Construction projects often run late, exceed budgets, and in many cases, lead to a loss of time, energy and money. Often, most tasks sit unprocessed and generate a lag that can threaten the project schedule, budget and quality. Further, the more time projects take to complete, greater are the chances of errors.
“During COVID-19 pandemic, …the use of new platform technologies, many construction companies have witnessed an improvement in their functioning.”
Such factors result in additional costs and an expensive project outcome leading to an overall loss of 15-50% in costs with an average of 25% loss. In addition, the construction industry is under continuing pressure to deliver substantial levels of service while ensuring safety along with cutting operational costs.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping construction job sites operational has been challenging. However, with the use of new platform technologies, many construction companies have witnessed an improvement in their functioning. This has reinforced the need for technology to better address construction work, improve efficiency, and reduce costs through the development and adaptation of technology and the elimination of error.
By making the switch to a digital construction solution, construction professionals are not only able to reduce costs but save time, eliminate rework, protect their plans and improve accountability. Typically, time is a primary cause of project delays that result in cost overruns in the construction industry.
“Every design change costs time, money and vision for the project.”
But with the use of digital tools, companies can save upto 5-12 hours per staff per week, allowing builders to focus on their tasks. In addition, a good digital construction solution helps you dramatically reduce rework because every member of the team always has the most current set of documents on hand. By streamlining technology with architecture and construction, operational costs can also be reduced to a great extent.
Going paperless isn’t just about saving the environment — it is about realising a dramatic increase in productivity for business and managing costs at the same time. There are also concerns over security and accountability that can be managed on these singular, integrated collaborative platforms. Every design change costs time, money and vision for the project.
Every change requires approval, which is mostly paper-driven and requires going back and forth from the office to the site. With digitisation, one can easily review the details of a design at every step, avoiding unnecessary and recurring changes.
This helps in minimising delays and increase in costs on the field during construction. By going paperless, one can also experience dramatic savings and eliminate unnecessary costs with the right software as printing costs continue to be one of the major expenditures for construction projects. Shifting to digital solutions can lead to 20% savings of staff hours and up to 25% savings in costs avoided due to delays and rework. Additionally, it includes intangible benefits like informed decision making, easier access to data, security and logging.
“Collaborative platforms have proven to be quite effective in managing all data in one place and providing real-time access to information”
Today, new technology such as BIM, ERP, Virtual Reality, IoT, cloud computing, mobile, automation, AI, etc. has revolutionised the construction sector with precision. Building information modelling (BIM) is widely adopted in building design, construction, and operation as a critical technology for the construction industry’s innovative development. BIM has also gained much prominence in the research field of smart buildings in recent years.
With ERP, we get real-time and accurate information enabling day-to-day business activities and an easy flow of data. With Virtual reality, we can project things and see how they are supposed to be done. Such technology brings more efficiency and accuracy while saving time and cost.
Collaborative platforms have proven to be quite effective in managing all data in one place and providing real-time access to information to all stakeholders right on their phones. With digitisation and new tools for management, getting access to information at various levels is now easier.
It makes work efficient in terms of quality with reduced risk of error on site. This adds considerable potential in additional savings in managing operational projects. Lack of transparency and communication and coordination gaps also result in an undefined workflow; thereby, there are cost-based consequences. Therefore, digitisation in the construction sector is essential to manage costs and ultimately drive construction projects faster, keeping quality in check.
