Introduction

Establishing a consistent and realistic schedule is a significant challenge in the highly regionalized and variable construction industry. Construction executives overseeing projects across different regions, such as U.S., Europe, and Asia data centers, need a reliable method to benchmark project timelines.

Benchmarking in construction is the process of comparing a project’s performance, processes, or standards against industry best practices, standards, or the performance of similar projects. It allows you to understand where you stand compared to your expectations and highlights areas for improvement. This process helps set realistic goals, improve resource allocation, and reduce costs. However, traditional approaches based on estimates and past experiences often need to be revised, leading to inaccuracies, delays, and cost overruns.

Data Center Construction: The Importance of Benchmarking

Data center construction presents unique challenges due to the need for specialized systems like redundant power, rooftop control units, automatic transfer switches, and fire suppression systems. These features are essential for ensuring high operational standards and reliability.

To maintain project success and adhere to stringent timelines, referencing benchmarks in data center construction is critical. Benchmarks provide a reliable framework to keep projects on schedule by aligning construction activities with established standards. For instance, systems like redundant power and climate control must be installed according to precise timelines to avoid disruptions.

Owners can prevent construction delays by utilizing tools like Doxel to track each phase of construction, comparing progress against benchmark data from previous projects. Understanding the time required for each phase is vital, especially since timelines can vary due to regional and environmental factors. Traditional estimates often lead to inaccuracies, resulting in delays and cost overruns. However, leveraging benchmarks based on actual production data reduces these risks, enabling the creation of more realistic and reliable construction schedules.

The Challenges:

Large complex construction projects with accelerated schedules often lack production data due to a combination of factors related to the complexity, variability, and traditional practices within the industry. Here are some key reasons:

1. Project Complexity and Variability

• Unique Project Requirements: Each large construction project is often unique, with different designs, site conditions, materials, and labor forces. This variability makes it difficult to standardize production data across different projects.
• Custom Workflows: Many large projects involve customized workflows and bespoke solutions, which can vary significantly from one project to another. As a result, collecting and comparing production data becomes more challenging.

2. Fragmented Industry Practices

• Multiple Subcontractors: Large projects typically involve numerous subcontractors, each responsible for different aspects of the work. These subcontractors may have their own methods of tracking progress, which may not be standardized or shared with the general contractor.
• Lack of Centralized Data Management: Often, there is no centralized system for collecting and managing production data across all subcontractors and phases of the project. This fragmentation leads to gaps in data collection and reporting.

3. Traditional Work Methods

• Reliance on Experience and Estimations: The construction industry has traditionally relied on the experience and judgment of skilled professionals rather than data-driven approaches. This reliance on “gut feeling” and historical estimates rather than empirical data can result in a lack of detailed production metrics.
• Paper-Based Processes: Despite advancements in technology, many construction projects still rely on paper-based processes for documentation and reporting. This makes it difficult to collect, aggregate, and analyze production data efficiently.

4. Inconsistent Data Collection Practices

• Varied Data Collection Methods: Different teams within a project may use different tools and methods for data collection, leading to inconsistencies. This lack of standardization can make it challenging to compile accurate and meaningful production data.
• Manual Data Entry Errors: When data collection is done manually, it is prone to errors, omissions, and inconsistencies. These errors can render the data unreliable for creating benchmarks or analyzing production rates.

5. Cost and Time Constraints

• Data Collection Costs: Gathering comprehensive production data can be costly, requiring investment in technology, training, and additional personnel. On tight budgets, these costs may be deemed unnecessary or impractical.
• Time-Consuming Process: Collecting and analyzing detailed production data can be time-consuming, particularly on fast-paced projects where schedules are tight. The perceived burden of data management can lead to it being deprioritized.

6. Technological Adoption Barriers

• Resistance to Change: The construction industry has been slow to adopt new technologies that facilitate data collection and management. Resistance to change and the perceived complexity of new systems can hinder the adoption of tools that could help gather production data.
• Lack of Integration: Even when technology is adopted, it may not be fully integrated across all aspects of the project. Disconnected systems can result in siloed data that isn’t easily accessible or usable for broader analysis.

7. Short-Term Focus

• Focus on Immediate Outcomes: The pressure to deliver projects on time and within budget often leads to a short-term focus on immediate tasks rather than long-term data collection and analysis. As a result, production data is not prioritized as a key project deliverable.

The lack of production data in large construction projects is a multifaceted issue rooted in the complexity of projects, traditional industry practices, fragmented data management, and the challenges of technological adoption. Addressing these barriers requires a shift towards more standardized, data-driven approaches and greater investment in tools and processes that facilitate the collection, analysis, and use of production data across the construction industry.

Production Rates Before Doxel:

Benchmarking Without Actual Production Data

In major construction projects, the ability to plan, execute, and deliver on time and within budget is critical. However, one of the significant challenges many projects face is the lack of access to reliable production rates and the difficulty in creating accurate benchmarks. These data points are essential for informed decision-making, resource allocation, and performance tracking. Without them, project managers and teams often operate in the dark, leading to inefficiencies, cost overruns, and increased risk. The key challenges that arise when production rates are not readily available and benchmarks are insufficient, highlight the importance of overcoming these issues for project success. They include:

1. Inaccurate Project Estimations

• Lack of Baseline Data: Without access to production rates, project managers struggle to establish accurate baseline data for labor, material, and equipment usage. This leads to inaccurate cost estimates and timelines, resulting in budget overruns and delays.
• Unreliable Scheduling: Estimations based on assumptions rather than historical data can result in unrealistic schedules, which may cause disruptions and conflicts across different project phases.

2. Inefficient Resource Allocation

• Over or Under-Allocation: Without reliable benchmarks, allocating resources such as labor, machinery, and materials becomes a guessing game. Over-allocation leads to unnecessary costs, while under-allocation can cause delays and productivity losses.
• Difficulty in Scaling: Large projects often require the ability to scale operations quickly. The absence of production rates hampers the ability to predict resource needs accurately, leading to inefficiencies and bottlenecks.

3. Poor Performance Tracking

• Lack of Real-Time Data: Without production rates, it is challenging to track performance against benchmarks in real time. This makes it difficult to identify issues early and take corrective action before they escalate.
• Difficulty in Benchmarking: Creating benchmarks requires historical data to compare current performance. Without this data, teams may rely on industry averages that do not accurately reflect the specific conditions of the project, leading to skewed performance evaluations.

4. Challenges in Continuous Improvement

• Limited Feedback Loop: Without detailed production rates, it is difficult to establish a feedback loop that informs continuous improvement. Teams lack the necessary data to analyze what worked well and what didn’t, hampering efforts to refine processes and increase efficiency over time.
• Inconsistent Best Practices: Without benchmarks, it is challenging to identify and replicate best practices across different projects or phases. This inconsistency can lead to varying levels of quality and efficiency, even within the same organization.

5. Increased Risk and Uncertainty

• Higher Risk of Disputes: In the absence of clear benchmarks, disagreements over performance, costs, and timelines are more likely to arise, leading to potential disputes between contractors, subcontractors, and clients.
• Greater Project Uncertainty: The lack of reliable data increases the overall uncertainty of the project, making it harder to manage risks effectively. This uncertainty can impact stakeholder confidence and potentially lead to financial and reputational damage.

Not having access to production rates and benchmarks in major construction projects can lead to a range of challenges, from inaccurate estimations to poor performance tracking and increased risk. Addressing these issues requires a concerted effort to gather, analyze, and utilize data effectively to create reliable benchmarks and optimize project outcomes.

Doxel is an automated progress tracking solution that provides real-time, objective data on construction performance. Unlike traditional methods that rely on manual tracking and subjective reporting, Doxel uses AI and computer vision to deliver frequent, precise, actionable insights. Doxel speeds up construction by automating progress reporting which surfaces hidden issues early, prevents rework, and enhancing collaboration with visual data.

Production Rates After Doxel:

Accurate Benchmarking: The Solution

Doxel’s automated progress tracking leverages images from 360 degree cameras for reality capture by converting images into construction elements.  This technology provides precise data on production rates, such as linear feet of conduit installed per week across multiple projects. By comparing this data across different trades, sites, and contractors, Doxel enables teams to create more realistic schedules based on actual performance metrics.

Controlling Project Schedules with Benchmark Data

Owner’s reps, sometimes considered the Director of Construction, are responsible for fostering collaboration between stakeholders to bring data centers and large projects in on schedule and under budget.  Consider a scenario where an owner has built multiple data centers using Doxel and has significant benchmark data on productivity rates for each stage in construction.  This collaboration can provide enormous benefits when analyzing bids from the GC.  Where project schedules are overly aggressive, project owners can challenge GCs on their ability to commit to accelerated schedules, fostering a sense of alignment.  With Doxel’s historical production rate data, the GC can confidently assess the feasibility of the proposed schedule. The added transparency between the owner and GC, facilitated by Doxel, helps deliver projects on schedule using historical benchmark data.

Managing Production Rates in Doxel

Benchmarking: Use Historical Data to Set Realistic Schedules

• Doxel allows construction teams to benchmark using historical data, ensuring that schedules are based on actual performance rather than estimates. This approach provides a solid foundation for setting realistic project timelines.

Risk Reduction: Avoid Overcommitting and Mitigate the Risk of Delays

• Avoid Overcommitting and Mitigate Risk: By relying on accurate production data, teams can prevent overcommitting, reducing the risk of delays and cost overruns to keep projects on track.
• Deliver Accelerated Schedules with Certainty: Leveraging precise data enables teams to confidently meet the demand for faster project completion, ensuring speed without compromising quality or increasing risk.

Informed Decision-Making: Make Data-Driven Decisions That Clients Trust

• With precise production data at their fingertips, construction teams can make informed decisions that clients trust. This transparency builds confidence and strengthens client relationships.

Enhanced Reputation: Deliver Projects on Time and Within Budget

• Delivering projects on time and within budget boosts a construction firm’s reputation and secures future business. By leveraging Doxel, teams can consistently meet or exceed client expectations.

Conclusion

In the construction industry, informed scheduling decisions are crucial for project success. Doxel’s production rate data provides insights to optimize schedules, reduce risks, and ensure successful project delivery. By leveraging this data, construction teams can confidently commit to achievable timelines and deliver exceptional results.

Ready to optimize your project schedules with Doxel’s production rate data? Contact us today for a demo and discover how Doxel can help your team achieve faster schedules with confidence and reduced risk.

By incorporating these insights and leveraging cutting-edge tools like Doxel, construction teams can navigate the complexities of project scheduling with greater certainty and efficiency.

Introduction

Traditionally, project managers have relied on site visits and progress reporting from their field teams to stay abreast of construction progress.  On large capital projects like data centers, semiconductor wafer fabrication plants, or healthcare infrastructure this can become problematic where even small schedule delays lead to large cost overruns. Doxel’s Production Rate Data provides a solution that empowers project teams with additional data in order to monitor construction progress.

What is Production Rate Data?

Production Rate Data is the information gathered through reality capture inputs (e.g., 360-degree imaging or drone footage), to continuously track and analyze construction site progress in real time. By comparing actual work completed against the planned schedule, this data serves as a single, reliable source of truth for measuring construction progress. It provides project owners with objective, accurate insights that are crucial for managing schedules and ensuring on-time project completion. This innovative approach equips teams with the data needed to identify delays, optimize workflows, and ensure efficient project delivery.

By leveraging this advanced technology, owner’s representatives can monitor projects with a data set they control, guaranteeing transparency and accuracy. Here’s how Doxel tracks completed construction:

• By Trade: Architectural, structural, electrical, fire protection, mechanical, plumbing, and more.
• By Floor: Including different levels such as parking garages, mezzanines, and multiple building floors.
• By Zone: Specific areas within a construction site.
• By Stage: quantities tracked by trade, for each stage of construction.

Example: Mechanical Pipes and Walls

Doxel’s Production Rate tracking capability simplifies the comparison of completed construction against the schedule, offering a powerful tool for project owners to measure progress and manage schedules effectively.

How Doxel Captures Production Rate Data

Understanding how construction software tracks progress can be complex. Doxel simplifies this with a robust methodology:

• Baseline Management: Production Rate Data uses planned activities as a baseline for managing construction progress.
• Integration with Primavera P6: Doxel captures milestone data directly from your schedule.
• Reality Capture: Using 360-degree imaging, Doxel conducts regular scans to capture completed “as-built” construction.
• Automatic Updates: Doxel automatically updates progress for each stage, trade, zone, and floor.

Calculating Productivity

Productivity is calculated using specific units of measure for each stage based on your work breakdown structure (WBS) in Primavera P6. For example, if the plumbing installation requires 100,000 linear feet of pipe, the unit of measure would be linear feet. The planned number would be 100,000, against which completed construction is measured.

As construction progresses, Doxel updates the number of completed activities. For instance, if only 20,000 linear feet of pipe have been installed for the drainage system, the 360-degree imaging would capture the work, and Doxel would update the percentage of completion for both the stage (drainage system) and the trade (plumbing) to 20%.

Allocating Resources to Stay On Schedule

To help manage schedules effectively, Doxel introduced the Production Forecasting Calculator. This tool allows users to simulate different scenarios by adjusting crew sizes and production rates to forecast completion. General contractors can manage subcontractors to ensure they stay on schedule. At the same time, owner’s reps can monitor production rates remotely, gaining confidence that construction progress is on track based on actual data.

Key Benefits of Production Rate Data

• Real-Time Decision Making: Provides immediate insights through real-time data, allowing for informed schedule management.
• Labor Optimization: Ensures efficient allocation of labor by visualizing plan vs. actual progress in a clear chart format, reducing manual tracking time.
• Risk Mitigation: Reduces the risk of delays by verifying the feasibility of schedule commitments against historical data and current progress.
• Enhanced Collaboration: Improves communication between project owners, general contractors, and trade partners by providing clear, data-driven insights and visual comparisons of planned vs. actual progress.
• Effortless Data Collection: Eliminates the manual effort involved in gathering and analyzing production data, saving valuable time for the construction team.

Peace of Mind for GCs and Owners

Production Rate Data compares completed construction against your schedule, providing a single source of truth for measuring construction progress. Doxel’s system allows you to manage productivity for each stage of the construction project by trade, zone, and floor. This capability empowers project owners with a controlled data set that facilitates better communication with general contractors and helps address potential schedule delays proactively.

By giving project owners control of the data, Doxel ensures a higher level of transparency and efficiency in construction management. This innovative approach enhances collaboration and significantly reduces the risk of delays, optimizing time and resources. With Doxel’s Production Rate Data, project owners can confidently steer their projects to successful completion.

Healthcare construction is more complex and has a lot at stake. If not done right, these projects can be costly for everyone involved. Healthcare projects also require a higher attention to detail to keep everything running smoothly.

With more stakeholders involved in the process, companies need to be able to benchmark and be equipped for better prediction, transparency, and ultimately the ability to detect (and curb) problems, deviations, and cost overruns.

Automated progress tracking can meet these requirements and reduce manual effort, helping you complete your projects faster and on-budget.

Healthcare Projects Are More Complex With More Stakeholders

Progress tracking is critical for project success in healthcare because it allows for real-time monitoring of project performance and a faster identification of issues and challenges, and implementation of corrective actions.

By regularly monitoring progress and performance, project managers and teams can quickly identify areas that are falling behind schedule or budget—and take the necessary steps to address them before they become major issues. Accurate and reliable progress tracking is essential for effective communication and coordination, especially with multiple stakeholders and a higher level of complexity.

Progress tracking can be beneficial beyond one single project, too. Objective progress data and insights can also help to identify areas of success and best practices that can be replicated in other projects, improving overall project performance and company-wide outcomes.

Greater Complexity Requires Greater Transparency

Automated progress tracking can improve transparency during hospital construction by providing real-time, accurate information on the progress of the project. Automated systems can be configured to collect data from a variety of sources, create a single source of truth and present the information in a format that is easy to understand and always accessible.

With the enhanced, real-time visibility that automated progress tracking brings, stakeholders are able to see exactly where the project is at any given time. This clear picture of project status helps improve communication, transparency, and accountability with objective data that eliminate any debate in progress tracking.

Automated progress tracking is a faster way of providing stakeholders with access to the same information. With an automated system, stakeholders are able to see the same data and reports, regardless of their location. Ensuring everyone is working with the same information saves time in reporting and mitigates the possibility of miscommunication or misunderstanding.

Since hospital construction projects often involve large sums of money and have a significant impact on patient outcomes, it’s also useful to have an auditable record of each project’s progress that can be used in demonstrating accountability to funders and regulatory bodies.

Catch Problems Early to Reduce Cost Overruns

Healthcare construction projects need an efficient way to manage and mitigate risk. Proper real-time visibility into the progress of the project can help spot potential issues before they become major problems. This enables project managers and other stakeholders to take proactive measures, rather than waiting until it is too late to take corrective action.

For example, if progress tracking reveals a particular aspect of the project is running behind schedule, the project manager may be able to adjust the project plan to effectively avoid potential delays or cost overruns.

Additionally, progress tracking can help project managers manage and coordinate dependencies between different parts of the project, which further reduces the risk of delay, prevents trade stacking, and mitigates other issues arising from one part of the project impacting others.

Pair Project Tracking With Benchmarking

Progress tracking can help with benchmarking by providing a clear understanding of the current status of the project, including the status of all trade and any related delays or setbacks. This data can then be used to compare the project’s progress against similar projects or industry standards, making it easier to identify areas where improvements can be made.

With multiple sources of information on a single project, a digital progress tracking tool can deliver accurate data to one shared source of truth, making benchmarking markedly easier.

Additionally, progress tracking stored data can be leveraged for benchmarking future progress against previous internal projects for better forecasting future project and completion dates, as well as for identifying potential cost savings or other opportunities to optimize the project.

Leveraging Powerful Progress Tracking for Healthcare Projects

The more detailed information teams have on the progress of a project, the more proactive they can be to keep it on track. Identifying potential issues early on allows for corrective action to be taken sooner rather than later, reducing hours, rework, and delays to deliver projects on time and on budget. But detailed and timely progress tracking shouldn’t come at the cost of crews’ time and resources.

That’s where a solution like Doxel’s automated progress tracking can help. Doxel significantly reduces hours tracking progress, while delivering accurate, reliable objective insights that improve communication and transparency across all stakeholders.

Click here to learn more about how Doxel’s AI-powered progress tracking paired with 360-degree video capture can help ensure hospital construction projects stay on track and on budget.

Healthcare construction is a specialized niche in the industry, and the projects within it require a high standard of attention to detail to meet their deadlines. These projects are complex and involve the coordination of large, cross-functional teams to complete them on tight schedules—which means a project’s success is majorly dependent on the efficiency and collaboration of the team building it.

Every day that the facility is delayed or past schedule means another day patients can’t come in, and the owner or company will lose money.

Enter, AI-powered project controls – automated construction progress tracking.

Staying on schedule and ahead of trends

The construction of healthcare projects is a delicate balance of innovation and realism. As one of the more technology-driven sectors, these facilities aim to have the latest and greatest equipment, but at the same time needs to be planned months in advance and available within a certain deadline. Teams must stay on top of an ever-changing landscape and varying demands—so having accurate, objective project progress data throughout is essential.

One of the biggest factors to staying on schedule is knowing exactly where you are. Without a single view of project progress, sticking to a set schedule becomes a risky guessing game. Progress tracking using the power of computer vision enables project teams to build faster and more accurately together.

After all, knowledge is power. Teams that leverage AI-powered performance monitoring are armed with accurate data in near real time to see backwards at what’s been done, as well as ahead at predictive insights.

Eliminating avoidable rework

Rework can be a project schedule’s worst nightmare—and the later it’s caught the bigger a scheduling headache you have on your hands. Rework takes valuable time away from what should be forward progress. In order to achieve schedule predictability, a project team has to be able to spot (and avoid) potential rework on the critical path.

Using computer vision automated construction progress tracking that acts as a digital surveyor, superintendents can quickly catch any missing or incorrectly installed components before the next trade covers up the error. This foresight can help avoid weeks of delays and schedule compression, which ultimately helps the facility stay on track to open on time or earlier.

Reducing downtime during maintenance

Real-time automated construction progress tracking doesn’t just help with new healthcare construction—it can also help reduce downtime during facility operations down the road.

Picture it (if you dare): A construction company closes off an area to cut into the wall and fix MEP services only to discover that it wasn’t installed per as-built plans. Instead of adhering to the plan, dreaded rework is now required.

But what if you had x-ray vision instead? Comprehensive reality capture of an as-built facility ensures maintenance teams know exactly what was installed and where, so any maintenance and retrofits can be done efficiently without the rework. Instead of costing days of downtime, teams can get in and get it done as planned the first time.

Using Doxel to increase construction efficiency

At its core, Doxel is automated construction progress tracking that provides objective, accurate data on materials installed for real-time project controls. The more teams can document in the moment, the more productive and proactive they become.

Find out how healthcare projects have used Doxel to deliver facilities earlier and at a higher standard of quality.

Gainesville, VA – (November, 2023) – Corscale, the exclusive data center platform of the Patrinely Group, has announced that it will be deploying Doxel, the leader in AI automated construction progress tracking to speed the pace of construction and reduce waste on upcoming data center construction.

“Corscale is focused on implementing industry leading construction and sustainability initiatives. We are committed to building efficiently. Doxel will help us accelerate construction schedules and deliver critical data centers faster.” said Nic Bustamante, Chief Technology Officer for Corscale. Prior to his current position, Nic was the Senior Vice President of Development at Corscale and held leadership roles at Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

The rise in artificial intelligence, specifically Natural Language Processing (NLP), computer vision, and machine learning, and robotics, is increasing the already strong demand for data center solutions. Corscale will now harness the power of AI to build the data centers that deliver AI.

“Doxel is thrilled to partner with Corscale in revolutionizing the landscape of data center construction. Corscale’s commitment to industry-leading initiatives aligns  with Doxel’s mission to transform construction through the power of AI. We aim to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of constructing data centers, setting a new standard for the industry. This collaboration represents a significant stride toward the future, where AI not only powers data centers but also drives their seamless and sustainable construction.” – Saurabh Ladha, CEO of Doxel.

The partnership with Doxel reflects Corscale’s forward-thinking approach to stay at the forefront of technological advancements. By incorporating AI into the construction process, Corscale not only meets the rising demand for data center solutions but also pioneers a path toward intelligent, sustainable, and swift data center deployment.

ABOUT CORSCALE

Corscale Data Centers is focused on delivering sustainability at scale. As the exclusive data center platform of the Patrinely Group, Corscale, together with its capital partner USAA Real Estate is delivering tomorrow’s data center, today. The company has assembled a top-tier team of industry professionals who bring decades of experience designing, building, and operating sustainable, high-density data centers for some of the largest and most sophisticated hyperscale operators and enterprises. Corscale delivers highly scalable, secure, and energy-efficient build-to-suit powered shells as well as flexible modular deployments. To learn more, please visit Corscale.

ABOUT DOXEL

Doxel is focused on speeding up construction and reducing waste by using AI to automate progress tracking. Doxel believes in the power of aligned teams and designed Doxel to unlock their full potential. With Doxel, owners have full observability on their site while providing their field teams with powerful tools that prevent delays, over-billing, re-work, and trade stacking. Backed by Insight Partners, Amplo, and Andreessen Horowitz and with a growing team of engineers, scientists and construction veterans, Doxel is driven to help their customers win.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Corscale Media Relations
press@doxel.ai

Doxel Media Relations
press@doxel.ai

Doxel CEO Saurabh Ladha is featured on The QTS Experience Podcast with David McCall. David and Saurabh discuss the impact of waste and rework in construction.

Saurabh discusses how Doxel integrates AI with established processes to build faster. Join us for the conversation, on the next QTS Experience. Episode 191; Saurabh Ladha: Intuitive Construction, AI, Doxel, Innovation, Data Center.

Many construction companies are at a crossroads as they think about the future of their business, and who will be a part of it.

More than 40% of the current U.S. construction workforce is expected to retire over the next decade. This generation of seasoned superintendents and project leaders will leave behind big shoes to fill in both skill and knowledge, and the industry’s current skilled labor shortage doesn’t exactly help either.

While many owners, GCs and trade contractors have programs in place to mentor younger generations and train them to step in, it won’t be enough to bridge the gap. That’s why it’s important for companies to ensure they are innovating to attract more workers of a new generation.

Appealing to a tech-savvy generation

The construction industry has made huge strides to change and adopt more technology, but it can’t stop now. The younger generation that’s coming into the workforce over the next ten years was raised in a time where technology was already prevalent and is like second nature to them.

If a company wants to attract and retain a new generation of field leaders, they need to have processes in place that don’t just utilize technology, but are on the forefront of innovation, too.

The old way of progress tracking

A project isn’t truly done until it’s done done. And whether or not it gets to done done on time and under budget all comes down to how it’s being tracked during the construction phase. The old way of progress tracking involves a ton of manual effort and even more paper. Field teams would have to document what happened by hand on a regular basis and manually report on the overall progress completed.

Not only was this inefficient and extremely time-consuming, it also made it nearly impossible to try to predict where the project was headed or spot any potential issues fast enough to fix them. Even with the utilization of 3D and BIM models, knowing where a project stands hasn’t been as automated as it should be.

Convincing new, younger workers to take on these outdated processes isn’t an easy sell. Chances are, they’ll feel their time is being wasted since they are so used to the convenience and automation that technology can bring. In order to attract more workers to be on project and field teams, the processes they follow need to be seamless and even a little exciting.

AI-powered, automated progress

Construction companies that are leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the collection and analysis of project data are already ahead of the game. While the new generation may be more traditionally more technologically savvy, AI is new and exciting to everyone.

Rather than spending hours per week manually inputting and calculating progress and materials, solutions like Doxel use AI alongside 360-degree capture to automatically identify true, objective progress. This ability to bring predictability to projects doesn’t just save field teams time—it provides critical insights that help avoid delays and cost overruns at the overarching project level.

Instead of them feeling like just another cog in the machine there to collect data over and over again, technology of this caliber empowers workers to think critically about the status of projects and seek a deeper understanding of what’s happening each day. Not to mention the sense of fulfillment that comes when a team works together on a project that is able to be completed earlier with increased safety, less expense, and higher quality.

Ready to embrace the future of progress tracking?

We can help you empower a new generation of field leaders. See how Doxel works in a personalized demo today.

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Now more than ever, construction companies are looking for ways to stand out from the competition—and that starts with staying on top of the latest technology that helps them build more efficient, profitable projects.

The future of construction technology will be a hybrid of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning working alongside the industry’s workforce.

But what does that mean?

• ‍Artificial intelligence, according to IBM, is the use of computers and machines to mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind.
• ‍Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that leverages algorithms to automatically learn and improve from data without the help of humans or consistent programming.

Put more simply, artificial intelligence is the brain of the computer, and machine learning is the part of that brain that learns from data and makes informed decisions based on what it has learned.

How Artificial intelligence is Being Used in Construction

1. Generative Design

Computer scientists have found a way to make the process of designing a building more efficient and accurate. By starting with the goals and parameters of a project, generative design is able to explore every possible iteration of a solution until it comes up with the best option.

This technology and its use has the potential to save architects and designers countless hours upfront—but it doesn’t replace the human touch completely. Once the optimal solution is found for the design of a building, a designer still needs to fine-tune the details and take it from there.

2. Construction Robots

Robots are being utilized on construction projects to perform repetitive tasks (such as bricklaying) using AI to detect changes in conditions and maximize efficiency. While only a few robots have been added to the project ranks so far, it is expected that more of these AI-powered workers will be used as a method of streamlining productivity.

What’s our favorite robot in construction, you ask? Meet Spot: a robot dog created by Boston Dynamics used to carry image-capturing or laser scanning equipment that ventures where humans can’t. Spot’s ability to walk himself autonomously around a jobsite, including on uneven terrain, makes him a project’s best friend. Spot may not have AI infused into his DNA yet, but the future generations of Spot will incorporate AI for predictive and preventative analysis.

3. Smart Tools

Milwaukee Tool first dabbled into the technology space with their wirelessly connected tools, but they’ve since enhanced their capabilities with AI to pinpoint the exact locations of where a tool was last seen. And they didn’t stop there—by adding algorithms and more advanced sensors to their tools, Milwaukee is able to combine the data of a motor drive with motor load information to make decisions on false trips.

4. Predictive-based Safety Monitoring

It should come as no surprise that these technological concepts are being applied to the most important priority in construction: safety. Companies like NewMetrix have created an AI-powered solution to help predict (and prevent) safety incidents on projects.

By leveraging a construction-specific AI model, their platform can analyze existing data along with their proprietary program to provide actionable incident insights that have the power to keep workers safe.

5. Progress and Quality Analysis

While BIM has opened the door for 3D modeling of a project, it’s still nearly impossible to tell the progress or quality of a build without a human resource to manually sift through and analyze images. That is, until now.

Doxel’s computer vision-based progress tracking leverages AI to act as a digital surveyor that delivers insights and reporting in real time. It can automatically analyze visual data, measure installed quantities, and inspect quality for more than 75 different construction stages. This not only saves companies time, it also mitigates the risk of errors and delays that could become costly.

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