What does digitalisation mean in the construction industry?
While the term digitalisation originally meant, in its literal sense, the conversion of analogue content into digital data, it carries a far wider meaning today. The focus is now on networking digital data into an overall system and developing complex digital processes.
This ranges from business management software through 3D visualisation and virtual reality to robots that are increasingly capable of learning.
While digital processes have advanced at breakneck speed into many areas of our lives, progress in the construction industry was slow for a long time. In the meantime, however, digital technologies are increasingly permeating the various areas of construction, and some speak of a digital upheaval of the industry.
Which digital technologies are used in the construction industry?
Construction software and the Internet of Things
Construction software, with its ability to store data on site documentation, reporting or project planning in linked form in one central place, is in a sense the prime example of increasing digitalisation.
Besides passing information to employees quickly and easily, it enables automatic analysis of the data, which makes it possible to identify problems or patterns. The IoT, the Internet of Things, goes in a similar direction. By connecting the devices used on site to the internet, data on activities, performance and conditions on the construction site can be captured and sent to a central platform.
This generates considerably larger data sets considerably faster, which can then be analysed by software solutions.
BIM and the visualisation of construction projects
Beyond data organisation and analysis, BIM technology is an example of significant progress in the visualisation of construction projects. It covers the entire life cycle of a building, from construction through operation to maintenance. The project can thus be represented with all its properties as a 3D model before construction begins, a model in which later changes are easy to make and to trace.
Robotics and artificial intelligence in construction
The most impressive examples of digital technologies are surely found in robotics and artificial intelligence. Robots that build brick walls on their own or can be used to carry heavy materials are the beginning of systems that are ever more capable of learning.
Probably the most impressive is the Spot robot developed in Boston, a dog-like walking robot that can cope with rough terrain and stairs and can be used for surveying work and building monitoring.
While automated systems are able to carry out tasks independently and repeatedly, and thus perform strenuous or time-consuming processes faster and more precisely than humans, AI creates the possibility of solving tasks and problems autonomously. This includes, for example, recognising images and objects and thus identifying patterns in ever-growing volumes of data.
What advantages does digitalisation offer the construction industry?
But what do all these possibilities opened up by digital technologies mean in concrete terms for the construction industry? As in other sectors where digital processes have already taken hold, significant efficiency gains can be expected. After all, automated processes mean that tasks can be carried out faster, more precisely, with fewer errors and around the clock.
Reducing costs and construction time with digital technologies
According to Diego Frey, its head of engineering, Halter, a Swiss construction and real estate services company, had already cut its costs by 10 to 20 percent compared with the analogue era by 2020 thanks to digital technologies. He expects to be able to reduce costs and construction time by a full 30 to 40 percent within a few years.
A study from the United Kingdom concludes that the use of BIM technologies saved around GBP 800 million in construction costs there in 2013 and 2014 alone. This shows the massive potential digital technologies offer the construction industry in terms of costs and working time, and the head start gained by those who implement them successfully first.
Why digitalisation is becoming ever more important for the construction industry
The relevance of efficient processes in the construction industry takes on a whole new dimension when you consider the economic significance of construction. The construction sector accounts for around six percent of global GDP and is also a major growth factor: in the United Kingdom, for example, every pound invested in construction generates almost three times as much in economic output.
The construction industry is growing, and with it the need for digitalisation
According to forecasts, the significance of the construction industry will increase considerably in the coming years and decades: by 2030, global construction output is estimated to grow by 85 percent compared with 2014. Given this, it is obvious that it is not enough to stick to the methods that have worked so far.
The opportunities that investing in digital innovation offers for creating lastingly efficient processes, and for keeping the Swiss construction industry competitive internationally, are plain to see.
How is digitalisation changing the construction trades?
Beyond the economic opportunities of digitalised processes, the question of how they change working conditions and the quality of work remains to be answered. In view of the growing shortage of skilled workers this question is central, and can ultimately be seen as an economic one too. It can be assumed that increasing digitalisation will shift existing areas of work.
Automation is changing existing areas of work
Repetitive work such as surveying, inspections or data capture and organisation will increasingly be replaced by digital processes, or at least largely supported by them.
New skills and demands on employees
Linked to this is the question of how job profiles will change in future and what new demands will arise for employees in the construction sector. After all, using new technologies means that those who use them must also be able to handle them. Accordingly, more employees with stronger technical skills will be needed; the job profiles of the future will be considerably more technology-oriented.
Will digitalisation make construction trades more attractive?
This will certainly make careers in the construction industry more demanding in future, but also more attractive. After all, it is above all the physically strenuous activities and laborious routine tasks that are being automated.
It can therefore be expected that the growing use of digital processes, the disappearance of strenuous and time-consuming routine tasks and the emergence of technically demanding activities will make the construction trades more attractive again, including for younger generations.
