Despite substantial investments, the construction industry is struggling to gain the full benefits of technologies including advanced data and analytics, mobility, automation and robotics. That's the key finding from Building a technology advantage - Global Construction Survey 2016 ,the annual state-of-the-industry report from KPMG International.
Of the 200-plus senior construction executives taking part in the survey, just 8% of their companies rank as "cutting edge technology visionaries," while 64% of contractors and 73% of project owners rank as "industry followers" or "behind the curve" when it comes to technology.
"The survey responses reflect the industry's innate conservatism towards technologies, with most firms content to follow rather than lead" says Geno Armstrong, International Sector Leader, Engineering & Construction, KPMG in the US. "Many lack a clear technology strategy, and either adopt it in a piecemeal fashion, or not at all."
Two-thirds of survey respondents believe project risks are increasing. According to Armstrong, this is an industry ripe for disruption, yet less than 20% of respondents say they are aggressively disrupting their business models.
"Projects around the world are becoming bigger, bolder and more complex -- and with complexity comes risk," notes Armstrong. "Innovations like remote monitoring, automation and visualization have enormous potential to speed up project progress, improve accuracy and safety."
Lagging use of data, mobility and integrated project management technologiesAccording to the survey, engineering and construction firms, and project owners, are not taking full advantage of the volumes of data at their fingertips -- almost two-thirds of those surveyed don't use advanced data analytics for project-related estimation and performance monitoring. Moreover, only a quarter of respondents say they're able to 'push one button' to get all their project information. And even fewer claim to have single, integrated project management information system (PMIS) across the enterprise.
"Integrated, real-time project reporting is still a myth, rather than a reality for most" according to KPMG's Armstrong. "That's largely because firms tend to use multiple software platforms that are manually monitored and disconnected, which severely compromises their effectiveness."