The Future of Digitalization in the Construction Industry
The future belongs to technology. The potential of digitization in the construction industry is vast and unparalleled. Maximum productivity in the industry can be achieved only if all data of the entire life cycle of construction are available at one single point of truth. Here, digital technologies are the key to linking all processes and players.
Digitalization opens a welcoming door for increasing efficiency and quality in the construction industry, as productivity has generally hardly increased at all in recent decades. Construction companies often face an uphill task of completing a project without cost and time overruns or without quality deficiencies. There is also a lot of potential in the subsequent phases of property operation and management.
The challenges in the entire building life cycle of assets and portfolios are massive. The lack of process standardization and the lack of transparency makes management, controlling, and the overall process difficult.
Digitization can transform and revolutionize the entire construction industry. Technology is the biggest trigger for increasing productivity and saving time and cost. The main benefit is transparency through digitization, which thus enables efficient management and control, such as:
- Early recognition of problems and risks and proactive counteraction and avoidance.
- Improved cooperation and coordination of all suppliers and partners throughout the entire life cycle.
- Optimization of processes in terms of PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), because you can only improve what you can measure.
Digitization and Building Information Modeling (BIM) is already established in the construction business, but the industry is still struggling with many challenges that make digital transformation difficult:
- The complexity of processes due to the size of the projects and a large number of players and suppliers.
- Different ecosystems, software applications and the lack of data exchange between them.
- Acceptance by employees, who often only fear an additional effort.
Digitization with Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Building information modeling (BIM) is the core of digitization in construction. It is a collaborative working method, capturing all information relevant to the life cycle, managing and exchanging it. The basis is a digital model where all data are collected.
BIM brings benefits throughout the entire building life cycle — for planning, construction, facility management, space management, renovation, etc.
Everyone sees all the information. BIM thus enables cost and schedule reliability improved planning and execution quality and a reduction in defects. Therefore, BIM can be regarded as Lean.
The construction industry is being flooded with new digital solutions. There are numerous, great digital solutions. In the coming years, the industry will get smarter and adopt newer technologies. The whole business process becomes smoother and efficient with digitalization.
