The Dirty Dozen Battle the Data Dozen

Bringing the two points together, telematics is about gathering accurate data from the equipment we have working in the field with one overall objective to combat The Dirty Dozen. For instance, in my article Precision Solar Panel Project, I discussed how telematics was used to reduce equipment rental costs for the building of a solar energy project partially by reducing equipment downtime.

Before telematics and in a more analog-based construction world, a contractor might start a project and it could take weeks before the team had access to enough information to make meaningful adjustments to beat The Dirty Dozen. Now, contractors can look at the information coming from telematics-enabled equipment and make productivity improving adjustments in near real-time.

During his interview, Jim also mentioned that the highway guys provide a good example of why this is important. On a particular project, they might have to move 8 million cubic yards of dirt. Just a 2 or 3% change in productivity one way or another can make or break a job’s profitability.

At its core, utilizing technology to improve labor productivity and reduce costs is really about gaining access to accurate data and performing meaningful analysis over that data so timely, better-informed decisions could be made. In a way, it’s about utilizing data to fight off The Dirty Dozen.

Fly a drone over a job site to more accurately measure the volume of on-site materials can help reduce the risk of material not being on site when it needs to be, as I discussed in my article Five Use Cases for Drones in Construction.

Utilize augmented reality to catch design errors earlier in pre-construction versus when trades are already on site colliding with each other, as I discuss in my article Use Cases for Augmented Reality in Construction.

The list goes on and on.

And therein lies much of the complexity for contractors — the list does go on and on.

To put this in perspective, here is my list of “The Data Dozen” — a dozen technology genres that provide data to help the Digital Contractor improve labor productivity and reduce costs, while also enhancing worker safety:

Some of these, like building information models, are fairly entrenched in the construction process today. Some of these, like pre-fabrication, are gaining momentum with leading edge contractors. Other technology genres, like artificial intelligence, can be found more on startup drawing boards and being rolled out as pilots. But regardless of which technology genre, they are all available in one form or another — today.

Jim makes an additional point: He warns that technology is creating a training gap. The mason of tomorrow will not only have to know how to lay bricks, but will also need to know how to tend to a robot. And this tomorrow is actually happening today. Sam the mason robotic is a good example of this, which I discussed in my article Precision Robotic Masonry.

To apply this to each individual involved in the construction industry, to improve your productivity, you will need to learn how “The Data Dozen” can be applied to your job, so ultimately you can triumph over and not get trapped by “The Dirty Dozen.”

Put another way, complacency and relying on analog building methods that may have served you for the past decades isn’t going to continue to pay the bills when others around you are learning how technology can make them more productive and, therefore, more differentiated and competitive.

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