ve always done things,” then the industry is doomed to remain wasteful and inefficient, and unattractive to new recruits.
Too many in construction still regard technology as ‘disruptive’ rather than ‘differentiating’. The successful construction businesses of the 21st century will be the ones that rapidly adopt digital technologies as normal, and deploy them better than their competitors to meet their clients’ business needs – which will not be about delivering built assets at lowest price, but about helping deliver clients’ long-term business outcomes.
How has software improved the construction industry?
We have started on a journey from paper-based communication towards more data-driven communications, but, too often and particularly in the small and medium-sized business sector, all that we have done is switch from sharing paper to sharing electronic paper, with no change to contractual mentalities. Software will really improve the construction industry when we also change how we procure our projects and how we collaborate.
The successful clients of the future will be ones that demand data as an intrinsic part of their project deliverables so that they can operate and maintain their built assets more efficiently, and – in the process – ascertain how well their suppliers are helping them meet their long-term objectives. Software on its own won’t improve the construction industry, but it can provide data that astute clients can use to be more discerning.
What is one thing any construction company could do right now to improve their business? (a tool, software, marketing, business dev decision, templeting, etc).
Ask: “how does my business add value?” Clients will increasingly look beyond ‘lowest price,’ and want to do what’s best for their business across the whole life of their built asset.
If your business isn’t helping them deliver better whole life value, then you won’t be one of their preferred suppliers.
Conclusion
All in all, the construction industry future can be bright if we are willing to take the next step and introduce digital solutions to our projects.
Real-time project management software is a solid step toward that direction. As Neil Parsons stated,
“Software products have greatly improved the capability of design ability, scheduling, communication, marketing and record keeping for contractors. All of these can lead to efficiency”.
The path to modernisation can be rough but it’s worth trying and here in GenieBelt we do our best in order to support this vital process.
