You might have heard about Industry 4.0 or Construction 4.0 - both are really the same thing, and supposedly we’re in it right now. In fact there was talk of this a few years back, so it is worth taking a moment to look at how it’s going.
First though, just a quick history lesson to set the context. We’re talking about industrial revolutions, with the internet, AI and robotics all contributors to the fourth (4.0).
1st - mechanisation driven by water and steam (1780s)
2nd - electricity and mass production lines (1870)
3rd - digital and programmable computers (1969)
4th - taking digital to a new level, connected everything (2010s)
It might just be me, but two things jump out at me with this timeline. There was almost 100 years between each of the first three, and yet there are just a few years between the third and fourth. Plus the third and fourth are both digitally related. I’m not sure whether Tim Berners-Lee blurted out that we were in “industry 3.0” when he developed the HTML language and introduced the World Wide Web to the public in 1989, so it makes me question whether we are actually in the fourth yet, or still in the third? Perhaps we are getting ahead of ourselves, but it is nice to be positive and everything needs a name these days!
History lesson and definitions aside, what is not in question, is some of the tech that we are seeing hit the construction industry. So here’s a quick look at what seems to be working right now.
Digital & Big Data
AR and VR
Following in the footsteps of the gamers, AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) are both being utilised by the construction industry right now, albeit in discrete ways without necessarily being fully joined up between different aspects of the same project - an example might be that the steel frame is able to be viewed in AR on site with some goggles, but it is only the steel frame package that has that function.
Expect to see more of this coming together in a better integrated and more wholistic approach. Imagine a project control room where the project can be viewed, reviewed, monitored and interrogated both from a design and an on-site construction perspective.
With better ability to store vast amounts of data, plus systems to hold and sort it, site records should be taking a huge leap forward from poor quality photos stored on a project server.
Platforms
Online platforms that integrate data, sort it and make it accessible via easy to use dashboards and interfaces across multiple devices are powering the digital transformation of construction. As touched on already, these platforms can exist in the design/collaboration side of the industry, in the on-site delivery side, or even back-office (e.g. productivity management).
Intelligent Buildings
I have written about this before (see: Digital Twins or Intelligent Buildings 1 and 2), but these are a hugely important part of where construction is heading. For our buildings to operate in a smart, connected way, with amazing user interfaces and integrations, we have to embed this into the very core of what we design and build. Cutting edge buildings in the future will be more like a device with a structure and envelope around it, much like you can now think of a Tesla being a device with wheels.
Materials
Whether we are talking nano technology or elemental additions to common materials like concrete, or off-site modular construction, there is a lot to unpack here. Then there is the understanding the supply chain and everything that goes into the production of the widget that finally ends up on site. Some of these don’t feel like they are ‘driven by digital’, however you will often find that digital does sit behind their development in a variety of ways, for example platform management of the production process and integration with 3D design models.
Robotics
I still think we are some way off seeing robots building our construction projects, simply because most projects are bespoke. Some housebuilding and similar repetitive or large scale sectors (e.g. civils works) could be more able to utilise this sort of thing, but the large projects I see in London are too complex. Unfortunately, in my eyes, construction is still a relatively messy, dirty industry which more often than not still needs needs a ‘site cut’ to make things fit.
That doesn’t mean robotics cannot help, now or in the future. Off-site manufacture is growing and it is powered by robots! Gradually things are being automated, perhaps without you noticing - take for example some excavators going autonomous and site monitoring/inspections now being undertaken by machines or drones.
Remember that control room I mentioned, in the future ‘plant drivers’ for more complex or risky works could be based in a control centre, operating plant remotely (think safety of driver, efficiency of no travel to site, reduced site operatives). This is a sort of hybrid, but again shows you how things could evolve even if complex tasks are not able to be fully handed over to the robots.
Being Connected
There are two critical things to ensuring all this tech works and is useful to us:
Fast networks and data transfer - with the roll out of 5G this now seems possible. Devices can pass information back and forth sufficiently quickly to allow operations in real-time. Until recently, this was a major barrier, especially if talking about time critical actions or physical activities that could have safety implications.
Integrations - with all these different tech solutions and platforms, how do we manage them all? Do we just switch our time from managing construction activities to managing data and dealing with issues of data compatibility? Hopefully not. But in the future I’d expect you to be familiar with systems integrations and the term ‘tech stack’, which is what you need to get right so all your whizzy tech can talk to each other without you being in the middle!
Final Thought
We must to be able to look ahead to what is around the corner. Our projects are often long and the early decisions we make shape the end product, which might not be delivered for years. More and more we (the developers, designers and builders) will need to be able to ‘talk tech’. No, you don’t need to be able to write code, but yes you do need an appreciation of how these things work, fit together (integrate) and can improve your project outcome.