Digitization and automation of construction are new solutions that make a revolution in this industry especially by using digital construction software and mobile apps. Digitization is now developed successfully to help construction projects and management from the beginning to the end. Automation and robotics are also employed as effective trends to increase productivity and decrease project costs.
Digitization and automation can play a crucial role in every aspect of the construction project to enhance:
- Whole process transparency
- Communication between team members, project managers, and clients
- Precise control and risk assessment
If you want to know how construction mobile applications can help your construction projects reach better outcomes, let’s take a closer look at this new technology.
What is Digitization in construction?
Digital construction software simply developed to convert non-digital information into digital data formats which are more convenient to be transferred or manipulated. The application of CAD (computer-aided design) drawings or electronic mail (email) instead of paper maps and sheets are the common examples of this adoption.
What is automation in construction?
Automation in construction refers to the application of any technology or machines capable of doing human tasks in a faster and smarter way. Automation in building construction is the integration of machines, systems equipment, and components with artificial intelligence that leads the industry to a new level of efficiency and productivity.
If you have any doubt about the potential for digitization and automation to positively impact the construction industry, stay with us to make you completely aware of the benefits of this new trend.
Why is the application of mobile apps for the construction industry important?
The application of mobile apps with no doubt has a great impact on growing the opportunity for digitization and automation in the construction industry. By using construction mobile applications:
- All building construction teams can stay connected and create effective collaboration with each other.
- Management of everything from employees to the equipment is completely under control just by a few clicks.
- All information during the construction process is traceable directly from the construction mobile apps.
The potential of using mobile apps for the construction industry is not limited to the above mentioned, we can develop much more features for you exactly according to your needs such as:
- Project planning and work scheduling
- Tracking of assets and materials
- Document and order management
- Productivity measurements
- Create, assign and prioritize tasks in real-time
- Send work plan to all field workers and mobile notifications about the shift changes
- Align the priorities for the entire team
- Optimize capacity utilization
- Reduce downtime
- Eliminate missed deadlines
- Trace the progress of building construction processes
- Reduce the complexities of large-scale projects
Benefits of mobile technology in construction
Even though mobile phones are so popular these days and all construction team members from non-tech-savvy laborers to professional engineers can work with their smartphones without any problem, there is a lot more about why mobile apps can make a huge difference in the construction industry.
Let’s review some of them.
- Cut down the time of information and data transfer
- Increase productivity by reducing delays in construction plans
- Improve the collaboration between back-office, field workers owners, and construction team members
- Eliminate paperwork and enhance back-office efficiency by replacing paper documents with digital forms
- Increase the profitability by cutting down the costs
- Better Monitor the daily work of staffs by checking Staff travel times, GPS locations, and time spent on-site
- Provide transparent report about the building construction progress
- Easily track and manage delivery, in use or maintenance-need equipment
- Get access to all electronic files just by one click such as plan clarifications, building code references, by-laws, and more
- Increase productivity by staying on schedule and improve workflows
- Increase speed of construction by tracking teams’ activities remotely
- Management of supply chain vendors and materials availability
- Have better visibility and risk management
- Automate concrete works by preparing precast and ready-mixed concrete products
- Reduce material consumption and eliminate human error by construction work automation
How can app development and software automation help construction?
Developing mobile apps for the construction industry is a smart solution providing a lot of useful features to help construction companies address the challenges it faces. The main purpose of construction industry apps summarized below:
- Provide digital access to digital data
- Make automated construction possible
- Enhance the connectivity and collaboration
By getting help from apps for the construction industry, you can overcome a lot of problems such as below to increase efficiency and improve accessibility:
- Potential cost overruns,
- Missed deadlines,
- Disparate business processes,
- Dynamic business environment,
- Environmental issues,
- Technical-security compliance,
- Augmented complexities of mega-scale projects
- Complex project planning due to enormously large-scale projects
- Poor coordination between back office and field due to delay in information sharing
- Prevalence of paperwork, outdated databases of blueprints, designs, supply-chain orders, equipment lists, and reports
- Inadequate performance management due to difficulties in data analysis
- Inefficient risk management
- Shortage of skilled labor
- Delay and cost shortages
- Escalated competition
The mobile apps for the construction industry can also allow field workers to share, access, and report important project data while they are on their construction site and it is the best solution for:
- Showcase the projects,
- Offer virtual tours,
- Locate everything on a range of interactive maps,
- Ensuring that every user has access to the same information
- Uniform messaging at all times
- Perform on-site automation
- Digitize construction data and documents
- Communicate with mobile-based construction
- Collaborate in real-time
- Improve efficiency
- Increase productivity
- Turn anywhere into a job site or your office
How to develop the Right App for Your Construction Business?
There are a variety of effective options and features that you can add to a construction mobile app. However, it’s very important to consider your priorities before developing such kinds of mobile applications.
To help you make up your mind and determine your needs for the implementation of mobile apps in building construction project, let’s review the most popular requirements that project managers expect to be offered by a construction mobile app:
Manage project documents
A useful construction mobile app makes document management easily possible with flexible features for adding, editing, removing, or sharing any type of documents. The ability to search and find unified project documents, uploading, and distribution of documents, and Reviews, verification, and approvals are also powerful options available to be designed in the mobile apps for the construction industry.
Generate reports and Timesheets
The project managers need to be able to monitor active working hours, team status updates, evaluate simultaneous processes and activities, and use the options provided in the mobile app to generate reports and Timesheets based on this data.
Send notifications and messages
To make collaboration more convenient, a lot of amazing options are available to be offered by a construction mobile app such as send Immediate incidents reporting, On-time data of materials location, real-time chats, etc.
Facilitate Project management
Mobile apps for construction can provide numerous benefits for remote project management such as Complex project planning, Payroll processing, Materials management, Estimation of materials needed, Potential cost overruns, safety and risk management, Management of every aspect of the logistical chain, Utilization of construction vehicles, ensuring deliverable arrive on time, Estimation of construction progress and so on.
Automated construction
This is the most amazing feature that mobile apps provide for the construction industry. By digitization and Automation of construction projects, the doors of a whole new world have been opened to the building construction companies.
By using mobile apps for building construction projects, it is possible to connect smart sensors and robots to the application and control their systems or gather data and manage them for improving the quality and speed of building constructions and cutting down the investment costs as well.
Application of New techniques that integrate high-definition photography, Modern survey technology, building information modeling (BIM) especially 5D integrating planning and budget, 3-D laser scanning, and geographic information systems, enabled by recent improvements in drone and unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV) technology which can incredibly improve accuracy and speed are just a few examples of Automated construction.
When you exactly decide about your expectations from the mobile construction apps, it’s time to get familiar with the features provided in these apps to cover your needs.
FEATURES OF A CONSTRUCTION MOBILE APP
- Communication features
- Real-time project information panel
- Reporting tools
- Quick customization to fit the needs of a specific company or project
- File sharing and change tracking
- Budget management features
- professional-looking ’User Interface ‘(UI)
All these features may already convince you that a construction mobile app can be a powerful solution for the management and development of your projects. However, there are too many options out there that it can also be a tedious task to find the right one to use.
What is an example of automation in construction?
Automation in construction helps to manage large construction projects with complex synchronization of people, equipment, and material planning for on-site execution to manage and control everything by using existing digital solutions.
Today most of the construction software already comes with their mobile app versions to allow building construction project planning and management more convenient, efficient, and profitable.
Here are some examples of automation in construction:
- Using Autonomous Machines or self-driving machines on the Construction Site for material transport without putting the workers in danger especially for working at height.
- Programming Drones to conduct pre-project inspections or Survey and monitor Working Areas and Employees and sending related data to the mobile apps.
- Applying Control systems and robotics in Concrete Works such as mixing concrete, laying the cement, polishing floors, removing surface water, etc.
- Automation in construction for concrete floor polishing and using Programmable machines to polish soft concrete and pour and level concrete in the right portions in both commercial and residential structures.
- Application of Demolition robots to bring down walls and to dismantle concrete slabs.
- Make automation possible by connecting to IoT Sensors to Collect and Process Data or also transmit signals to machines to trigger a specific action.
- Planning construction projects by Virtual Reality systems and stimulating a realistic environment that allows builders to interact with a particular structure using a series of scanned images.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that shortly all construction companies need to use construction mobile applications if they want to keep working and satisfy their customers. The growing speed of using this new technology left no choice but to develop mobile applications for companies working in the construction industry, supply chain, infrastructure management, and business process automation.
In the "Real estate & construction software development" department, our expert team is ready to help you start your adventure and keep the future in your hands.
