The construction industry is one of the biggest industries of any country. It makes a significant contribution to the national economy and it employs a large number of workforces. To undertake projects of mega scale this industry has advent revolutionary change by using new technologies and deployment of project management strategies in real time. For this revolutionary change, the industry has to overcome a number of challenges. Moreover, the construction industry is still facing major challenges like:
- Housing & Real Estate
- Environment
- Power
- Inventory and logistics management
- Weather & Infrastructure Management
- Disaster resistant construction
- Water management
- Mass transportation
- Managing civil engineering
Introduction of Mobility in Construction Industry
In spite of investing heavily in infrastructure projects, the enterprises have not resolved construction issues efficiently. A special focus on planning for sustainable mobility solutions has rightly concluded. Unless enterprises start strategic mobile plan and projects into their operation the issues cannot be resolved this means an inefficient use of infrastructure, and IT endeavor has become must for the construction industry.
Mobility solutions add real value to the entire life cycle of the construction project. In the construction company, project managers, architects, and engineers are responsible for the success of any project. They are running multiple projects at the same time and spend their maximum time on construction sites, in the office or in travelling. With the help of mobile devices, they can actively manage all processes, employees, and information involved in their projects.
Without implementing mobility solutions, it becomes a difficult task for large construction companies to keep the record of workers or staff, check the availability of staff at required time, and process the payroll. Construction industries also have multiple offices and sites at different places that need to be connected with mobile technology.
A few years ago, the construction industry was really affected due to the rapid changes in the economy. Construction companies have started to use mobile technology in order to save money and increase the productivity. Mobility solution has become more important for the construction industry to stay competitive in the market. In the construction industry, any integrated solution that increases productivity on the jobsites or in the back office, improves profit margin. Mobile technology has gained a lot of credit for its wide usability in the construction industry. It optimizes the operations and provides a strong return on investments.
You can manage the construction projects in a very effective way through mobility solution; if you can access back office data from anywhere. Mobility solutions make it possible in real time. Despite the geographical locations, you can access back office information using mobile devices. There are many mobile applications available in the market, which automate the existing process of construction firms and provide valuable information to contractors. These applications have been used on wide scale and hence it becomes the needs of the construction industry. Traditional methods used by contractors to keep track the progress of the projects were very time consuming. Therefore, equipping with mobility solutions they can save a lot of time by escaping the use of traditional methods. Contractors are becoming more active by using the mobile applications and they can easily find out the progress of the projects. Complete software with iPad application helps contractor to access information such as project plans, budgeting, requirement of resources, issues filed, and their status, contact information etc.
Investing in a complete construction software solution will not only handle the complexities of the entire project life cycle, but also it allows the contractor to control all business operations with a single hand.
There may be different mobile applications for different construction purposes. The aim of using these mobile applications in the construction industry is to improve the existing IT infrastructure, applications, communications, and processes of the construction organization.
Some of the major benefits that mobility equips the construction industry:
- Better communication: Mobility improves communication. Employees on a jobsite can share or exchange data and pictures easily with one another. Mobility keeps the field and the office employees connected. It keeps the whole staff updated with the latest project information and its workflow.
- Improve workflow with actual data: Apart from better communication, mobile solutions also offers better workflow analysis based on correct and latest data. Through mobile devices, you can access real time data. You can enter updated data in accounting and payroll system and view the overall performance of the company as well as the progress of each project.
- Save and transfer information: It is quite possible that if a contractor is working in remote job location where there is no coverage, then he will not receive updated information. Mobility also offers a facility to transfer, offline information to the contractor when he get online or back to coverage area. Mobile applications are capable to store data and transfer information to contractor ensuring that data is latest and correct.
- Increase productivity: Mobility solution improves efficiency of construction organizations. Using mobile solutions, workers become free from unwanted data entry work. They can work efficiently, save lot of time as well as give time to other work areas or activities.
- Integrating with existing systems: You can easily integrate mobile applications with existing industry’s systems like payroll, sales, logistics, and supply chain management. In the payroll, processing becomes easier and more efficient by integrating mobile time clock with payroll software. Mobile time clock helps construction industry to save time and allows employees to report immediately to the jobsite.
Using the business tools, smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, team members can capture onsite images, videos, and audios for communication and distribution between the office and field team members. They can manage and access project documents and communicate in a very effective way from any of the locations. They can also review documents and images, and share updates with project team members as well as manages the tasks and issues related to the project.
Managing projects:
In large construction companies, managing or handling multiple projects is one of the difficult tasks for managers. With mobile technology, they can find a number of mobile software, which help them in performing their tasks that they could not achieved in the past. Using mobile applications, workers can calculate complex measurements and get the quick output. Mobile application like PlanGrid 2.4 helps multiple users to share and alter the blueprints and synchronize the information in real time. All these are done using iPad and cloud technology. You can use mobile applications to keep jobsites and office connected. This helps to schedule meetings or other tasks at any time. Mobility solutions used in project management and scheduling, keeps construction companies within their budget.
Preventing any kinds of mishandling on jobsites:
Sometimes construction companies are in loss due to mishandling, robbery of material on construction sites. Using mobile solutions, you can reduce mishandling and robbery on construction sites. It was a time, when the robbery on the construction site was a common problem. The possibility of robbery on construction sites is increased on weekends and nights when there is no one on the sites. This problem also arises when construction sites are outside the city or located at some remote places, where you don’t find much crowd. Mostly robbery is done for copper and aluminums from the construction site. The Products like Telenav and RFID devices help to keep track of materials on construction sites. Using these devices, you can recover your misplaced or stolen materials. Another way to reduce this kind of robbery is to have mobile surveillance. Stolen items can be recovered with the help of a recording feature of mobile devices. Using smartphones and tablets, company owners can check out what their employees are doing, when they are not present on the jobsites. They can keep an eye on their employees in their absence. This increases the overall productivity of the jobsite and employees will never come to know as they are under continuous surveillances.
Mobility has transformed the construction industry. At last, enterprises can save a lot of time, money and effective management during their operations. Mobile solutions are the perfect automation solutions for the construction industry to increase efficiency and productivity of their staffs. It helps to convert downtime into productive time and plays main role in accessing enterprise data that gives full business insights for better decision-making.
Nile Lars is a mobile developer at Softweb Solutions.
Originally Featured on Innovation Insights
