The world we inhabit is now more connected that at any time in human history.
Transforming almost everything from the way that we communicate – to how we trade, learn
and even develop relationships – the dawn of connectivity
has had a fundamental impact on our culture.
No industry shapes each of our lives more
than construction, and the sector is now being considerably disrupted by the very connectivity
that its infrastructure projects helped to enable.
Its people are united and working more collaboratively than ever before.
Its status is now truly transparent. Its once dusty surface has been turned into
a platform for the very latest technological advancements.
So, what do these new “connected sites” really mean for one of the world’s most
traditional industries? How do they work in practice? Which technologies are being deployed?
– and how will they improve the buildings and infrastructure that shape all of our lives.
This is the connected construction site.
In the past decade, our societies have become shaped by the connectivity that is enabled
by digital technologies.
From the way we do business to how we shop,
communicate with our friends and family, and even develop our opinions, this connected
world is having a fundamental impact on our culture and way of life.
The introduction of connectivity into our already highly globalised society, has seen
the world begin change at a pace not experienced before.
Enabling that change, underpinning the way that each of us lives our lives, and the way
in which almost every organisation is able to function, is the construction sector.
From the homes we wake up in and the infrastructure that we travel on, to our work places, schools,
hospitals and our vast cities – construction has a fundamental impact on nearly every human
being on Earth.
Such influence makes it critically important
to get our built environment right.
Now, project teams around the world are beginning
to leverage the full potential of connectivity and seeing it transform the schemes they are delivering.
These “connected construction sites” put
people first and aim to serve them in the most useful ways possible.
They bring the people and the various elements of digital information about a construction project together
into one place; a powerful dashboard that enables a scheme to be monitored, co-ordinated
and controlled centrally.
Using cloud-based technology through platforms like Procore, connected sites make accurate
information available to anyone who may need to see it, wherever they may be, regardless
of the desktop or mobile hardware they are using.
They effectively create a “single source of truth” – a reliable connection to near
real-time data about a project, that drastically reduces the time spent searching for information
or checking that that information is correct.
The impact that connected construction sites
have on the people that work on them is profound.
They shatter the siloed working cultures that
have encouraged adversity and long prevented the industry from collaborating – and replace
them with transparency, building trust and improving morale among project teams; the
most important asset to any construction scheme.
The centralised, cloud-based dashboards that
connected sites create, can be used to pull in data from almost every aspect of a project.
Beyond the highly visual and informative project overviews that can quickly inform team members,
tools like Procore bring all of the project management and collaboration functions into
one, powerful platform.
The correct drawings or 3D graphical data
from a building information model can be placed into the hands of everyone who needs to access
them, regardless of where they are – while version comparison and overlay tools allow
for easy interrogation.
In-drawing hyperlinks to call-outs can also greatly improve productivity
and overall build quality.
By uniting people on a single platform, connected
construction sites transform communication.
Requests for Information – or “RFIs”
– between team members for example can be created faster and explained with greater
clarity through notes, annotation tools and photos.
By virtue of being connected to all
other information on a project, they can also be linked to related and supporting information
– or even a physical location reference – with ease.
A similar process can be used to streamline the snagging process.
The latest programme and scheduling information can also be made accessible to those who need it.
Tools like Procore enable quick views of a scheme’s overall programme dates, alongside
deeper dives into the specific task activities.
The rise of connected construction sites is
bringing cost managers into the heart of project teams like never before.
Now, with access to real-time information from the field about the status of a project, cost tracking and
forecasting can become significantly more accurate – saving time, introducing transparency
and improving margins.
Connected sites are also providing real-time
insight into the physical status of a project.
Data from electronic access control systems
can be used to determine who is on site and when, improving safety in the event of an
emergency while helping to optimise productivity.
With everyone on modern construction sites
now responsible for creating a safe working environment, platforms like Procore enable
any individual to flag and communicate a health and safety issue, adding photos if necessary.
Beyond people, the status of equipment resources can also be integrated.
Connected sites enable project teams can track the number and type of machines on site, their current
locations and their working capacity.
Machine manufacturers and those responsible
for maintenance can be kept up to date on machine performance and, where issues do arise,
diagnosis can be undertaken remotely without the need to come to visit the workface.
Connected sites can even extend to material monitoring. Integrating sensors into materials
like concrete can provide project teams with real-time data on its curing status and strength,
improving quality.
Beyond their transformative impact on specific
projects, this new age of connectivity on construction sites can open the construction
market up to a broader variety of businesses and, in particular, technology firms.
Our connected sites can effectively become platforms that almost any expert with an idea
or particular challenge to solve can develop an application for, similar to the apps that
many of us use on our smart phones and electronic devices.
Of course, connected construction sites do require some basic ingredients in order to
function at their best.
Highly reliant on connectivity, the regional
cellular data network or project data network that these sites run on must be stable with
good connection speeds – and plans should be place for procedures in the event of a
connectivity failure.
This is particularly key for construction sites in highly remote locations.
Platforms like Procore feature an offline
mode that syncs when back online, ensuring that people remain connected, even without
an internet connection.
Additionally, with the majority of project
information available in the cloud and data now becoming the world’s most valuable resource,
security must be considered from the outset – both within the project team, which could
include several hundred different organisations on major schemes, and externally.
Many technology firms recognise the importance of security. Indeed, Procore’s platform
brings security to the fore with a number of measures employed across its server infrastructure,
user operating system and data encryption approach.
Connected sites demand good information management from those working on them
and deliver ultimate value when this occurs.
Studies have proven that intuitive connected platforms like the
one developed by Procore, can influence behaviour among team members, changing perceptions around
the importance of strong information management.
While intuitive tools and technology innovations
like Procore’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tool can all help to improve information
management on sites, they are ultimately no substitute for a deep-rooted culture of celebrating
reliable, well managed data.
While the rate of change that our world is currently experiencing may be extreme – it
is also unlikely to ever be this slow again.
With connected construction sites now effectively
turning our sector into a platform for technological innovation and substantial improvements being
made to IT infrastructure in developed nations around the world, there are few limits to
the advances that could now be made.
The 5G connectivity that is already landing
in some markets, including in the UK, could unlock new levels of site efficiency and take
real-time reporting to the point of feeling instantaneous.
Meanwhile, as heavy equipment manufacturers continue to innovate, we could see connectivity
allowing machines to be operated remotely – even from other countries.
Such progress could be especially advantageous for high risk activities or for sites facing extreme
weather conditions.
Connected sites are also likely to speed the rise of autonomous vehicles – such as these
machines developed by Volvo Construction Equipment and currently being trialled in Sweden.
The evolution of wearable technology – from the consumer products we are already familiar
with, into powerful business performance tools – could also be transformational.
Wearable tech could integrate with ecosystems like Procore to provide a real-time map of a construction
site, showing the locations of people, equipment and resources, and their status.
The data collected from autonomous construction vehicles and wearable technology in use across
a project team could then be leveraged to provide trend-level overviews of incidents
(along with their frequency and location), team productivity, performance or site weather conditions.
Indeed, with the entire construction industry eventually working on connected projects,
the potential to leverage trend-level data and take an aggregate view of how the sector
is performing, is huge.
Such data could be integrated with AI assistants and then used to identify safety risks from
previous, similar schemes, presenting them to a project team for consideration.
It could be used to flag quality issues encountered previously, suggesting improved construction
details or methodologies, it could identify ways to speed up programmes.
Beyond the construction delivery phase, connected sites lay the foundation for the buildings
and infrastructure that they deliver to be operated digitally, optimising their performance.
Increasingly, this may take the form of a “digital twin” – a complete digital
replica of a built asset that is updated with real-time performance information through
sensors, and which can be used simulate its future performance in a range of scenarios.
This enhanced level of intelligence around our building stock with enable us to improve
how our buildings support our society, while reducing their impact on the climate.
From uniting teams and catalysing productivity to breaking down silos, enabling the rise
of new technologies and transforming how our built world is delivered – it is clear that
the age of the connected construction site has dawned, and that, as a result, the buildings
we all live our lives in, that shape our cultures and largely govern how we impact this planet,
are set to be dramatically improved.