Industrialized construction (IC) has been making inroads into the industry for quite some time now, and depending on where you are in the world, adoption rates and technological advances can vary significantly. Of course, as with any transformative technology or process, there are challenges, opportunities, and regional nuances within industrialized construction.
Here to discuss the very rich topic of IC are Tarika Jain, Co-Founder and Head of Business at nCircle Tech, and Ben Cochran, VP of Developer Enablement at Autodesk.
Tarika and Ben both have deep experience in industrialized construction, and they've seen firsthand how innovation and adaptability are shaping the future of IC.
Here are some of the highlights from our discussion.
You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
We discuss:
Industrialized construction looks different depending on where you are in the world. Some of the factors that really drive adoption are the opportunities and ROI that come with IC.
For example, Europe is quite ahead of North America in industrialized construction because higher labor costs are pushing firms to find more efficient solutions.
Ben points out: "It's a changing environment, and there needs to be key factors in place for people to change how they work. If something is 1%, 2%, or 3% better, the risk of changing the way you work is too high. But if the opportunity is large—if you start getting to 30% to 50% improvements in productivity—that suddenly changes."
"If you look at Europe, where labor costs are higher, they've already stepped into the industrialized construction opportunity. They've seen how teams can do things better and more efficiently."
Tarika agrees and points out that there are also differences in which IC approach works best, depending on the local environment and building needs.
"What defines success in Dubai may not be a successful solution in Sweden, where we experience extreme winters," she says. "So solutions definitely differ in different geographies. I see innovation and technology work hand in hand with these local conditions and play a vital role when we define their problem and their solution accordingly."
Of course, there are also some commonalities across various regions, too.
One example? The demand for housing.
"All the geographies have to cater to that,” says Tarika. “Everyone needs more houses and more places for their people. All these wars have resulted in migration, and people are looking for a suitable safe house for themselves. Governments have to work harder to achieve that material."
She adds that the global supply chain disruptions and rising material costs have made it difficult for construction teams to move forward, which highlights the need for IC even more.
"Prices have increased, and the supply chain has become very complex. So these are the challenges that every geography is bearing, and the best solution is faster adoption of industrialized construction."
Given that industrialized construction traces its roots to the manufacturing world, technology plays an essential role in making IC work.
According to Tarika, one of those technologies is robotics, which drives efficiencies in manufacturing sites. She also sees more adoption for data acquisition solutions like laser scanning and RFIDs, as well as tools for 4D scheduling and project management to improve various workflows and collaboration.
Beyond that, she says solutions that cater to each organization's IC needs are critical.
"There's extended reality and variable technology solutions, which is where we come in for our customers. Everyone in industrialized construction is doing a little differently. So they come to us to create technology platforms that suit their needs and provide interoperability among the different tools stakeholders use."
"We create bespoke platforms, configurators, and plugins to suit their modernization and standardization requirements."
One of the most significant challenges in implementing industrialized construction is managing dynamic changes during the construction process, which can affect the accuracy of prefabricated components.
Ben shares an example in which he spoke with a window manufacturer who struggled with adjusting to the shifts in the building's structure during construction.
"They build the curtain walls and the facades out of glass. The problem is when you're building something, all of the interface points for the windows move around. And so, as the building is being built, you can't model them and then know that it moved a certain number of inches. As a result, they need to go back and re-measure, which changes their manufacturing process."
This is fundamentally a challenge around data and making sure that teams can quickly capture and transfer the information they need to manufacture the right components.
As Tarika puts it, "We need to create technology and workflows which facilitate these design changes and rapid manufacturing according to the job sites."
So, how do we fill these IC gaps? A good starting point is harnessing and opening up data models to improve collaboration and efficiency.
This is something Autodesk is highly invested in.
"We're moving towards an open data model. And this open data model is a cloud-connected data model that enables developers to bridge the gap," shares Ben.
He adds that the goal is to provide developers with the tools they need today while also preparing for the future by gradually expanding the use of pre-manufactured components like pre-cut timbers, walls, and even larger elements such as balconies.
"We want to encourage that ecosystem of developers. Then, as things become standard, we want to democratize that for everyone and lift all ships."
We can't have a conversation about current and future technology without bringing up artificial intelligence. Just like in other industries, AI has permeated the realm of industrialized construction.
One way that AI has impacted IC is in predictive analytics, which allows teams to improve everything from design quality to job site safety.
"We created solutions around predictive analysis because a lot of data is getting generated. We should analyze that data and bring better results. So all these predictive analysis solutions help you do better in designs, in terms of efficiency, productivity, and safety onsite," says Tarika.
She also observed increased adoption of AI in the realm of architecture and ensign.
"I see a lot of architects and building designers using AI-based simulations to validate their designs. We are not far from where LLM models will create modular designs.”
Digital Builder is hosted by me, Eric Thomas. Remember, new episodes of Digital Builder go live every week.
