The Importance of Automation in Construction Projects 2023

Construction firms increasingly understand the impact and role of automation within their projects. The benefits of overarching process automation are significant and can improve revenue projections for construction firms. 

Developers can tailor processes to specific objectives while automating manually intensive workflows for ease of execution. This can significantly lower time to completion as well as limit budgetary overruns that larger projects can experience. 

While a fully automated construction industry is a long-term vision of industry participants, developers are adopting localized technology solutions to optimize key areas. With 77% of global E&C firms having some form of automation plans in place in the coming years, the scale of automated technologies is fully explored through MVP use cases. 

Areas such as design, inspections, site work, and assessments are being targeted as preliminary domains where automation can maximize impact. In fact, designers will be able to fully explore their creativity knowing that traditional limitations such as worker skills, practical challenges, and low productivity will not be a major factor. 

Firms are also increasingly adopting VR, AR, and digital CRM solutions to improve sales and marketing through process automation. 

Construction management solutions for task automation

Construction management software, such as Zepth, automates key tasks that are essential to timely project completion. They are also vital to automating compliance to specifications, outlines, and regulations, ensuring minimal risk of reworking.

Construction management platforms also provide a collaborative environment for team members to operate in, improving execution quality and speed. These platforms automate repetitive tasks and enable deeper progress monitoring across projects. 

A benefit of task automation via construction management solutions is the freeing up of resources. Teams can spend more time on strategic initiatives, data analytics, innovative delivery, and solving complex problems.

This can improve site performance and the daily output of all tiers of workers. Through the automation of inspections and quality assessments, projects can also remain on track of predefined schedules. This is also vital to improving the near 1% current construction productivity levels worldwide and timely completion.

Automated site insights via advanced sensors

IoT is a critical technology solution that the construction sector is adopting at scale. By installing the right sensors around the construction site, managers have access to richer data about equipment health, progress, manpower productivity, etc. Sensor-based technologies are also helping address safety issues early on so team members to act quickly. They are also providing a digital map of real-world activities occurring in real-time across all sites. 

Additionally, with real estate capital projects experiencing nearly two years of timeline overruns across the board, it is important to leverage site automation to ensure scheduling adherence.

Sensor-based solutions can automatically notify teams of delays and provide remediation strategies for improved compliance. Site network sensors can also test the level of security and structural stability of buildings, which automatically provides insights into the quality of work performed. Teams can initiate rework activities based on found insights. 

The expansion of autonomous machines on-site

The global number of industrial robots being used has grown significantly over the last two decades, reaching around 2.25 million bots across industries. The construction sphere is increasingly enhancing investments across robotics and site automation solutions. Autonomous construction equipment is helping improve site work quality, reduce the risk of injuries, and enhance the utilization of modernized equipment. 

Additionally, it is estimated that close to 200 million jobs can be added by 2030 globally if the construction industry continues through its path towards growth and expansion.

There will be greater opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers in the new construction economy that is supported through automation. With higher productivity and an improvement in overall output, more workers will feel empowered by working with advanced technology solutions long-term. 

Automation in the planning stage (VR, AR, drones, etc.)

Automation can help streamline construction challenges at scale while improving forecasting and trend detection. It can completely transform the planning stage of most construction projects through the introduction of various technical measures.

Drones are being used across major construction projects worldwide to improve site visibility and research effectiveness. VR is being leveraged to improve design stages through the primary visualization of complex designs. 

The planning stage also captures various risks that construction firms need to address in later stages, some of which are budgetary overruns, delays in approvals of work, slower delivery of materials, and poor site coordination.

Automated workflows and monitoring tools can empower managers to mitigate these risks and provide remediation strategies for addressing these challenges intelligently. The planning stage can be fully optimized through automation in construction management. 

AI in data analytics for automated insight generation

Data analytics is a growing investment field for many developers worldwide. The introduction of data insights, business intelligence, and AI is shaping the way that firms look at construction work at scale.

The access to historical data projections, trends, and new insights, is enabling managers to have greater control over the progress of large-scale projects. AI and automated analytics solutions are freeing up resources enabling managers to focus on optimizing strategy through data-based resources. 

AI is also helping project owners assess their performance on a granular level through embedded deep learning and scale-driven BI initiatives.

They can extract insights on vendor performance, delay causes, materials availability, site financial health, worker productivity, etc. These insights are helping them make better decisions for their projects while allowing them to maximize profitability. AI is also enabling decision-making to be more agile, with real-time insights that are driven through advanced data algorithms. 

In conclusion:-

The benefits of construction automation are evident in that they improves productivity, reduce time to completion, and improves accessibility for difficult site conditions. They also provide visibility across portfolios by automatically updating site progress and status remotely. Automation tools also enhance the reach of developers to various lifecycle components that can be optimized fully using modern tools. 

An important aspect of automation within construction projects is the improvement in process output. Firms can drive greater efficiency throughout all processes while integrating various teams, resources, and assets, within a unified platform. Automated tasks, technologies, and strategies are revolutionizing the way that construction projects are managed in the near term.