Page 59 - Green Builder Sept-Oct 2019 Issue

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THE INTERNET OF THINGS

Text

Five Tech Items Builders

Should Keep an Eye On

BY JASON KRANKOTA
contractor would have built so they can say, “Okay, are literally having the back office scan invoices
ONSTRUCTION HAS BEEN one of the I see that there’s going to be a standpipe here, so and then email out invoice images to the project
slowest industries to adopt technology. we’ll run our conduit right next to it.” That leads superintendent. Invoice images are “digital paper,”
That’s partly cultural—folks in the to less rework and fewer scheduling delays. AR meaning they’re not actual digital artifacts. Any
Cindustry like to solve problems with their can also be used to help train workers in a more data that’s on them has to be manually entered,
own ingenuity. Many firms are still family owned, effective and cost-efficient manner. and the whole routing and approval process is
and there’s still a lot reverence for tradition. manual as well.
Finally, this is an industry with thin margins, 2. AI: Not yet Then there’s the payment process itself.
where the first funding priorities are equipment Artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially have Solutions built to handle procure to pay actually
and personnel. a big impact on the industry, but probably not only handle procure to invoice approval, so then
But, it’s also partly because there hasn’t been for quite a few years. One immediate application you need a payments automation solution on
a lot of technology built to meet the needs of is job site safety. There are already rudimentary top of that. The good news is that automating
the industry. Before smart phones, it was hard to tools that can analyze video from job site cameras payments is pretty easy to do, and it doesn’t
bring technology to the field. Even then, you had and spot hazards. They can also determine from depend on automating the invoice workflow, which
to have a good Wi-Fi connection, which wasn’t workers’ movements whether or not they’re is a much bigger project.
consistently available, or an expensive data plan. accessing a scaffold or carrying materials up a
A lot of early field capture technology based on flight of stairs correctly. 5. Business intelligence
someone having to manually input data didn’t really Eventually AI could be used to help improve Most enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
provide much in the way of productivity gains, and project scheduling by learning from data from offer tons of reports, but people want to be able
made for a lot of unhappy superintendents. past projects and flagging issues that could to look at the data three-dimensionally and be able
Now all of that is changing. Founders are aging lead to delays. It could analyze the performance to drill into it. ERP systems don’t have that kind of
out of the industry, creating an opportunity for of buildings over time and offer materials capability, and as the amount of data companies
younger generations to apply technology with less recommendations. But AI needs relevant data to have access to grows, so does the need to have
resistance. Project owners are requiring the use of learn from, so the industry needs to digitize first. a business intelligence platform to pull it together
different technologies as a condition of funding. and generate analyses and models.
And, there are an increasing number of great 3. Internet of Things There are a lot of challenges to overcome before
solutions specifically designed for the industry. If you look at industries that are starting to see construction becomes a fully digitized industry.
Here are some of the technology opportunities some success with AI, such as health care and It’s still hard to deploy technology organization
construction companies should have on their manufacturing, everything is happening more or less wide when you have workers on multiple job sites.
radar: in one place. That makes it easier to put sensors on a Do you pull everyone off the job to come in for
machine or robot and capture data. It’s a bit more of training? Probably not. Adoption can move pretty
1. AR and VR a challenge when you have multiple job sites and a lot
Whether it’s on a computer screen or through a of movable equipment, so taking data capture out of slowly, with some workers using the technology
and others holding to traditional practices,
headset, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality the hands of individuals and automating it, and storing resulting in the industry overall heading in the right
(VR) are taking the output of Building Information data in a centralized place where it can be managed is direction of the benefits, even if it’s not happening
Modeling (BIM) software and creating virtual the frontier right now. at a rapid pace. GB
models of a structure subcontractors can walk
through before it’s even built, allowing them to 4. Back office efficiency Jason Krankota is vice president of construction sales,
collaborate and spot potential issues in a virtual Most firms are using some sort of automated West region, at Nvoicepay, a specialist in intelligent
environment. accounting platform. But there are still gaps that payment automation. His expertise in construction business
For example, an electrical contractor could walk need to be filled. technology includes corporate payments, accounts payable
through the schematic of what the mechanical Invoice routing and approval is a big one. People and expense management solutions.

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