Unlocking the Digital Continuum

From highways to high-rises, the way structures are designed, built, delivered and even operated and maintained is undergoing a profound adjustment. The days of paper plans and siloed workflows are increasingly replaced with a more seamless integration of the digital (design) and physical (jobsite) realms. It’s a shift from descriptive to predictive and prescriptive analytics that is unlocking previously impossible levels of efficiency, visibility and collaboration.

This evolution means adopting digital technology that improves workflows and bridges the gaps between different processes to improve construction outcomes. Its value lies in empowering the entire project team, from the project manager in the office to the foreman in the field with tools that enable real-time data collection, predictive analytics, and proactive problem-solving.

Notably, this evolving ecosystem is not just about describing what has already happened on a jobsite. We're moving in a direction where the data gathered during the construction of a project will be used to anticipate issues and recommend solutions before they even arise. It will allow contractors who have long relied solely on individual expertise to tap into a collective pool of knowledge and best practices. The shared access to data and insights that are enabled with this increasing democratization of data insights enables more collaborative decision-making, where all parties can focus on finding the best possible solution, in the most timely, sustainable and cost-effective way. 

It's an exciting time to be in construction. We as an industry are not just building assets; we're constructing the very foundation of a more efficient, connected, and sustainable future.

The Digital Realities

To take advantage of the emerging technology evolution requires a clarity of purpose, an optimization of digital-to-physical-to-digital connection that enables a seamless workflow.

The initial phase of a project development involves creating plans, including the schedule, budget, site layouts, and concepts. These essential pieces are developed by professionals using various tools to estimate how the project will proceed. The digital plans and designs are then deployed to the actual job site, where construction crews work to bring the physical structure into existence.

A foreman on site interprets and optimizes that digital plan based on multiple factors. Once the digital plan is implemented on-site, there is a continuous process of reviewing and re-optimizing the plan to address real-world conditions and challenges. This involves adapting to differences in site conditions, material delivery schedules, and subcontractor coordination. As work progresses, data is collected from the physical job site – including progress tracking, inspections, and as-built conditions – to support schedule, budget, and compliance tracking.

To align the physical world with the digital plan, project teams collect data from the construction site and push it back to the digital representation. This process requires both automatic and manual data collection. The project manager then uses the data to compare the original plan with actual performance, focusing on the schedule, budget, and required specifications.

However, too often in today’s construction environment, project teams have all the pieces of the digital puzzle but can’t connect them in a meaningful way to gain insights.

That’s where digital site management enters the picture.

Collective Connections

Digital site management is all about creating a seamless flow of information between the office and the field and back to the office; it’s about providing the project manager, foreman and other key contributors the right information to enable better collaboration and coordination, ultimately improving project outcomes in terms of schedule, budget, and quality.

For many, building information modeling (BIM) and common data environments are foundational to this digital-to-physical-to-digital ecosystem – and these technologies are essential to effective digital site management.

For instance, the importance of a common data environment took on greater significance this year, allowing teams to seamlessly sync data from office to field and back. European countries including Norway, Finland and the United Kingdom have taken the lead. Several years ago, Norway’s Randselva Bridge made history as the longest bridge to be constructed without a single 2D drawing. These mandates necessitate some form of connected workflow and data sharing.

In the U.S., while BIM is not mandated by public entities as yet, the shift is ongoing and was particularly notable over the past year.

Add in AI

The future of effective digital site management will include more automation — and artificial intelligence (AI) plays a very big role in that effort. Data collection methods have become more advanced, with the use of drones, scanners, and other tools to capture as-built conditions and progress data. The capabilities of these systems is enabling contractors to directly collect and share very accurate information, rather than relying on specialized survey crews.

As the many and varied ways of gathering quality data on a jobsite continue to evolve, amalgamating that data brings with it other challenges.

Studies have shown that a large majority of data gathered on construction projects is not used.  With tools like AI, that has begun to change. Contractors are finding that the data can be reused for multiple purposes, rather than a single purpose. AI algorithms are currently flagging potential clashes across job sites so that an experienced professional can assess the potential issue.  

Deep learning algorithms are used to find features in a massive point cloud in minutes—a task that typically takes hours and hours to perform. Some are even customizing the AI-enabled algorithms to automatically identify and extract specific details from a point cloud, such as anchor bolts or steel columns. AI algorithms are available to support and improve estimating, contract reviews, construction management and jobsite safety.

Fostering Innovation

The construction industry is on a path of digital transformation, and the future will involve more automation, data-driven decision-making, and stronger collaboration between all stakeholders.

The emerging digital ecosystem is truly moving us beyond using digital solutions to simply describe what has happened (descriptive analytics) to now having the ability to very accurately predict what will happen and prescribe the best course of action. This shift will enable more proactive decision-making and problem-solving, rather than reacting to issues after the fact.

An additional benefit of this shift will be greater trust between owners and contractors, reducing the chance of costly rework, streamlining workflows and faster project delivery. When trust is established, the owner can rely on the contractor's inspection reports and specifications without needing to double-check the work, like a TSA Precheck for construction.

As the construction industry embraces this digital-physical continuum, the future looks brighter than ever. Projects are delivered with unprecedented speed, accuracy, and profitability, all while fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning. The tools to deliver a true digital-to-physical-to-digital continuum are available.

It’s time we look beyond the individual capabilities of a technology, whether it’s automatic grade control on an excavator or the impressive analytical capabilities of field solutions, to see the true dynamic capabilities of today’s emerging digital ecosystem.

True digital-to-physical-to-digital delivery requires a collective investment in solutions that ‘speak’ to each other. It’s a dynamic dance that will shape the emerging digital construction continuum. We as an industry just need to get in sync with the rhythm.