It is no longer the big beating the small; it is now the fast beating the slow. The digital revolution in today's world is far more significant than any other invention. For continuous success in the coming years, most companies are launching real digital strategies.
The construction industry is now entering a digital era. The digital transformation in the construction industry is accelerating. It is now the correct time for all the hesitant companies to adapt and adopt this digitalization to be in the race.
The positions of some construction companies can be compromised in the market by the highly evolving and digitized companies if they don't catch the ball on time.
Why resistance or hesitation towards digitalization?
The rise of digitalization has created fear of losing their jobs. This is untrue. Such worries are growing daily in the industry. The hesitation and resistance to adopting digital tools result from these fears.
While people predict a decline in the employment rates, the actual highlight is the potentially increased need for skilled professionals with which digitalization may be associated.
The trust in the conventional methods is also a partial factor that can cause hesitance in accepting newer technologies. Some experienced professionals often feel more comfortable working with traditional technologies, as they have been using them for ages and are proven.
This is another reason for resisting or hesitating to adapt to digital technologies.
How the Pandemic Increased the Need for Overall Efficiency in the Construction Industry
Before COVID-19, construction companies were experiencing high demand and increasing revenues, despite their slow adoption of the latest technologies and a scarcity of digital maturity. Once the pandemic hit, this changed rapidly.
Furthermore, inefficient on-site workflows that relied on paper trails and outdated communication methods became even more challenging to work with because of social distancing norms owing to COVID 19. As a result, businesses are being forced to look for digital solutions that can unlock new operational efficiencies while maintaining the project's quality standards.
Also read, our blog post (Insert Link here) construction in post pandemic world & Rise in use of digital technology to understand the transformation and the reasons behind it.
Reasons for Digitalization
Digitalization in the construction sector has been a slow-moving process for many years now. But the speed of digitalization has accelerated exponentially in recent times. This has happened due to numerous reasons.
A few such reasons are listed below:
- Evolving client needs
- Increased technological capabilities
- Next-generation of workers and professionals
- Booming start-up environment
- Supportive policies and legal frameworks
- Increased market needs
- Up to the neck competition
- Launch of large infrastructure projects
- Need for integrated processes
- Better quality standards
Opportunities
Beyond operations, digital transformation in the construction industry triggers opportunities to raise sales and enhance customer satisfaction.
Digital solution has brought a lot of new opportunities to better the current scenario of a construction project. Following are some opportunities:
- New Channels: A broader network of contacts.
- Better Visualization: Virtual tours and visits and 2D and 3D modeling.
- 3D Simulation Tool: Eliminating errors and risks via 3D simulation
- Simplified administrative work: Easy documentation and reactive workflow.
- Tracking feedback and improvement: Better and digital interaction with clients and evolving key performance indices.
- Enhances products: Smart and better buildings with improved infrastructure. Smart cities.
- New partnership models: Flexibility between builders, partners, and promoters.
- New financing options: Customized and tailored financing models.
- Multiple performance tracking: Transparent performance tracking and enhanced value in data.
Required things to deliver quality
1. High Productivity for Higher Profits
Construction processes are very tedious and slow, but with the help of technologies and tools, it becomes smooth and fast, which helps to reduce work time and excel the productivity of work.
Productivity and profitability are directly linked to one another. If productivity goes down, it can incur an overall decrease in profit. It has always been challenging to achieve productivity on construction sites. This can be solved by using a balanced strategy that includes digital technologies to ease the workflows and processes and make them efficient.
Research by Mckinsey Global institute indicates that digitalization brings more productivity and higher efficiency in the construction workflows, which attracts more profits for the construction companies. Digitalizing is an intelligent way to increase yield and get equivalent or better quality.
2. Improved Collaboration for Efficient Construction
Working with several individual stakeholders and explaining the ideas and processes to each one becomes tedious and hard to track.
Digital advancements allow all the project stakeholders to come together and review the project progress, ensuring the project is completed within the set timeline and budget.
Building a solid collaboration between the project stakeholders can prioritize the goals by sharing the information in a shared pool.
It eliminates the geographical and physical restrictions of being in the same room for all the meetings or making decisions.
This collaborative environment benefits projects by maintaining quality and finishing within a set time and budget.
Confusion and lack of clarity may occur and hamper the speed of the project. Strong collaboration will enhance the transparency between the stakeholders and eliminate confusion.
The technology monitors how the information is shared between different parties involved and reduces ambiguities.
3. Improved Safety and Quality
Safety and quality are always the points of concern in a construction project. Integrated digital technologies can help the project stakeholders to minimize the safety, health, and environmental risks imposed on the workers in a construction project.
This can be done through improved monitoring techniques like supervision and monitoring by drones.
AI can also help locate construction risks and risky activities before actual construction.
This can help a safety engineer to identify and mitigate these risks. It can help focus on problems and concerns in the construction project that require immediate attention.
Along with safety, quality can also be enhanced by better monitoring and technological advancements like AI.
DigiQC is one such solution for your construction project that can manage the quality and provide better results by using digital methods of planning, controlling, and assuring quality standards in the construction project.
SMART Benefits of a Digital transformation:
1. Safer operations
With digital design and construction, the need for crews to enter dangerous situations and locations to get hard-to-reach information has reduced drastically. With this use of sensors, like laser scanners or laser distance meters, teams can easily capture information while their feet remain on the site.
2. More innovation
Until recently, innovation wasn't considered a core competency of a construction firm. Spending on innovation was often regarded as wasteful and was consistently targeted for reduction. As a result of the rapid adoption of digital technologies on the construction project site, a virtuous cycle has begun, whereby innovation is becoming a core differentiator, fueling further adoption and investment.
3. A new focus
This digital transformation has enabled a renewed focus within the entire construction industry on what's most important – high-quality work safely done. Owing to these technologies, we are gradually becoming better professionals, bringing more value to our customers: "on time and within budget" is table stakes.
4. Relevant communication
According to a recent survey of leaders in the construction industry, they agreed that 48% of rework was caused by miscommunication. The use of cloud-connected mobile apps has become the norm and is accepted on most projects in the field. This enables communication to be accessible and straightforward – and with easy integration to equipment for digital layout and reality capture, the connection to the "real world" is complete, transparent, and hassle-free.
5. Timely Intervention
With digitalization, the exchange of information has become quicker and more effective. There is little to no lag between reporting the work done on-site and getting it approved by the concerned authorities. As a result, piling up of incorrect stages in a project can be avoided saving a lot of time and money.
Conclusion
Digitalization in the construction sector is in its very initial stage. Nonetheless, it is about to generate unimaginable usages and breakthroughs. The time is right to implement a real digital strategy.
We assess that starting another technique isn't generally an alternative; it has become unavoidable.
Digitalization is right now in a cycle of re-evaluating the development business, setting off a general worth movement from the value chain up to the designing and engineering capacity and down to the office, the executives, and the activities of administrations.
It's the right time to adopt a digital solution for the quality management of your construction project. We are here to help you develop this digital quality strategy and keep you updated on the changing and continuously evolving construction industry.
Want to know more about the QC software? CLICK HERE to schedule a demo.
Having more questions on Digitization and its role in Construction? Read the exclusive blog series from digiQC: Digitization in construction—An Overview to know how you can benefit from digitization for your next project.
