Fewer than one in ten construction companies are at the sharp end of technology and most just follow on behind, trying to keep up. That’s the conclusion of a report from management consultant KPMG International, which finds the construction industry is struggling to employ the full benefits of technologies like advanced data and analytics, mobile telephony, automation and robotics
KPMG conducted a survey of more than 200 senior construction executives for its report, Building a technology advantage – Global Construction Survey 2016.
Who took part:
— 218 senior executives: 119 from major project owners, and 99 from a range of engineering and construction companies
— Participating organizations included both private (listed) companies and government agencies
— Respondents’ companies’ turnover ranged from less than US$1 billion to more than US$20 billion
— Owner entities came from many industries including energy and natural resources, technology and healthcare
Only 8% of the construction companies could rank as ‘cutting edge technology visionaries’; 64% of contractors and 73% of project owners rank as ‘industry followers’ or ‘behind the curve’ when it comes to technology.
Richard Threlfall, UK head of infrastructure, building and construction at KPMG, said: “The survey responses reflect the industry’s innate conservatism towards technologies, with most businesses content to follow, rather than lead,” said. “Many lack a clear technology strategy, and either adopt it in a piecemeal fashion, or not at all.”
Two-thirds of the global survey respondents believe project risks are increasing, yet fewer than 20% of respondents said they are ‘aggressively disrupting their business models’.
“Projects around the world are becoming bigger, bolder and more complex, and with complexity comes risk,” said Mr Threlfall. “Innovations like remote monitoring, automation and visualisation have enormous potential to speed up project delivery, reduce costs and improve safety.”
According to the KPMG, engineering and construction firms, and project owners, are not exploiting available data to its full potential. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed do not use advanced data analytics for project-related estimation and performance monitoring. Moreover, only a quarter of respondents said that they were able to ‘push one button’ to get all their project information. Even fewer claim to have a single, integrated project management information system across the enterprise.
“Integrated, real-time project reporting is still a myth, rather than a reality for most. That’s largely because firms tend to use multiple software platforms that are manually monitored and disconnected, which severely compromises their effectiveness,” said Mr Threlfall.
Mobile telephony is another technology with potential to analyse and track performance for construction projects. Most survey respondents were using remote monitoring for projects sites, but fewer than 30% said they routinely made use of mobile devices on all their projects, while a similar proportion do not use mobile platforms at all.
Similarly, only a third said they were using robotics and automation.
Richard Threlfall concluded: “Harnessing the true potential of technology requires construction companies and project owners to get clearer about their technology vision and strategy. The rapidly evolving infrastructure challenges of the next decade demands both owners and engineering and construction firms embrace technology more strategically and at a far more rapid pace than in the past.”
When we look at the results from a regional perspective Europe is leading the way when it comes to adopting (37%) new technologies into their construction processes. However, it must be caveated by the fact that Americas companies are slightly more visionary (10% compared to 7% in Europe).
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For a full download of the report follow the link
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