For many years now, the U.S construction industry has been suffering from project delays and other such issues. This could lead to problems with the clients, and the business houses may also experience significant losses.
In this article, we will try and learn something more about emerging technologies and how they could help construction industries overcome inefficiencies and make them more productive and more profitable.
Problems Haunting Construction Sector
The biggest challenge with the construction sector is the absence of new technology for many decades now. This is leading to low levels of productivity, and this is mainly because of mind-set and also insufficient investments in technology for the purpose of improving the richness of the construction sector.
The material benefit of bringing down the productivity gap in global terms could be around $1.6 trillion a year, and this is big money. This figure is for the entire world, and as far as the US is concerned, it should be around a third of this figure.
If this gap can be closed with scientific and intelligent use of technology, it could certainly make a big difference in terms of profitability and overall efficiency.
It will Stop The Blame Game
The biggest challenge with the construction industry in the USA is that there is a tendency to take up ownership.
The blame game continues, and when something goes wrong, there is a tendency to blame somebody. The passing of the buck continues. The developers blame the contractors, and the main contractors blame the sub-contractors. This finger-pointing at best could lead to a drastic drop in productivity, and nothing else will happen.
However, when you have the best of AI and other modern technology in place, it would become impossible for people to resort to the blame game. The responsibilities and account abilities will be fixed, and nothing will be left ambiguous and uncertain. Accountabilities will be there at each and every level.
The Fascinating World of AI
While the above would have given us some basic understanding of the ills plaguing the construction industry, let us try and get to know more about the fascinating world of AI and how it could impact the construction industry. We are living in a world of data and information, and construction firms are making use of data frequently.
This helps them to increase productivity and also improve overall job site safety and bring down the levels of risk significantly. When you have the best of AI systems available with you, firms, big and small, will be able to turn mountains of data that may have been collected over many years during various projects. This could come in very handy for accurately predicting future outcomes on projects.
Yes, it also will become an excellent tool to help gain competitive advantage whenever there is a need for estimating and bidding on various construction projects.
It Can Help In Improving Worker Productivity
AI and other modern technology have a proven track record of improving worker productivity. It does so by reducing wastage of time in the construction sites for retrieving materials, tools, traffic cones, safety equipment, and other such things that are required for performing certain tasks.
When sensors are installed on equipment and materials, they could be in a position to track how things are moving about in the construction site. Once the required data sets are collected, AI has the capacity to analyze as to how workers are moving about and interacting with the site members.
This is important because it will help them to come up with solutions for reorganizing the placement of tools and materials. It will make them accessible better as far as workers and also could reduce downtime quite significantly.
Real-Time & Actionable Data Is Available
When you make the right use of artificial intelligence and also robots, it would also be possible to monitor job-site progress. This can happen with real-time and live data that is actionable and could also go a long way in improving productivity.
The Final Word
To conclude, there is no doubt that compared to things as they were a few decades ago, the instances of inefficiencies and lower productivity levels are coming down quite rapidly. The reason for this is because of the changes that have been brought about by AI and other modern technologies.
