DEC 2019 - JAN 2020CONSTRUCTIONTECHREVIEW.COM8IN MY OPINIONFASTER TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION FOR DYNAMIC CONSTRUCTION ARENA By Tomislav Zigo, Vice President - Virtual Design & Construction, Clayco In an interview with Construction Tech Startups, for a special edition of Construction Tech Review, Tomislav Zigo, Virtual Design and Construction, Clayco, explains that, "Stay away from temporary patches and point solutions that are voided of integration points the ability of disrupting industry in a way that will provide the lasting value." His experience includes work in the vanguard of BIM methodology implementation on large healthcare, institutional and industrial projects; research work in the field of building performance analysis; optimization and use of mobile and immersive technology and mentorship positions in a number of local and national architectural firms during their transition toward BIM adoption.What are some of the trends and pain points that you have observed over the years in Construction Space?The construction industry today exists in a rapidly changing technology environment. Set against this backdrop, construction companies are positioning themselves in a way they can offer a better realignment with principles of fourth industrial revolution. They are looking to synergize vast amount of information and advanced technologies like IoT and AI, which are transforming the way we work and live. Organizations are also trying to be more responsive to rapidly changing socioeconomic environment reflected through the reduced access to resources, increased population growth and fluctuating marketplace.When it comes to challenges, the major issue according to me is the inability of the construction companies to allocate appropriate resources to keep up with the chances in manufacturing or information technology industries. To address the technology transfer issues, most of the large companies in the market are looking to re-engineer their business processes by faster adoption of new technologies and improving not only the pace of delivery but also quality of delivered products. With manufacturing becoming a common aspect of construction industry, prefabrication and modular are being highly scrutinized through alignment with product life cycle (PLM) and product document management (PDM) principles. This could mark the front of the project delivery and the higher level of integration due to existing technologies becoming more accessible. What would be your approach to industry leaders today to be at par with the technological shift?From large organizations' perspective, there are two key components that are necessary for successful adoption of technology. One is developing overall corporate strategy. In the current information age, information management and analysis needs to become a strategic initiative. In that regard, organizations have to structure themselves to facilitate knowledge management during technology adoption. Considering the financial strain posed by technology adoption, an analytical approach towards obtaining an overall understanding of investment in technology with respect to its benefits on existing processes and projection over gained efficiencies in the future is part of the strategy. Second is, implementing tactical solutions to facilitate the overall strategy which requires complete revamping of the traditional roles within the construction industry. The change envisions the transformation from roles like project engineer, project manager, which are project-based and transactional in nature. The tactical approach would be to create a new type of construction professional that is process driven. The new generation of Process engineers and Process managers will be represented through thoughtful adoption of technology in order to assure consistency from one delivery cycle to another and empower individuals to facilitate ever-changing technology and process paradigm. This kind of technology adoption can be facilitated by reinventing traditional education model and creating a new one that is more focused on tech-skills career development. In a nutshell, this is both technology issues and
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