Software and Mobile Apps
Nowadays, there are many mobile solutions and software that you can use to help you manage every aspect that is available in a construction project. Starting from the process of preconstruction and prescheduling, field reporting, and project management, all the way to handle things in your back office, there’s always a software solution provided to help you increase productivity and streamline the processes involved.
Most of the software solutions that are available today are mostly cloud-based, which means that it enables you to make any updates and changes to your schedules, documents, and other types of management tools that need to be done in real-time.
This, in turn, helps to promote a better level of collaboration and communication between your employees. Mobile technology also allows critical data to be collected and transmitted between the project managers in the office and active workers on the job site in real-time.
This would help save a lot of time as workers don’t have to manually key-in the data anymore as these data can be retrieved instantly from the construction site thanks to these cloud-based mobile apps.
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Most of the construction firms available today have started utilizing more and more data to make informed decisions, increase safety in the job site, improve the level of productivity, and minimize the risks involved.
With all of the recent developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence systems, firms may now use the huge amount of data they have collected in the past few years to make a smart prediction to have a glimpse of the projects’ outcomes in the future.
This allows them to have a competitive advantage when bidding and estimate the construction projects they plan to work on.
Artificial intelligence may increase workers’ level of productivity by minimizing the amount of time that is wasted, such as going to the construction site just to get the materials, equipment, and tools that are needed to perform essential tasks.
Besides that, workers may also be tracked during the entire working hours via smartphones and wearables such as smartwatches. Sensors may be installed on materials so that they can be located easily while the equipment helps to keep track of everything that is moving on the construction site.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Equipment operator and safety training are two main areas where the utilization of virtual reality may have the potential to have huge positive impacts on the construction industry. By utilizing virtual reality, workers can expose themselves to multiples environments, such as working at an incredibly high place and limited, confined spaces.
All can be done safely in an environment that can be completely controlled. Virtual reality simulators have proven to be very effective, and it has been used for many years to train pilots, surgeons, and soldiers.
On the other hand, it could also be used to train construction workers about almost anything ranging from operating excavators and cranes to even doing masonry and welding work.
Augmented reality is another type of technology that can be utilized to enhance the level of safety in the construction site.
There is a lot of ways augmented reality can be used on the site regardless of whether you need to develop a more comprehensive safety plan or to provide advanced training on heavy machinery by using real pieces of equipment for your workers.
Drones
Drones can be used in a construction site in a lot of ways. These drones may be used to identify any potential hazards and conduct site inspections in a fast and highly-efficient manner.
For example, a traffic cone that is not being placed in the right place can be easily noticed via these drones. Apart from that, drones may also be used to monitor the behaviors of workers during the whole day to make sure that everyone is working safely, and just in case an accident happens, project managers can be notified instantly via these drones to call for help.
The entire scene of the accident would also be recorded by these drones to help identify the cause of the accident to make the process of investigation to be much smoother.
Drones may be used to capture images of every single development that has been made in the construction site so that everyone may have access to the ever-changing working conditions of the site every single day.
Drones may also be utilized to accomplish jobs that requires a higher level of safety such as the inspections of building and bridges. Despite this might not eliminate the needs for workers, this would mean that workers need to be provided with sufficient information and training to enable them to learn more about this technology so that they can operate these drones effectively.
