A key enabler for the transition is Constructible BIM from Trimble

Trimble remains committed towards transforming the engineering and construction industry.

- Paul Wallett, Regional Director, Middle East and India Trimble Solutions

What is your assessment and foresight on the opportunities of transforming the construction industry into a more automated and digitalized one?

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has become a powerful catalyst for accelerated digitalization and automation in most organizations. Various businesses have displayed great agility and dynamism in responding to the 'new normal' during the lockdown, and with the rise in remote working, have embraced digitalized processes and workflows.    

The construction industry is inherently labor-intensive and has traditionally lagged behind others in the adoption of technology. The ongoing pandemic however, offers an opportunity to the industry that with a different approach, it could ensure a quicker rebound to normalcy. Implicit within this prognosis is the willingness for the industry to transform itself by embracing automation and digital workflows.    

The adoption of modern construction technology, facilitated by world-class processes such as Constructible BIM and cloud-based collaboration can greatly aid industry stakeholders during these times of remote working and help the construction industry to hit the ground running once actual construction on site starts post the lockdown. It can still meet its deadlines, while reducing costs and wastage, once the projects resume since advanced BIM software like for example Tekla Structures, let the industry create, combine, manage and share multi-material 3D models packed with valuable construction information through cloud based collaboration platforms in real time, whenever, wherever. In fact, we strongly believe that a greater adoption of digitalized workflows across all stages of construction - from design and planning to engineering and onsite work - will be key to overcoming the slump most construction firms are expected to experience, except the ones who have already jumped on to the technology bandwagon and are reaping the rewards with healthy order books, with sizeable orders secured even in this time of economic inactivity.         

The question is no longer about whether construction companies should digitize, rather, the moot point today is how can they embrace automation and digitalization that prepares them best to mitigate the business impact or create new opportunities in crisis times. We hope to see many more construction players adopt cutting-edge tech innovations like cloud-based collaboration, mixed or Augmented Reality (AR), Machine Learning (ML), and constructible Building Information Modeling (BIM).

What do you think are the major pain points for this transition and your suggestions to address those?

Deloitte has aptly named the construction industry as 'the case of complex disrupt tion.' This is because digital transformation of the construction sector involves a confluence of a number of factors that need transformation in the sector including unproductive sites, time management, safety, staff acquisition, and project management costs.

The primary reason for the slower adoption of this transition till now has been a reluctance to change for a few reasons, and secondly wherever firms have progressed with technology adoption, barring a few construction firms, we have noticed that people often overlook the importance for open communication and collaboration with other groups that leads to errors and rework, which in turn affects productivity and profits adversely.     

What the industry owners really need is to adopt a holistic view of the full construction lifecycle or 'continuum' to address this matter. The construction continuum for buildings is spread over the five key stages of planning, designing, engineering, construction, and finally occupancy and maintenance, and each stage of the lifecycle is rapidly being transformed by technology the world over through a holistic approach and engagement, often driven by the owners themselves.          

Visualizing the construction process as a continuum or placing a building (structure) along the various stages of a continuum is a powerful way for construction companies to analyze the business value of various technologies at each stage. Using the same scale as a reference, they can readily see the advantages digitalization brings to actual construction and/or operations.        

Various technologies, construction processes and methods such as Constructible BIM, prefabricated construction, mixed reality, cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) amongst others, can drive a massive change in how we design, build and operate projects. As disruptive technologies, they not only have the potential to create new benchmarks of value for all stakeholders in the construction ecosystem, but also shape new competitive advantages in the post Covid world.     

What contributory role your company has been playing for this transition?

As a global leader in construction technology, Trimble remains committed towards transforming the engineering and construction industry. A key enabler for the transition is Constructible BIM from Trimble - an evolved process that uses data so accurate that every person, phase, and process can work together seamlessly—optimizing the entire plan, design, build, and operate lifecycle for the next generation of building structures. Construction industry is ready for disruption, digitization is going to be the crucial enabler for it and Constructible BIM is an important change agent. 

As more and more construction firms adopt Constructible BIM, construction will become more efficient, more connected and more content-enabled. Constructible content is rich with metadata — data about the data — such as cost, weight, expected performance, sourcing, installation instructions, and more. It is this rich depth of information that really gives the 3D model its power. From housing and bridges to factories and skyscrapers, Trimble will ensure that constructibility continues to be a practical, everyday issue solver for the industry, which will hasten up its adoption and bring manifold benefits for the industry. Firms can start small, with one software application for immediate workflow needs (e.g., electrical estimating; CIP concrete modeling; or project management). Or, they can tie them together for immediate efficiencies while building a roadmap towards a wider set of solutions. 

Taking the digital transformation vision to the next level, Trimble is also now utilizing robots in a few geographies for routine tasks in hazardous construction environments to improve safety, efficiency, and data capture consistency. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks can restrict human exposure by eliminating frequent interaction among the on-site workforce and the transporters. We expect the use of these technologies to find faster acceptance in the post-Covid era.           

Speaking specifically for how we plan to help clients during the lockdown, we have taken a series of measures to help the individual companies accelerate the digitalization of their workflows in these testing times. For example, Trimble has widened the scope and availability of the free trial of its structural BIM collaboration tool - Tekla Model Sharing. It is now available globally, including India, can be used free for 90 days, even for business purposes. Additionally, all Tekla licenses can be now accessed remotely, free e-learning has been introduced across our portfolio, free trials are now available for various products, flexible licences all the way down to one month subscription have been offered, and our sales and services teams are available round the clock for any kind of assistance that will help customers work productively at home locations.

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