Connected Construction: Shaping a Digital Future

Despite forecasts revealing that growth in the construction sector will rise by a staggering 70% across the world by 2025, it’s fair to say that compared to other industry sectors, the construction and engineering industry has been slower to embrace digital technology. With only a few AEC companies using digital as a tool to create new business opportunities and improve margins, many are missing out on innovative approaches to driving down costs and improving project execution. But this is about to change.

The significant benefits that digital technologies bring to the way we design, construct and maintain our infrastructure can no longer be ignored. From real-time analytics helping with predictive maintenance to drone intelligence helping to keep construction sites safer, technology is enabling industry stakeholders to optimize asset efficiency and create smart, connected job sites of the future. In fact, when correctly deployed, connected construction technology can enable true interoperability throughout the supply chain, providing the opportunity to streamline processes, save time and make assets work smarter.

GeoSLAM has expanded on this topic further in the new whitepaper ‘Connected Construction Technology – Transforming the Built World’ which you can access here. In it the company looks at:

• How digital technology will radically overhaul the way buildings are designed, constructed and managed in the coming years
• Why BIM is considered mainstream yet there’s a widening gulf between ‘BIM engaged’ and ‘BIM laggards’
• The rise of the ‘digital twin’ and the true economic value of 3D models
• The top 5 benefits of connected construction technology (spoiler alert: it’s no surprise the biggest one impacts your bottom line)
• How a common framework and language are needed to improve the flow of data across all core players in the project delivery supply-chain.

Embedding new construction technology into processes and workflows

GeoSLAM has been helping construction companies around the world successfully embed new construction technology into their processes and workflows. Companies like Clugston, Balfour Beatty, Vinci, Plowman Craven and Arup have already adopted the company’s innovative handheld technology and are slashing their survey times, scanning places that couldn’t be scanned before and turning the data into 3D digital representations of the built environment.

Lee Hamilton, senior product manager at GeoSLAM, states: “That’s why we’re looking specifically at the benefits GeoSLAM can bring to construction – as we want to ensure all AEC professionals can take advantage of tools that improve efficiency and reduce cost, without compromising on quality. Construction firms can now undertake surveys that would not have been possible even a decade ago, such as a recent school renovation project, which used our 3D mobile mapping technology to create a ‘real-time digital twin’ of a 100-year-old building in just a few hours.”

Hamilton firmly believes “there’s a bright future for companies that embrace mobile mapping technology”.