The opportunity for digital transformation in construction is huge. Digital tools such as BIM, digital twins and artificial intelligence (AI) are game changers that can address common industry challenges to improve productivity and profitability.
But the fragmented nature of the industry means construction companies have not been able to leverage the many benefits of digitalization compared to other sectors. The result is information loss, duplicated efforts, poor communication and inefficiencies across the project lifecycle.
Significant cost growth and schedule delays are becoming the norm on construction projects, according to Dr. Sheryl Staub-French, professor of civil engineering at the University of British Columbia.
“Construction is an extremely under-digitized sector,” she said, noting construction ranks below every sector in terms of digitalization except for agriculture and hunting.
“We have small and medium enterprises. We have a lot of uncertainty that we deal with. There is good reason for our slow adoption of technology. But it also speaks to the real opportunity that we have.”
A repeatable root cause is what she described as “suboptimal project organization.” She explained that on every project there is information loss throughout the lifecycle. “Every phase we’re generating so much information but that information is not being shared. And if it’s being shared, it’s not being shared in a way that’s useable for those downstream users. It gets recreated, re-verified and re-entered and those errors multiply.”
Project handovers today are through the digital delivery of thousands of PDFs, but the quality of data is variable. To get to digitalization, projects need well-structured information that can be automated and streamlined.
“We’re talking culture change, organizational change, transforming the way organizations work and the way they strategically look ahead and what the value proposition is,” stated Staub-French, who was the keynote speaker at this year’s Transportation Conference, hosted by the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies BC.
To achieve digitalization transformation, the three critical components are: BIM, digital twin and AI. BIM is at the core of digital delivery and used for all phases of a project, explained Staub-French, citing advantages include 10-20 per cent reduction in construction cost; 20-28 per cent productivity boost and 30 per cent reduction in design changes.
While BIM is being used extensively in design and construction, there are shortcomings in the operation phase.
“This is where we still have a long way to go. Right now we’re chasing paper documents – we’re chasing PDFs. We’re not able to leverage all that useful information,” she said, adding that ideally digital information needs to be integrated from shop drawings to maintenance manuals.
The increasing emphasis on digital twin and the promise of digital twin for operations is profound. Digital twin brings the model to life with real-world data, giving a live representation of the facility.
“We have not seen a lot of BIM uptake in operations. Digital twin will be a game changer for enabling that,” said Staub-French, citing Toronto and YVR as great examples for how they are using digital twins for projects and decision making.
When it comes to how AI is being used, the industry is not surprisingly still very early in implementation. The technology, along with BIM and digital twin, offers lots of opportunities for improvements on construction projects.
“AI shows so much promise in addressing the challenge of the information tsunami that comes with BIM delivery. There needs to be a way to analyze and dissect that information that we’re handing over,” she said. “AI is the last piece that we’ve needed to make this whole ecosystem work.”
Another important component for enabling digitalization is collaborative delivery through contract models like alliance contracts and integrated project delivery (IPD). They focus on key principles such as shared risk and rewards, transparency and trust, resulting in on time, on budget delivery. “These are the mechanisms to facilitate collaboration through digitalization,” she said.
Globally, many countries have BIM mandates and are adopting digital twins, offering Canada important lessons. “The challenge is we’re the only G7 country without a national mandate for BIM,” noted Staub-French, citing UK as an excellent “model of leadership and collaboration” for Canada.
In the UK, BIM mandates are coupled with industry training and support, data standards and requirements. Similarly, the U.S has required digital delivery on many projects for more than 20 years.
“On most BIM projects in Canada, we still refer to the 2D documents as a legal deliverable. For this shift to happen, we have to start moving to model as a legal document,” she stressed.
She also highlighted that there are many examples, roadmaps and resources available for B.C. to adopt to drive digitalization. The National Research Council of Canada is investing millions of dollars into the Canadian industry to support digitalization.
“This is a unique time in Canada’s history where we actually get funding to support these innovative endeavours,” said Staub-French, who also cited Québec as being a leader in driving digital transformation in construction.
She concluded by saying to move digitalization forward, government, industry and academia must work together. Government leadership at all levels has to institutionalize requirements, standards and embed digital delivery in procurement.
Ultimately, organizational change requires systemic changes to work practices and delivery models. It is about starting out small and focusing on information commissioning, advised Staub-French.
“We realize it’s going to be hard but stay the course. Don’t shift back to status quo,” she said. “We have to come together to support the digital transformation that is needed within our industry.”
Cheryl Mah is managing editor of Construction Business.
