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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Tired of new software that doesn't seem to work in the field? Ready to get your teams up to speed and productive with the latest tools? The Construction Technology Handbook takes a ground up, no jargon look at technology in the construction industry. From clear, quickly grasped explanations of how popular software actually works to how companies both large and small can efficiently try out and onboard new tools, this book unlocks new ways for construction field teams, firm owners, managers, leaders, and employees to do business. You'll learn about: * Simple frameworks for making sense of all the new options cropping up * How software and data work and how they work together to make your job easier and safer * What artificial intelligence really is and how it can help real companies today * Tools that are just over the horizon that will, one day, make your job just a little bit easier * New and practical resources to help you incorporate an attitude of innovation and technology adoption into your workplace Perfect for general contractors and subcontractors, The Construction Technology Handbook also belongs on the bookshelves of construction technology vendors and construction workers who want to better understand the needs of the construction industry and the inner workings of construction technology, respectively.
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Seitenzahl: 361
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1: Introduction
What Technology Is
Domains Versus Products
What's Different about Digital Technology
The Rest of this Book
Note
CHAPTER 2: Software
First Principles: What Is Software
How We Make Software
Piloting Software
Applications
Operating Systems
The Stack
CHAPTER 3: Software Networks
Types of Networks
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
Networks of Technology
Data
Analysis: Data + Judgment
Software as a System
CHAPTER 4: Construction Software
Beginnings
The Problems with Field Software
Overview of Field Software
Does it Work for All of Your Users?
Does it Work with Your CM Software?
Do You Have the Team to Manage It?
Specialty Trades Versus General Contractors' Use of Field Software
BIM
CHAPTER 5: Industrialized Construction
Types of Industrialized Construction
DFMA
IC Tools and Processes
IC Software
CHAPTER 6: Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
What Is Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence?
Why AI?
AI's Weak Spots
How Machine Learning Works
Deep Learning
Note
CHAPTER 7: Applying Artificial Intelligence
Level of Accuracy
Capturing the Edges
Lessons About AI Accuracy
Data Collection
Transfer Learning: Easy AI
Applications of AI
Dealing with Startups
AI Accuracy
AI in Your Future
CHAPTER 8: Future Tools
Virtual Reality (VR)
Augmented Reality (AR)
3D Scanning
Enterprise‐led Technologies
Technology Going Forward
CHAPTER 9: Innovation and Technology Adoption
Product Innovation
Process Innovation
Innovation as Corporate Practice
CHAPTER 10: The Digital Construction Mindset
Adopting the Digital Construction Mindset
Bibliography
Books
Websites
Courses
About the Author
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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The Construction Technology Handbook
HUGH SEATON
Copyright © 2021 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per‐copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750‐8400, fax (978) 646‐8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Seaton, Hugh (Tech entrepreneur), author. | John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., publisher.
Title: The construction technology handbook / Hugh Seaton.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020038949 (print) | LCCN 2020038950 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119719953 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119719908 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119719977 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Building—Data processing. | Construction industry—Technological innovations. | Information technology.
Classification: LCC TH437 .S43 2021 (print) | LCC TH437 (ebook) | DDC 624.028/5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038949
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038950
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: © matrioshka/Shutterstock
This book is dedicated to my mother, Bonnie Verses.
Thank you for being there.
And to all the men and women in construction,
the greatest industry in the world.
Foreword
“We must keep up or be left behind…”
When Hugh and I first met a few years ago, I almost immediately mentioned this phrase. Hugh, being an advocate of virtual reality (VR)/artificial intelligence (AI) and all things technology, wanted to deep dive into our world of construction and see what was there. We began discussing ways we could integrate VR and AI into our current training workflow. Hugh was very enthusiastic about furthering the development of training in the trades.
First, Hugh wanted to know our thought process on construction technology and where our motivation was. We wanted to start from the beginning, interested in the way it was done in the early days when mobile devices and 3D‐generated models were not the mainstay. We decided that we needed to have some conversations with those who spent a great deal of time in the field.
We pulled some of our tenured members into these conversations. Our brothers and sisters who have spent the last 40 years in the trades, on the verge of retirement. We asked them about the modern jobsite and how it was different from “way back when.” We asked what their opinions on technology were then and if their opinions are different today. We had conversations about productivity and efficiency. We were curious as to how technology could be an impact on the momentum of a jobsite.
We spent a great deal of time breaking down these conversations, attempting to tie it all together. Looking for the breaking point, the moment when technology took over and became commonplace. We wanted to put our fingers on the exact date. What we kept circling back to was frustration. Let me explain.
“So, how do you feel about your company's VDC department?”
“What's a VDC department?”
“Not a big deal, how about BIM…at what point do you feel BIM took over on the jobsite?
“What's BIM?”
“Great question. Let me ask you about iPads. Would you rather have paper dra wings or an iPad in the field?”
“Paper drawings, no questions asked.”
Thinking that we would have the answers put in the palms of our hands, we were quickly awoken to the fact that technology had come on so quickly most of those in the field didn't have an opportunity to fully grasp it. A whirlwind of change came, and they were swept up with it. They were frustrated. They wanted to go back to how it was done in the past. Nobody spent the necessary time with them explaining the benefits of these new tools.
They were not given the proper training, they had no idea what these new TLAs – three letter acronyms – meant. It was assumed that they would be able to keep up. Most importantly, their feedback was never a conversation point. We never really asked them – the true professionals who spent the last 40 years in the field – how to properly integrate these new technologies. We failed to ask them how they would strategically integrate a new tool into the daily workflow.
We sat back, expressionless, realizing we were going about it the wrong way for a long time.
This book is intended for anyone who lives on the modern jobsite. Whether you are new to the construction industry or have years of experience behind you, this book will break down technology in an easy‐to‐read format. It will give you the resources you need to have conversations on the jobsite about technology.
This book will empower you to innovate and change the way things are done. In order to succeed we must all have a voice and we must all pitch in.
If we do not keep up, we will be left behind.
–Mike Zivanovic
Preface
This book was written to bridge a gap between the technology world and the construction industry. It provides a collection of definitions, explanations, and discussions about everything from what technology is, to how it works, to how to innovate.
Technology is just another set of tools, and these are supposed to be easier to use than older tools. Some are not, but most are trying to become easy, fast, and useful. By understanding the terms and some of the concepts, you will find new technologies easier to try out and master.
Most of all, I want to dispel the myth that somehow technology is “different” from the work that goes on in construction. Everyone uses technology every day. Digital technology takes a little translation, and a little getting used to, but it is not even close to the hardest thing a pipefitter, mechanical contractor, surveyor, or any one of the seasoned professionals onsite or in the office need to know to pull modern buildings out of the ground.
Human intelligence, problem‐solving ability, and general common sense are irreplaceable. No software, robot, or artificial intelligence that we can build or even conceive of can do what construction professionals do every day.
Reading this book will add to your toolkit, so you can go out and build the world faster, safer, and, hopefully, a little better.
In addition, because any book will get outdated almost immediately, I will be producing a quarterly round up of construction technology, The Construction Technology Quarterly. It will comprise a free, downloadable report, and a free presentation webinar. You can learn more at https://www.constructiontechnologyquarterly.com/
Hugh Seaton
New York, NY
June 2020
Acknowledgments
I set out to write a book that would be useful to real people, so I asked as many people as I could find. The construction industry is full of down‐to‐earth, smart people who like the idea of sharing their thinking and in the process, molding mine. It is a bigger list than most books, and my debt to the industry is greater than most authors. I am humbled by your insights, and honored to have heard you.
Paul Doherty introduced me to BIM in 2010 and has been a friend and mentor ever since. Damon Hernandez introduced me to Silicon Valley, Virtual and Augmented Reality, and showed me how to run a hackathon – his friendship has been a defining influence for almost a decade. Cody Nowak, also of hackathon fame, took to my writing of this book like a true friend and introduced me to dozens of his colleagues. Mike Zivanovic has been a guide to the trades and the ultimate gut‐check.
These four were instrumental to the success of this book – thank you guys.
Thanks to Al Vaquez, I really understand what a world‐class software engineer can do, and thanks to the Glimpse Group, I've seen what a committed, smart group of technologists can do. Thank you especially to Lyron Bentovim, Maydan Rothblum, and Saul Pena.
To Sasha Reed and Jessie Davidson of Procore.org, thank you for the opportunity to create the “Data in Construction” courses, and for putting up with me while I finished the book.
I was lucky enough to interview dozens of people for this book, all of whom contributed to my understanding, all of whom tried their best to keep me out of trouble. I'm honored all of you would spend the time to share your wisdom. Thank you to:
Aarni Heiskanen of
AEC-Business.com
, for telling me about construction technology in Europe
Abhya Sinha of DPR, for telling me about data and VDC
Alex Brown of Openspace.ai, for a great intro to capturing jobsite progress
Amy Marks of Autodesk, for schooling me on Industrialized Construction
Andy Huh of Fentrend and SCS‐NY, for insights on startups in construction
Atul Khanzode of DPR, for breakthrough thinking and enduring a “fan‐boy” interview
Barry LePatner, founder of LePatner & Associates, for clarifying the muddy waters of construction contracts
Blake Berg, chapter lead of the SCS‐NY, for insight into tech in the field
Brek Goin of Hammr, for insight into the trades
Cherise Lakeside of CSI, for amazing insight into the demographics of the industry
Chris Tisdel of Ruckus Consulting, for telling me about technology in construction
CJ Best of McKinstry, for some great cases of data and technology in the trades
Dan Bulley of the MCA Chicago, for amazing perspective
Dan Nash of Kiewit, for sharing perspective on innovation at GCs
Danielle Dy Buncio of ViaTechnik, for perspectives on technology in this complex industry
Darren Young of Hermanson, for perspectives of a construction technologist
David de Yarza of BuilderBox, for entertaining perspectives on contracts and innovation in construction
Don Metcalf of Nemmer Electric, for a real‐world view of prefab and offsite construction
Doug Chambers of Fieldlens and WeWork, for support and perspective on startups in construction
Hamzah Shanbari of The Haskell Company, for insight into how they do innovation
Harry Handorf of Holobuilder, for explaining the future of construction site imaging
Heather Wilshart‐Smith of Jacobs, for insights into data in construction
Jake Olsen of Dado, for amazing perspective on how to create technology people actually need
James Benham of JBKnowledge, for great perspectives and putting in the years to tranform the industry
Jamie Frankel of Schiff Hardin, for guidance as I researched the book
Jeff Sample of eSub, for perspectives on selling and supporting software in construction
Jesse Devitte of Borealis and Building Ventures, for a revealing look at the past and present of construction technology startups
Jonathan Marsh of Steeltoe Consulting, for a brass‐tacks look at technology in the mechanical trades
Josh Bone of NECA, for being the coolest guy in construction, and generously sharing his time for my various projects
Karl Sorenson of Blue Collar Capital Partners, for early encouragement and great perspectives
Kaustubh Pandya of Brick & Mortar, for bringing high‐level VC perspectives
Kean Walmsley of Autodesk, for the future of design perspective
Ken Schneider of the United Association, for support and perspective
Ken Simonson of the Association of General Contractors, for an economist's perspective
KP Reddy of Shadow Ventures, for perspectives on startups
Kris Lengieza of Procore, for some great cases of data and technology in construction
Marc Kinsman of Mortensen, for insight into how VR can help GCs
Marco Faccini, for an English perspective
Martyn Day, for a pointed English perspective, especially on design tools
Matt Carli of Latticrete, for insight into the technology of materials
Matt Daly of Structionsite, for insights into technology on the jobsite
Matt Diesner of Autodesk, for a perspective on sales in construction
Mike Prefling, for sharing stories of innovation in construction
Mostafa Akbari‐Hochberg of Holobuilder, for explaining the future of construction site imaging
Nathan Wood of the Construction Progress Coalition, for inspiration and deep insights
Ned Beatty of IrisVR, for thoughts on virtual reality in construction
Pat Sharpe of The Digit Group, for being a friend and endless source of insight
Quinn Murphy of Sandberg Phoenix, for telling me technology brings transparency, which is a good thing
Ricardo Khan of Mortensen, for pushing the industry forward and showing us what innovation looks like
Richard Harpham of Katerra, for a blindingly insightful first talk that showed me how big these issues are
Rob Fischer of CURT, for an owner's perspective and some great cases of how owners can drive everything
Robert Friedman of TechPrefab, for an excellent deep dive into Prefab
Sam Spata of Exyte, for a great explanation of Lean Construction
Shane Scranton of IrisVR, for thoughts on virtual reality in construction
Stefan Larsson of BIMObject, for a vision of what BIM could be
Steve Holzer of BIMObject, for specific examples of what BIM
should
be
Steve Jones of Dodge Analytics, for a great overview of data in the industry
Tauhira Ali of Milwaukee Tool, for helping me understand how software is reinventing hardware
Taylor Cupp of Mortensen, for great perspectives of a construction technologist
Teemu Lehtinen of KIRA Hub in Finland, for a perspective on Finnish innovation
Terry Cotton of SAM Floors, for a supply chain perspective
Tim Etherington of Gensler, for a truly global perspective on architecture, from China to Spain and back
Tim Hensley of Hensel Phelps, for a patient walkthrough of how a Senior Superintendent uses tech on the jobsite
Todd Mustard of TUAC, for perspectives on associations as drivers of innovations
Tony Bruno of Omnibuild, for explaining how he uses construction tech on the jobsite
Travis Voss, for a vision of what a rockstar technologist can bring to their company
These folks and more have done their best to help me see what's going on – any failure to get it right is my own, not theirs.
CHAPTER 1Introduction
How you think about the world affects what you can get done in the world.
By thinking differently, you can do different things. Books like this one expand how you think, and will therefore expand what you are able to do – not because of quickly outdated “how to” lessons, but because of powerful frameworks for viewing all of what you do as a kind of technology, and viewing new technologies not as separate from what you do, but simply new tools in an expanded toolkit.
This is a book about technology that is used in construction. “Technology” is one of those words that gets used differently by different people, which makes it hard to discuss. To be able to think clearly, differently, we need a concrete definition of what words like “technology” mean. In fact, the first point I want you to agree with, accept, and internalize is that you cannot think clearly with fuzzy concepts, and technology will introduce you to a lot of concepts that are fuzzy to you at first. In this book, we will stop and define as many new terms as possible.
Construction is an industry composed of trades and practices that are taught as much by showing as by talking, so the culture isn't always one of directly asking people that you don't know what they are talking about. There can be a sense of discomfort about asking, because at some point technology, especially software, has made everyone feel stupid.
Read this book and that will happen less, I promise. However, the point is to feel confident that it's not your ignorance of whatever new concept is being discussed, but the vendor's or presenter's failure to make sure there is common understanding.
In the case of technology products and processes, it is always the job of the provider to make sure you are clear – hold them to it.
What Technology Is
So, let's get in that habit of clear definitions by creating one for technology:
Technology is the application of some effect, usually scientific, to get work done.
The word “technology” can also be used for two other levels of meaning:
A collection of things that work similarly, like
construction technology
.
The whole class of human effort that creates tools for a given culture, like
digital technology
.
We are going to focus on the first meaning. It is important to think at this level first, because you will be dealing with specific products not big groupings or abstract classes of products.
When faced with a new technological product, like construction software, we can be struck by what we don't know, struck by how different it feels from how we've done things in the past. But technologies do not come from nowhere. To be of any use, a new machine, process, or software will have been developed so you can do something you already do, just faster, safer, or cheaper.
Understanding a Technology's Basis
Technology of any sort is based on some underlying effect, some realization that nature, or human nature, works a certain way. There is some effect, or phenomenon, that makes the technology work. So we build a process, or a tool, or a machine, that exploits this effect to make human work better in some way. Often, these technologies make impossible things possible.
For example, think of a hammer. We don't think of this as a technology, but it is. Here are some of the effects in the world that a modern, handheld hammer exploits:
Every force creates an equal and opposite force (Newton's third law, the same one used in rockets)
Steel is hard
Cold rolled, high carbon steel is very hard
Metal is harder than wood or gypsum
The end of a pendulum is faster than the handle
Force applied to a given area gets multiplied when transferred to a smaller area
All of that in a simple hammer. Think then of what a hammer does: it uses motion from a human arm to transfer force from one steel object, the hammer's head, into another steel object, the nail. This force then drives the nail through whatever material is being worked on.
Let's take a moment and think about what you do, all day long. Whether it's putting electrical conduits in place, managing a team of mechanical contractors, managing a jobsite as a superintendent, or managing an entire job as the project manager – everything you do works because of some effect in the world. Some of those effects are very human, like ego, pride, and a desire to create something real in the world. And you learn through your career to use those effects to motivate, manage, or just navigate other people. For example, you learn to check up on people frequently because you know that accountability makes people more focused on the job – an effect you leverage to get the job done.
Managing is a technology every bit as complex as artificial intelligence – in fact, as someone who has done both I can tell you managing can be harder because it is a never‐ending balancing act. Management as a practice has evolved over time to use different methods, each using a different effect in the world – we used to rely solely on hierarchy and power, which relied on a fear of losing one's job. But we realized that stifles critical information flows and causes worker disengagement. So we've swapped the underlying effect to one of a feeling of involvement and achievement, which is what Lean Construction is focused on. Changing the effect a technology is based on can be very powerful.
Back to our hammer example, what happens if we separate the work to be done, driving the nail into the wall, from how it gets done, the centrifugal force of a swung piece of steel hitting a stationary nail head? What if instead we put the nail in a tube connected to compressed air, and “shoot” the nail into the wall?
We've changed the effect being exploited to get the same work done, from a human arm swing to mechanical air pressure release, and in the process have dramatically improved the efficiency of our nail‐driving workers, significantly improved their ability to keep driving nails without fatigue or arm injury, and hopefully spared their thumbnails.
Technology Domains
When we think of technology as a chain of these effects being used, we can more easily understand how to integrate new pieces. Technology is just a tool that is an extension of human power and action, no more, no less. By keeping in mind that any technology is there to extend your power and action, you can put it into a context that helps both assess how good that technology is, and understand why new technologies might be better than old ones – they are using a newer, better effect to help you. In fact, it is more often the case that the tools you use are exploiting a bundle of effects to work, and the part you will care most about, the effects being exploited that matter to you most are human and organizational effects.
And by understanding all technology as being part of a chain you are part of, you can be clearer with the creators of that technology about how they should develop and deliver real products. What is happening in construction now is that parts of the chain of technology, starting with your skills and extending to the tools you use, are being added and changed. Understanding modern technology not as a separate class of things, but just the latest in a series of “modules” that can be swapped into an existing chain is a much better perspective, because it keeps technology under the category of “tools” – not something alien.
Technologies themselves are always a collection of other technologies. Even something as simple as a hammer is the result of plastics, metallurgy, metal working, factory design, automation, ergonomics, and even packaging. Knowing that technologies are themselves composed of interlocking, lower level technologies, makes it easier to understand how our tools keep getting a little better, cheaper, and safer every year. For example, Milwaukee Tool has been making tools like torque wrenches for years, and over time they have swapped out some controls that were mechanical, like a direct lever between the trigger and the electrical motor, with electronics that give the user more operational fine tuning.
Milwaukee has recently added a new feature, their “One‐Key System,” that wirelessly keeps track of all the tools on a jobsite. You can look at this as just another feature, actually a pretty cool one, or you can look at it as Milwaukee swapping out the paper and pencil, or perhaps spreadsheet technology that relied on observation, memory, and making the rounds to keep up to date, with an automatic, real‐time inventory reporting tool. Your chain of technology has not changed, but the tool you use to do a part of it has.
Thinking of your job as a chain of tools, from your own skills to the external tools you use gives you, the professional using these technologies, the power to think creatively about what you're using, combine products and technologies in new ways, and demand that providers of technology products keep working until the products do what you need them to.
This idea of changing out one kind of technology for another is often referred to as changing the “domain” of technology being used. In the hammer example, we changed a manual force domain for a pneumatic force one. In the Milwaukee tools example, we changed from a manual inspection and reporting domain to a wireless, automatic updating domain.
This “redomaining” or swapping of one technology domain for another in human activity has been happening since the dawn of time. These new domains tend to come in waves, and as they do, there is an inevitable process of blending the seasoning and judgment of industry professionals with the new processes and skills that these new technologies bring with them. That's what we're in the middle of as an industry, replacing physical and industrial‐era techniques and technologies with digital domains.
From the examples above, human work was replaced by machines. Fears abound in the specialty trades, and contractors more generally, that technology is going to cause people to lose their jobs. We will address this very specifically in the AI and Industrialized Construction chapters, but for now, keep two points in mind: the first is that machines and software replace skills from the very bottom, starting with the most mindless tasks. Some of those tasks still require skill, like using a hammer well, but those skills are a small part of what makes a carpenter a professional. The second point is that what does make a carpenter, or pipefitter, or mechanical contractor a professional is the ability to solve problems, and to come up with solutions to complex obstacles that involve schedules, contractual terms, team dynamics, and many other things.
Domains Versus Products
It can seem that changes in technology are inevitable, and when looked at as a collection of solutions and products, there is some degree of truth in that. Science will keep producing new effects and insights we can leverage. Companies, driven by the designer to outcompete each other, will keep refining ways to exploit those effects.
But there is nothing inevitable about any given technology. We in the industry can absolutely affect what products are out there, and more importantly, how they work for us, and with us.
An example of this contrast between a kind of technology that was probably going to happen no matter what, and specific products that were very much not inevitable is the VHS/Beta battle in the 1980s.
Starting in the 1970s, film and TV were revolutionized by digital storage, which became video cassettes. There were two product options: Betamax and VHS. Beta was higher quality video, because its developer, Sony, assumed consumers would want to enjoy their movies and TV at the highest possible visual quality, which they achieved by limiting the playback to one hour. Panasonic's VHS, in contrast, provided lower visual quality but up to 2 hours in length when first introduced. Since most movies are over an hour, Beta didn't fit the market as well, and ended up losing the consumer market to VHS, which became the standard for about a decade.
Two things were at play – a standard and a product. In this case the consumer videocassette market became dominated by the VHS standard, and specific products were all VHS.
Prior to this, the only way to view a movie at home was when a broadcast network chose to air the movie, which they did rarely and in highly edited, kid‐friendly form. The home video market was thus “redomained” so that the way consumers viewed movies at home went from a broadcast‐centered model, to a videocassette‐centered model. The new domain was going to happen, but the specific products would win or lose based on how well they fit the market. And you, dear reader, are the market. You decide who wins or loses.
This matters more than it might seem, because when a new domain emerges, there are often a ton of options for a little while. Some of them fail, some get bought or merged with others, and a few will win. Everyone knows about Facebook, and some might remember MySpace. But do you remember Friendster and the 40 or so other social networks that came out in the mid‐2000s?
That's happening right now with construction project management software, where beginning in about 2015, more and more companies have set about digitizing the construction workflow – changing the technology domain from paper and Microsoft Excel, to unified platforms that deal with different parts of the construction process, or all of it. In time, there will be winners and losers – probably not the monopolies we see in consumer markets, but definitely fewer product offerings.
Redomaining can often come from other industries. Take building security, for example. The videocassette made possible an entirely new capability for the capture and storage of video from cameras in a building, cameras which themselves had been changed from film to digital in around the same 1980s' timeframe.
But in the later 1990s, content of all kinds, from music to video and images all began to convert into digital formats. These started as CDs, but then changed into MPEG video and MP3 audio. Around 2000, consumer markets started marketing players for these digital formats, which drove down the cost for digital storage for security, leading to today's systems that are entirely digital. In fact, systems like building security have seen a series of technological domain changes, from videocassettes, to CDs, to hard drives, to the cloud most recently.
It is often the case that developments in other markets, especially consumer markets, create pressure to change in other markets, because the technology becomes cheap and familiar to users.
These model changes, the redomaining, is going to happen no matter what. But the specific way it happens is not inevitable. This is an important lesson for technology in construction: pressures of technological advance mean that the construction process will continue to digitize, will continue to absorb and integrate new technologies, but any given company or product could succeed or fail. How to assess these products will be one of the key takeaways of this book, as we go through each of the technology areas that you will encounter.
What's Different about Digital Technology
No one needed to write a Construction Technology Handbook when the technologies being used were confined to the individual trades, and involved tools and machinery that exploited mostly physical effects. Learning to use a nailgun was not a huge leap from a hammer; learning to use increasingly powerful and sophisticated power tools was usually an evolutionary process where features kept getting better.
In these instances, workers can see how the technology works, can understand intuitively how to at least use the technology, even if it might take years to master the craft overall.
In contrast, digital technology does its work out of sight, in non‐physical ways that humans cannot immediately grasp, using controls that aren't “natural” in the way a hammer's handle is. Older technologies exploit physics, which humans naturally understand.
Digital technologies exploit electronic phenomena, which are so small that we cannot see them. Digital technologies also build layers of human‐designed interfaces that don't have to rely on intuition or natural movement at all, they are completely the invention of the product developer. And that means the intuition and experience that work so well with physics‐based technologies don't help us with digital technologies, and that can be alienating and annoying. These human‐designed interfaces do have logic, though, and are based on real engineering – so you can learn that logic and become just as comfortable with digital technologies as you are with anything else.
That logic, that “physics” of digital technology is what this book is about. We have already started from the beginning, defining what we mean, and will build up the rules and frameworks that give you a deep understanding of what makes digital technologies tick.
Your Community
For years, the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry has been among the slowest to adopt technology, in part because the technology that was introduced early on was often not well adapted to the needs of the industry and its different parts. In the past decade or so, a number of community efforts have arisen to give the AEC industry, especially construction professionals, opportunities to learn about technology, while giving the technology industry a window into one of the oldest, most complex industries.
Perhaps the first of these was the AEC Hackathon, an event series that I helped kick off in 2013. Founded by Damon Hernandez and Paul Doherty, the event was created to break down barriers between AEC industry people and tech people. By solving real problems together, both sides get an appreciation for the other. We've run over 50 of these around the world, changing the format to an online version in the post‐pandemic world. Now that they are digital, I encourage you to check one out; go to www.hackaec.com to see what's out there, and find others like you who are on a digital journey.
In the years since 2013, startups and venture capital have discovered construction, and there has been a flood of solutions for everything from 3D scanning to daily reports. Not all of these came from a good understanding of what's really needed on a jobsite, and in fact going back a little further even more of the software pushed to the construction site came from other places, like accounting. We've heard stories of “app‐fatigue,” and a general concern that field personnel especially are not a big enough part of the tech development and adoption process.
We need to change that.
In this book, I share new skills, and a new mindset toward technology. Whether you're already a construction technologist and have “drunk the kool‐aid,” or worried about how technology will impact your life, you will find ideas of value in these pages.
Through this new digital toolkit you'll look at technology differently, from the inside of how it gets made to how it gets packaged and adopted. You'll also see that the people who make software and other kinds of technology are very similar to construction, especially the trades. The big difference is where construction expertise is aimed at putting work in place, technology expertise is aimed at “making it go.” Both sets of professionals take enormous pride in what they do, and by understanding technology as just another toolkit, you can blend the strengths of both the construction and the technology mindsets.
It is often said that training teaches you how to do, education teaches you how to think. A book like this is educational – so ask questions along the way, and try to see things with the mindset of a technologist.
Mindset Matters
What do we mean by “mindset?”
We started the book with an assertion: How you think about the world changes what you do, and how you do it.
That is a mindset. And the promise that idea makes is this: Change your mindset and you can change your possibilities. Anyone who's played sports will agree that mindset is everything.
What specifically does a changed mindset change in your real work or life? For a start, it changes what you pay attention to, and what you think is worth your time.
In a complex, fast‐moving environment like construction, you have to pick out what matters from a sea of events, meetings, and messages. You can't figure out what matters if you don't have an idea about how the world works – a model of what causes what, and what is important in the end.
Construction has always had a huge toolkit, from MIG welders to hand tools to heavy machinery, and everything in between. Most of those tools are based on processes that have evolved slowly and, as discussed above, are based on observable effects. To make those processes successful, the construction mindset has been one of relying on past experience, trusting your gut, and a constant anxiety about what might go wrong that you cannot see. This mindset is why superintendents, in fact why almost everyone, is constantly inspecting the jobsite – they are looking directly at everything, only trusting their own eyes.
The mindset and mental models that made one good at construction traditionally are not the same as the mindset that will make you a master of both the trade you already know, and the digital tools that you use now and will be able to use in the future. There is no reason you cannot use both mindsets, because they are not really in conflict.
The digital construction mindset separates the physical from the digital, understanding that each supports and requires the other to function. Understand that some problems are for the gut, and some are for the analytics. These two higher‐level toolkits are critical, and they also overlap.
Intuitive Problems
Processes and problems that you can directly see are always going to be where experience and intuition are primary. No machine or software can compare to the sophistication that a seasoned professional brings to a real situation.
This is true for a few reasons, the most important of which is that no software has been invented, including the much hyped artificial intelligence (AI), that has an understanding of context. Humans are highly context‐driven, and we understand not just what's right in front of us, but also how it relates to what happened yesterday, how it might relate to the specific men and women on the job, and other factors. Digital technology cannot do this.
But context doesn't only come from what you've heard or seen, it can also come from digital technology – reports and analyses of a bigger picture, that help your intuition do its job.
Digital Problems
Intuition works by simplifying the world, by mental rules of thumb, so that we can take all the information in and do something quickly. We evolved to be fast on our feet, to see issues immediately, which is why we are so good at managing what we can see.
