Impact of Covid-19 on the AEC industry and the Role of Technology

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry players now should focus on technology adoption; the sooner the adoption of digital technology, the better will be the results, writes  Vijay Gupta.

Globally, Covid-19 pandemic has hit every sector. However, if we have to gauge its impact sector-wise, I would say the construction domain is one of the worst-hit sectors. And, yes there are reasons for it. It is a known fact that the sector employs a very large pool of skilled as well as unskilled manpower, and in today's lockdown, the sector is critically hit by the shortage of manpower. Traditionally, the construction industry has been relying heavily on on-site execution of most of the business-critical tasks, as the work that can be done remotely is minuscule for a construction project. However, in the current scenario, the physical work on-site is nearly impossible and the real estate players do understand the massive negative impact of this on the business.               

Distancing: The Real Challenge

From the perspective of the construction domain, the real challenge today is of distancing. Although distancing measures are very much critical for everybody's welfare, they have a potential impact on the schedules and costs. These distancing measures have a disastrous impact on the on-site role of engineers, architects and construction supervisors, not to mention the construction workmen. So, it is a steep challenge for the industry players to maintain efficiency while following the distancing measures.         

The Post COVID-19 Era

Almost every sector will have to work hard to overcome the setback created by the lockdown. As we are seeing, some sectors like finance and e-commerce are slowly becoming active and will have a first-mover advantage. However, this will not be the case with the construction industry. While strictly maintaining the distancing guidelines, the industry players will have a herculean task on their hands to get things back on track.             

The Major Challenges would be

• Ensuring the safety and well-being of site workers
• Focus on timely project completion while following health safety guidelines
• Managing the supply chain
• Maintaining the cash flow

The Technology Boost

Traditionally, the construction industry is lagging behind the other sectors when it comes to digitization and data-driven decision making. And this can be attributed to heavy dependence on skilled and unskilled manpower. However, with the technologies, such as big data, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) has brought great transformation opportunities to this industry.       

The industry players need to re-think the way they manage their projects and the decision-making process. The industry lacks the data-driven decision making and to counter the post-Covid-19 challenges, the industry players need to rely heavily on the data collected remotely from sites. I foresee that online software and systems to digitally manage construction projects now onwards will be considered imperative by business owners for monitoring and decision making for their projects. The building information modeling (BIM) to virtualize the construction project, and monitoring through Virtual and Augmented reality (AR/VR) technologies without moving on to the site will be a boon to address the industry challenges brought by Covid-19. I believe the industry should start learning and adopting this sooner than later for the survival and growth of the business in this industry.

Since the last 23 years, SoftTech has been working relentlessly to drive innovation and bring speed and efficiency in the construction domain. We firmly believe that in such challenging times technology can help a lot to ease the pressure of the businesses. SoftTech has been working with both government and private players of this industry and firmly believes the introduction of technology will be the only solution for the next few years.          

The Way Ahead

As we spoke of innovation and technology, we also need to consider the financial aspect. The best way to measure the use of technology is to understand the time saved with the existing process. Over the years, SoftTech has been innovating to bring necessary transformation into the construction industry. Be it Smart Cities initiative or Digital India, SoftTech has been enabling ease of doing business for construction permits for several urban local bodies across India. Our solutions aim at bringing efficiency, transparency, and absolute uniformity in the way construction permits are issued digitally on the server with a minimum manual intervention which could be managed remotely.            

Moving ahead, the construction industry players need to chart out a plan to make things smoother and stable. There are pain areas where they will have to focus and think of bringing technology to address them. The immediate areas where we should implement technology are reduction in manual site visits by using technology for remote supervision, digital procurement management, project management, scheduling, inventory management, accounting, and most importantly, the sales part through digital processes. If we look at all these areas, there is one common factor that connects them and that is, digital data processing of the project.     

BIM technology (3D/4D/5D) can bring a breakthrough and we must leverage that for this industry. We all have to remember that we are living in the era of digital data and no sector can afford to overlook that. The technology is available and technology players' like SoftTech have been constantly innovating for the industry.               

The Final Word

No doubt, these are challenging times for every sector and every one of us. However, this is also an opportunity to think and improvise our existing process and the way we deliver the projects. For the construction industry domain, Covid19 is a situation that can force us to think of technology for survival. Be it from the processes or monetary perspective, the construction industry players now should focus on technology adoption. The sooner the adoption of digital technology, the better will be the results.            

Now, the onus is on the AEC players for the quicker adoption of technology.

Hits: 127