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Josh Lashar is a Senior Consultant of Well Build Construction Consulting, a company based in Baltimore that offers strategic consulting, facilitation services and round tables for construction executives. Opinions are typical of the author.
Technology and construction today go hand in hand, from the telephone to the computer, estimating programs in the project management software. Every company is based on digital technology in some way, but our industry is slow to embrace new tools. Technology reinforces the truth that the built environment has always been achieved by the builders.
All builders use tools, from the stone hammers of our ancestors to pneumatic tools and activated modern powder. The current digital construction technology is simply the last of the evolutionary cycle of these tools. Whether you see digital technology or a supporter of the current work or a challenge to overcome tomorrow, it is here and grows faster than ever.
Before 2020, technology advanced linearly. Since then, progress has taken place at an exponential rate, often leaving companies to be asked if they made the right decision to make or avoid a particular product.
Josh Lashar
Permission granted by well built
The adoption of construction technology is fundamental; Just adapting to the environment is not enough. We need to adopt these tools in our daily operations. As construction professionals, we need to evaluate where we fall into the adoption of products: we will be the innovative, to take on the largest risks and with them the largest results? Or are we first adoptors, jumping after someone else has shown the product’s works, but may still have some mistakes? Are we mostly early? Most late majority? Or do we fit as delays, inclining -towards traditional methods and avoiding the learning or adoption of a product until we need it absolutely?
Although most construction companies and individuals are inclined to the subsequent portions of the conventional adoption life cycle, it is impossible to ignore the fact that technology has the potential to facilitate our lives. Even the most burning Laggard building professional has a cellphone. This is adoption.
Take advantage of technological tools
Having a tool in our toolbox does not mean that we use it or adopted it in our daily lives. Although I write this, I find myself taking advantage of artificial intelligence as a tool to improve your reading experience. As part of the early majority, I am still learning to better use this tool, although with a conscious attitude of risk.
All companies are exposed to innovative technologies, capacities and risks every day. As we decide to navigate through these it is what sets us apart. The most successful and larger contractors in the market are not jumping in any new bright technology, but pilot, they prove, evaluate and implement the most appropriate tools for their business at a speed that balances the risk of reward.
Few technologies have changed as quickly as teams carry out the work that mass access to generative and great language models. Current teams can generate proposals, evaluate them for grammatical accuracy and logic or even that systems generate full documents outside a few key parameters. However, with this integration of technology into our daily lives, there is an inherent risk of inadvertently publishing confidential information. Ensuring that our data is safe is a critical component of this technological adoption.
The development of appropriate processes and procedures, which are later trained together with the adoption of a new tool, reflects the training that a new worker will receive from a carpenter before putting a new tool to work. From understanding the dangers of an active powder tool to the installation of the first set of fixations it is a fast, but significant process, with real consequences. The same goes for data loading to a tool with an open learning system.
Often, the selection of the proper technology tool is found in our leadership teams, usually with contributions from our computer equipment. In an industry where young professionals can help execute critical repetitive tasks, including shipments and RFIs, leadership must remain on the day of new technologies.
The typical university graduate may not fully understand the implications of his decision to execute a presentation, RFI or proposal through a tool that collects data to learn. At the same time, they may have the closest touch to recent technologies that are published and available for use. His knowledge puts experienced professionals in a unique position to take advantage of young enthusiasm and knowledge while evaluating known risks.
Putting it in perspective, we look at the digital drawings sets, for example. The alternative is the hard copy drawings. Although for many tactile and comfortable for many, the time, space and energy expenditure needed to print, slide, copy, edit, update and manage several full -sized drawings. Not to mention the cost. In addition, this set of drawings can be damaged or destroyed in more ways than any of us worries to evaluate.
Alternatively, digital drawings can be accessed by various parts through one of various digital tools and living in a cloud -based environment. The best part of this is the ability to track the changes and, as needed, to print a consolidated set at the end of the work. For those who have to have something physical, smaller and less expensive, they are an option, or use digital plane tables, large monitors or other tools provide the team options.
Again and again, we have all seen that technology benefits our lives, races and projects, while there is a matter of the speed that a tool will take. The answer is clear: the adoption of technology in the construction landscape is a necessity. The only actual question is: What is in the tool belt?
