At the same time, construction technology has come on leaps-and-bounds, enabled by mobile communications, the latest software and data analytics.  Those more advanced areas of the industry are moving towards AI and machine-learning in very specific areas that drive the most value.

The question is, has the time come for technology to be deployed more quickly and broadly, so that all areas of the industry perform to the levels required in 2018?

Delivering against demanding requirements

Time, cost, productivity and efficiency are where project margins are made, not least for those contractors focused on the earthworks phase of high-profile construction projects.

In the quest for the “perfectly delivered” construction project, tenders of the future will demand the kind of deliverables and performance that only technology-enabled contractors will be able to produce.  The future is about getting more done, with fewer machines, fewer errors from plan, completed on time and with penalties for late delivery of project elements.

With ever-increasing pressure on project performance, we believe technology is realistically the only way to deliver them.  We work with many customers to tech-enable their plant and processes but we continue to be surprised that adoption has been so slow across the industry in general.

Accelerating technology adoption

While every OEM manufacturer is selling in-built tech, with a number of others selling after-market solutions, most contractors have yet to fully embrace the potential of all this technology. For example, machine control is a simple and immediate ‘site sat-nav’ for machine operators, but few machines are equipped and then combined with digital site modelling and two-way project office data flow, to deliver benefits to the rest of the project team.

The challenge therefore for the industry is to accelerate adoption of technology by taking advantage of simple solutions available today, while developing a more aggressive approach to changing the way projects are delivered.  We believe that the contractors that fully embrace this will soon have a substantial advantage over more traditional contractors when it comes to winning the most prestigious bids.

Drive the change