According to research done by McKinsey Global Institute, global infrastructure projects will consume at least 57 trillion dollars by 2030. This presents a big opportunity for industry players to innovate and solve construction challenges that affect the sector.
As well, according to The Construction Association, the industry employs more than 7.6 million people and boasts yearly construction projects worth $1.4 trillion. Despite the enormous financial figures, technological innovation and adoption have been slow.
Major challenges in construction
1. Poor risk management policies
Most project managers are trained to safeguard long-term risks. As a result, short-term risks are always ignored, which can quickly derail a construction project if they are not mitigated on time. Short-term risks can include unreliable subcontractors, design defects, poor quality, and scheduling challenges.
Poor risk management policies can be mitigated by using AI-powered construction software. The software should create a simulation of your entire project and guide your planning strategy. An example of reliable AI-powered construction software is ALICE Technologies.
2. Unrealistic forecasting
Another major challenge facing the construction industry is unrealistic forecasting, especially when handling large projects. Unrealistic forecasting can be caused by a lack of accurate information or the misinterpretation of data. You can lose millions if you work on a multimillion-dollar project and make wrong financial forecasts.
One main problem with unrealistic forecasting is that it causes a cash flow problem that increases construction costs. Cash flow challenges also cause ripple effects such as failure to pay labor, maintain equipment, and failure to purchase supplies.
3. Poor resource allocation
The construction industry is affected by poor resource allocation, which affects productivity.
To solve this problem, project managers must know precisely how many resources they have at their disposal. The managers must also know how to deploy these resources to ensure the project’s overall objectives are met.
6 Reasons to digitize your construction planning process
If you want to simplify large-scale construction projects or reduce management risks, it is time to digitize your construction process. Failure to digitize your construction planning process makes you more vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances.
Some construction companies are looking to digitize their planning process but do not know how. If you are one of them, start by reviewing your goals. If your goal is to increase efficiency, start by digitizing construction documents. You do this by identifying the construction documents you mostly use in your organization.
Here are the primary reasons you should you digitize the construction planning process:
1. Digitization increases the chances of success
The manual construction planning process has too many variables that you need to go through at once. Without AI-based software, it becomes challenging to identify risk factors that might hinder the construction process. In addition, digitization helps remote teams collaborate, handle essential documents, and track each team member’s progress.
AI-based software can incorporate short-term and long-term risks into its algorithm. The software gives an overall picture of the project, enabling project managers to handle short-term challenges immediately.
2. Digital tools increase productivity
Using an AI-powered construction simulator makes it possible for project managers to have a clear and well-structured project plan and allocate resources and equipment accordingly, including manpower. Such a tool should be able to prevent contractual conflicts and streamline communication among subcontractors.
3. It increases your brand authority
To win major lucrative contracts, you must work on your brand. Your brand must communicate to the client that you are reliable, customer-centric, and future-driven. If you can prove to your customers that you will save them time and money, you increase the chances of winning that contract.
4. Digital planning tools increase safety
If you are running a construction company, it is in your best interest to protect the safety of your employees. If it is a large construction project, the best way to ensure their safety is to digitize safety procedures. For example, you can use digital software to monitor work injuries, monitor workers’ attendance at safety seminars, and distribute safety checklists to supervisors.
5. Digital tools increase collaboration which increases efficiency
When you digitalize the construction planning process, it becomes easier for stakeholders to stay informed in real-time. Because the entire process is digitalized, different players such as engineers, project managers, and subcontractors will read from the same script. If project timelines are adjusted, everyone will know about it, increasing efficiency.
6. It becomes easier to identify valuable assets
One of the most challenging jobs in the construction industry is managing multiple construction sites. These construction sites have site managers, engineers, architects, and laborers.
A data-saturated environment will make it difficult for the project manager to identify challenges and productive employees. When you are faced with managing large projects, especially if you are a project manager, your work involves being in the office, as well as going to the field. Having to communicate with so many people, but also having to be informed on every single process that goes on can be a challenge, when going back and forth between these two locations. This is where digitalization steps in to simplify the managing role.
Once established and complete, all the documents will be accessible regardless of your location. This means that you can also monitor the progress of all the tasks, and push if something needs to be pushed in order to be completed on time. Moreover, this way every document will have a digital copy, aside from a hard copy, making the risk of losing documents a minimum. Everything can be accessed with a smartphone or some other device of your choice.
In addition, unorganized data reduces productivity, and it is also time-consuming. Digitalizing the construction planning process will make it easy to access this data in a simple and intuitive manner.
If you plan to increase productivity and grow your revenue, you should start digitizing your construction process. Modern software will help increase productivity because you automate manual tasks that are repetitive and time-consuming. In return, as we’ve already mentioned above, the image of your company will rise, and the fact that you have an organized working environment will affect the employee’s satisfaction level. And it has been proven, multiple times, that happy employees influence profit increase, a lot.
