Construction Technology: Build Smarter, Build Safer
by Shane Zysk, Marketing Coordinator
BuildingPoint Ohio Valley
As the construction industry continues its struggle to adapt to an ever-evolving landscape that includes increased demands, workforce shortages, new standards, and advancing technology, it can be helpful to view the situation from multiple angles.
Many sources have discussed the potential business benefits of 21st century construction technology in terms of accuracy, repeatability, reliability, capabilities, cost savings and profits, but what should also be at the forefront of such considerations is safety.
The building industry as a whole has some work cutout for it if it hopes to change its centuries-old image as a profession of backbreaking physical labor done with error-prone hand tools in settings rife with the potential for future injury. Most can think of someone they know who has been hurt, hopefully minorly, in the field of construction, and while it’s impossible to prevent everything, this fact and image that the industry has sorely needs to change. Our current digital age is in full swing, and the safety impacts it’s had on sectors such as manufacturing, engineering and energy need to be translated to the construction realm as well.
With digital pre-construction in the virtual world, modern equipment on-site and standard adoption at the company-level, the industry has the potential to massively improve the lives of its workforce, as well as its own reputation.
Digital pre-construction, in the form of 3D modeling, whether created from scratch or transferred from existing site conditions via a 3D laser scanner, is a game-changer.
Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual Design Construction (VDC) tools and workflows can allow you to simulate the complete construction of a building from the ground up. Far from just giving stakeholders an idea as to how a structure will look when complete, these technologies and techniques can give exacting insights into material quantities and scheduling, as well as provide for early clash-detection and workarounds before physical ground is ever disturbed.
Parties involved in construction can therefore identify potential hazards before they arise and appropriately plan for necessary safety measures ahead of time. They’ll also be able to determine which specialty crews, from MEP contractors to finish carpenters and more, need to be on which part of a site and when, allowing for the avoidance of schedule conflicts that could further lead to unsafe conditions, such as overloading specific areas of a site or proceeding with stages of work prematurely without proper checks or crew training.
In short, being able to design, build and operate virtually beforehand gives those in charge of construction the insight needed to plan for the best possible levels of not only efficiency, but safety as well.
Once physical work is underway, modern construction layout instruments can further aid in jobsite safety. Working directly via the BIM/VDC models and plans of the previous stage, they can help provide the link between field and office that keeps crews aligned with the safety precautions predetermined as necessities and put in place. The same aspects of such devices that remove human error and aid in accuracy and efficiency can help prevent not only costly, but dangerous mistakes via built-in, guided workflows and operating specs that keep them in-line with specific regulatory standards.
Their wireless, often cloud-based communication also helps those overseeing operations know who is on site and when, doing what. This includes technologies such as electronic check-in and out, whether via ID badge or machine-based credentials, that keeps the right parties at the right place and prevents unauthorized access to critical areas. Such a level of observation, understanding and security has never before been possible on construction sites like it is today.
Then there’s the up-and-coming advent of literal robotic technologies such as drones, UAV’s and construction bots that allow for work in otherwise-inaccessible or high-risk areas. Further developments in the form of exoskeleton suits, once the stuff of science fiction, are now entering the field as yet another way the industry can better protect its future workers from potential harm.
Perhaps the most important part of this puzzle to achieving modern levels of workplace safety on the construction site comes down to its most important element, investing in people.
For modern technology to truly succeed, companies need to not only invest in its acquisition but its implementation and the education of those who will regularly use it. The first important step is to dedicate resources to learning and understanding exactly what’s out there, in the form of “technology managers” whose job it is to investigate, test, recommend and implement new solutions as they become available. Once deemed viable, partnerships need to be formed with trusted technology sources and such managers to ensure that the technology is not only adopted, but digested and translated in ways that set up employees to use them properly. Regular training, both introductory and continuing, needs to take place with consistency, using solutions proven to mesh seamlessly and work together. Just as industries and governments have standards that help protect workers, so too do organizations need technology regulations that make sure employees understand how to operate the new tools given to them.
The same advances designed to make construction more accurate, profitable, fast and efficient ought to be used to make it safer as well. Indeed, future generations of construction professionals should see themselves less as physical laborers and more as skilled technicians adept at bridging the gap between imagination and planning in the virtual and physical reality like never before. Costly errors and hazardous conditions should give way to intelligent models, guided workflows, robotic assistance and augmented solutions that put humans in the driver’s seat of technology on job sites, rather than continue to limit them as the horses pulling centuries-old, risk-laden carts.
While the industry will always have its foundation in muscle, it’s time to put more emphasis on the brain. To attract the next generation of tech-raised workers, meet the tightening standards of tomorrow, rise to ever-increasing competition, realize new marvels in engineering excellence and most importantly, protect the lives of future generations, it is not only best for construction firms to invest in the modern age, but their duty to as well.
