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Digital Transformation of the Construction Jobsite

Komatsu offers its Smart Construction Dashboard to enable the digital transformation of customer’s jobsites. (Credit: KOMATSU)

There has been talk in recent years of an oncoming digital transformation coming to the construction jobsite. While there are some components of this transformation that have yet to be realized, in many ways the industry’s digital transformation has already begun.

During a CONEXPO 2023 session on the topic, Jason Anetsberger of Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) member company Komatsu spoke on the technology that is currently available, as well as where the industry could be headed. “You see these themes of digitalization, automation and sustainability — in my mind those are not just industry trends, they are a reality today,” said Anetsberger, the Director of Customer Solutions for Smart Construction / Quarry at Komatsu.

A digital transformation in any industry is defined as the process of adopting and implementing new digital technologies to enhance current products and services, or to create new products and services. In the construction industry, the digital technologies that will enhance the products and services of the future include automation, digital modeling and smart equipment. In the equipment manufacturing industry, it is essential that OEMs grow their capabilities and build trust in these new technologies with their end-users.

Part of Komatsu’s suite of Smart Construction products, services and digital solutions, iMC 2.0 offers enhanced automated-assistance features on the company’s mid- to large-size construction excavators. (Credit: KOMATSU)

During his session, Anetsberger outlined the phases of the digital transformation while mapping out what technology is already available to consumers. Digitization allows the industry to integrate technology and product offerings to provide customers with data-driven guidance in real time. This is currently happening, whether in the cloud or through interconnected apps. There are a variety of sources in which digitalization is present, and it’s a concept that has been at work in the industry for years.

Automation also has been in use for years. However, tech capabilities continue to be siloed, according to Anetsberger. It’s critically important that recorded data and automated parts can work together, and that all data is able to be recorded and utilized. Automation empowers safer and more optimized jobsites by leveraging increasingly automated equipment and processes. For example, automated vehicles have been in use for decades in mining.

Sustainability connects customers with both product-level and jobsite-level tech to minimize carbon emissions and improve efficiency. Sustainability has been thrust into the spotlight in recent years, and strides can be made with the help of digitalization and automation. Ultimately, jobsite efficiency leads to sustainability, and that can be realized through the digital transformation.

“When I go to end-users and ask them what the future of the jobsite looks like, they say automation. And we are progressing in that direction. But what’s just as important is the sophistication and optimization of the jobsite processes,” Anetsberger said. “What good is an autonomous vehicle if it doesn’t know where to go?”

According to Anetsberger, this currently is the biggest challenge. Many times, customers give directives verbally, but if the construction industry can get on the same page in terms of digital processes, the digital transformation will occur much more efficiently.

In the future, the construction industry will work toward achieving a jobsite in which digital tasks are created from the optimal construction plan, and autonomy works in harmony with the machinery on a jobsite, he said. So many of the tools and equipment used on a jobsite currently collect data — from telematics to terrain data. Drones allow for surveying the jobsite accurately. And a worker with a smartphone is the most flexible and perhaps useful information source available, according to Anetsberger, as end-users can take that data and compile it to utilize it to its fullest.

“If we do it right a lot of these solutions are fairly simple and easy to adopt, and the value they bring is almost immediate,” Anetsberger said.

Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) contributed this story. The AEM trade group represents off-road equipment manufacturers and suppliers with more than 1,000 companies and 200 product lines.

Topics:
Automation Automotive Electronics & Computers Information Technology Transportation

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