ConstructConnect Blog

As technology adoption continues to ramp up in the construction industry, one area getting a lot of attention is improving safety. A strong emphasis is on using wearables to monitor workers and their environment to make jobsite safer. Wearable tech in construction is being embedded into apparel and personal protective equipment (PPE) already common on construction sites like hard hats, gloves, safety vests and work boots.

Offsite construction has been around for years, but interest in this construction method has grown rapidly in the past decade. Benefits of offsite construction include decreased costs compared to conventional construction methods, shortened project schedules, reduced waste and safer working conditions.

Technology is constantly improving the way the construction industry operates. Smartphones and mobile apps have made communication and collaboration on projects easier. Building Information Modeling (BIM) improves project visualization, makes scheduling more efficient and reduces waste and rework.

It’s no secret that construction can be very slow when it comes to change. Nevertheless, the advent of new technologies has dramatically contributed toward the modernization of the whole industry. A general need for change has emerged as a result of the serious productivity problems that are noticed in big markets like the United States and the United Kingdom.

There’s no question that mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have made our lives easier. Mobile construction apps allow you to get instant access to project information in the field and communicate real-time data back to the office or your client.

It’s Friday, so we thought we’d have a little fun and take a look at some of the unique and out of this world skyscraper ideas we’ve come across lately. We’ll also discuss the probability of each being able to make the transition from vision to reality.

Project AME (Additive Manufactured Excavator), the world’s first 3D printed excavator, made its debut last week at the Tech Experience at CONEXPO-CON/AGG and IFPE 2017 in Las Vegas. The project was a collaboration between the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and researchers and students from Georgia Tech, the University of Minnesota and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The world of construction often has been labeled as conservative regarding potential advances in technology and technological applications. But social pressures and business competition sometimes forces growth, catalyzing companies to find new ways to appeal to clients, reduce costs and protect employees. Below are just a few things that might disrupt how construction companies operate in the future. In fact, some already have done that.

What does a retail district in Nashville, an apartment complex for homeless veterans in Orange County, CA and a condominium building in Detroit all have in common? They were all built using repurposed shipping containers as the primary building material.

The construction business is changing—a shortage of skilled labor, growing costs of materials and increasingly complex and demanding projects are squeezing profit margins in ways that big firms have never experienced. A firm that can find new ways to save time and reduce costs is going to have a competitive edge and mobile technology gives construction companies the opportunity to do just that. Here are just a few ways that your construction firm can harness mobile technology to become more competitive.