Greater levels of integration will drive success in the construction sector

In Australia, the $426 billion construction industry looks to benefit from Commonwealth and state government investments, as well as from the reopening of the economy after a two-year hiatus. 

Across the region, the Asia Pacific is projected to account for 7.4 trillion US dollars of global construction output by 2030 

According to Sumit Oberoi, Industry Strategy Manager at Autodesk Construction Solutions, the sector needs greater levels of integration within and between companies and also needs to make much better use of the data it collects if it’s to capture the full opportunity. 

“There's a lot of opportunity for governments looking to infrastructure to boost their economy to close the global pandemic. And there really is the prevailing pressure to deliver projects on time and on budget. 

“So what we really need is that clear visibility across our projects teams and into the subcontractors, meaning that the executives have a real clear idea of where and what can be done to increase their productivity, improve their safety, sustainability, and, of course, winning more profitable work,” Oberoi said. 

Success is not guaranteed though, as there are key challenges to overcome.  For instance, research by Autodesk in 2020, found that the cost of bad data to the industry worldwide was $1.85 trillion dollars. 

Oberoi told Digital Nation, “What we're finding at the moment is that we've got so much fragmentation of teams of information and workflow that's really been a blocker in insightful use of data. For us, it's about supporting a common data environment and allowing for more agile, better decision-making, and access to real-time project data. To prevent those errors and rework in situations where we're not getting the best efficiency and project teams.” 

Risk management

A cloud-based approach enables organisations to gather information in a more meaningful manner because it's more up-to-date. And it's always being replenished with other project participants, said Oberoi.

Project predictability is essential to delivering profitable outcomes and effective risk management is a key element in this. 

“I think the biggest challenge facing executives is really the uncertainty of how their project’s going. So they need to be able to capture information from the start of the process. And keep building from that. Capturing a whole range of different data pieces that go to a dead-end is something that has crippled the industry, instead we need to be able to leverage off the engineering and design data all the way through the construction process.“ 

From a strategic planning perspective, he said executives need transparency over project health at an executive dashboard level. 

The cloud-based nature of platforms, such as Autodesk Build, provide additional advantages, such as real-time reporting, and predictability, he said. “When you use a cloud-based approach, you're in a position to gather information in a more meaningful manner, because it's more up-to-date,” he said. 
 
Interested in improving predictability and key business KPIs for your construction projects? Download the Autodesk Executive Guide on digitising project workflows in the cloud.