Using Innovative Technologies to succeed in Construction Business

Saad Iqbal | 🗓️Modified: May 22, 2021 | ⏳Time to read:6 min

The construction industry has certainly moved out froBIM has taken construction management to the next level.m traditional hesitancy to embrace emerging technologies. The once ever-present bundles of design drawings, blueprints, schedules, and work programs that typically used to litter everywhere on construction sites have completely vanished. 

They’re replaced with smartphone apps, tablet computers, and software. Such technological advances in the construction section have helped construction managers to run worksites more efficiently while optimizing their workforce and increasing the overall quality of construction.        

Gone are the days when these new technologies were considered intimidating because of their fundamentally altering day-to-day operation. All the stakeholders involved in construction projects, like government agencies, private construction firms, and consultants, have significantly adopted the innovation. They’ve realized the potency of technology, and there’s no question about the fact that in a decade, a construction site will look very different. 

Regardless of your area of expertise, to be a honcho in the construction industry, your future lies with the adaption of nascent technologies. There is a list as long as an arm for such incredible tech advancements from virtual reality, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, autonomous drones, and much more. 

These game-changing technologies have revolutionized the construction process of building stick by stick, piece by piece. Construction involves moving and assembling diverse nature of materials and equipment in a predefined manner to get an operational facility. 

At every stage, from planning to construction, there is a lot of software, apps, and tools to optimize your efficiency and productivity. So in this read, I’ve shed some light on how the construction industry is headed next after recent technological advances.  

Collaboration 

The success of a construction project lies heavily in collaboration and cooperation. With a lot of hassle in construction activities, the project can easily get off track without effective teamwork. You have architects, engineers, general contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers that have diverse nature of working and their unique goals and aims for undertaking the project. In such a fuss, the only way of effective project delivery is to collaborate. 

Advanced collaboration and communication technologies offer a far better way to convey concerns, change orders, requests and submission while being in direct contact with site management staff and team. With a lot of work fronts on multiple job sites, you can’t remain present the whole time everywhere, so the best way to manage and collaborate is through collaboration software and mobile apps.    

These allow you to instantly send messages, share files, updates, and correspondence, taking paperwork entirely out of the equation. Some cloud-based collaboration tools offer real-time communication through channels, so you don’t miss a single update or a change. While making your communication simpler and enhancing your overall collaboration, you save much of your time to focus on things that matter instead of arguing and wasting time. With these cloud-based and web-based groupware, all the parties have real-time access to project information, including updated designs, files, estimates, work orders, and other site design features. Advance collaboration technologies can bring together multiple companies at different locations to collaborate for plan, design, and construction. These technologies have organization, communication, management, sharing, and viewing features.   

Productivity

The construction industry is found relatively slow in terms of growth as compared with other sectors like manufacturing. However, with the growing adoption of innovative technologies at the site, the construction industry would inevitably experience a boom in productivity and growth in years to come. With the usage of technologies, the contractors can cut down the project time and cost. In this way, the contractors can bid more competitively due to the increase in profitability. 

With all such workflow technologies where everyone on the Jobsite is linked and collaborated, it is quite obvious that productivity would increase in the construction industry. Technologies like organized digital documents and real-time data collection, you get all the vital information right in your hand whenever you require it. With all such automated document control, the contractor can ease off administrative workload to focus more on core tasks and waste less time while searching in piles of RFIs and change orders. 

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality or VR is a relatively new technology that the way how construction visualization is done. VR has taken the 3D modeling of projects to the next level. With VR, the user is directly placed inside the virtual environment model to experience full immersion in the virtual space. VR technology makes it possible to examine even a minutest of detail by walking through the virtual site. 

This technology is very beneficial for designers working in remote areas where access is not that simple and easy. With VR technology in hand, you can actually see the project site without traveling to it. VR has revolutionized the way how project designs and represented and simulated. The clients can now share their experiences through virtual walk-throughs, thereby minimizing the fuss of scope changes during work execution. VR gives clients a better way to understand the project scope, thus facilitating the decision-making process. This technology also helps the contractor to simulate the complexities and dependencies of construction sequencing. 

BIM

BIM software allows engineers to create a structure on the computer before constructing it on the field. Such a digital representation of a building in terms of both physical and functional characteristics helps you to make reliable decisions about building from construction to demolition. BIM has taken construction management to the next level, like how, in its full form, introduced digital transformation to electrical and manufacturing processes in industries like PCB manufacturing, auto prototyping, control systems mapping, and more. You can detect issues in early states identifying challenges of limited manpower, tight budgets, conflicting request, and accelerated schedules. BIM also makes construction more efficient by cutting material costs. Because of different layers, you can put all systems like mechanical, electrical, plumbing, data management, and material management right there on the BIM model to plan, design, analyze, and construct buildings in an effective way. BIM enables the managers to share relevant models with subcontractors to ensure smooth design and pre-construction operations.  

The Bottom Line

Whether you’re a contractor, consultant, or a client, working in an increasingly competitive and risky construction industry is not that easy. You’ve got no other choice but to integrate leading technologies in your business and construction practices. With these advancements in innovative construction technologies, you can streamline grim processes, reduce cost, minimize on-site hassle, and collaborate well towards a successful venture. 

Saad Iqbal is a professional civil engineering and freelance write. He's passionate about structures, construction management, and home improvement topics. He's been working as a Senior Engineer in a consultant firm for over 8 years. Besides he loves writing informative and in-depth content focused on construction and home-related topics. You can catch him at his linkedin page or reach out via our contact us page.

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