28 / 48
Subcontractors
get paid not for
the work they do
but for the work
they document
and submit to a
general contractor
in a timely manner.
However, collecting that documentation
hasn’t been easy because subcontractors
often have a disconnect between
what’s occurring in the office and what’s
happening in the field.
In the office, subcontractors track
job productivity, which ties directly
into scheduling and profitability. But
in the past, that tracking had relied
on whatever information the office
personnel or senior management could
get when project foremen or supervisors
came into the office or reported in by
phone. Today, there’s an alternative to
the old-fashioned way of doing business.
When you combine a cloud-based
system with mobile devices in the
field--phones or tablets--you obtain the
ability to enter real-time information
from the field that goes into a shared
database and syncs up with accounting
and other systems in the office. You can
see real-time productivity and stay on
top of activities in the field instead of
constantly chasing that information.
WENDY ROGERS
CEO
eSUB (CONSTRUCTION SUBCONTRACTOR
MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE)
What new technologies can help the commercial
construction industry improve their operations?
NO PHOTO
AVAILABLE
Welcome to the
digitization of
construction.
With the
emergence of
wearables and the
Internet of Things, people will walk around
job sites with sensor-equipped hard hats
to improve safety, location tracking, labor
and time. They will carry walkie-talkies
and wear virtual-reality and augmented-
reality glasses, completely integrating
the work and build environment.
Drones will scan job sites to help crews
determine progress reports in real time,
producing fresh maps and generating
images that can be stitched together
for a 3-D model. Robots will replace
retiring baby boomers and the millions
of skilled construction workers lost to
the industry during the recession.
Today, buildings are being built – tomorrow
they will be assembled or pre-fabricated,
achieving one of the construction
industry’s long-time goals by reducing
or eliminating waste. Those buildings
will be equipped with sophisticated
sensor networks, integrated into heating,
air conditioning and elevator systems,
providing continuous live data feeds.
Using technology, the industry will
address the four “waste” problems
of every construction job: waste
of time, waste of labor, waste of
materials and waste of money.
PAUL SULLIVAN
TECH TRENDS EVANGELIST
AUTODESK
26 Building Washington