World Cionstruction Today / Article / IOT – Can we imagine a world without the internet today? This does sound like a pretty lame question in the era which we live in. We have been captivated with the power of the internet in most of the things that surround our lifestyle today. Talk of any industry and the digitization has crept in with full throttle. Construction industry is one such segment which has witnessed a small but significant transformation over the past few years. Just imagine the number of fatalities which one would hear of during yesteryears. In comes the IoT and suddenly you will realize that there has been a monumental advancement at construction sites which has, in turn, led to the completion of projects in time and that too without any hassles.
There are many aspects which make Internet of Things (IoT) click in the construction segment. Firstly, just in time provision has attained an all-new possibility in it. When materials are supplied with RFID- Radio Frequency Identification tags one can easily get to know an actual count which is available at the site. So, when there is a drop in the level of material at a given point, the system triggers a request and order gets placed automatically. Besides, the cost also gets curtailed as only those materials get ordered that are actually required at the site and hence there is no wastage. Apart from the materials, IoT advantages can be taken in case of tools and equipments as well. IoT can help lengthen the life of the equipments used at the sites and also improve its resale value. GPS data can help monitor vehicles at the site locations and thus would streamline the entire process.
Once the construction gets completed, due to IoT, one can keep a tab on the health of materials that have been used in designing and building it. Regular information can be passed on to the designers and architects with regards to the way materials are reacting to the climatic conditions. This helps in improving the efficiency of the building and if found perfect can be replicated in other structures as well.
However, it is well to be noted that the construction segment has been a tad slow to adopt IoT in its process. This is predominantly because of the fragmented nature of the industry since the work gets divided between contractors and further to subcontractors. It would be only apt to say that smaller sites with only a few workers don’t buy the idea of IoT since there is a less need of sensors monitoring the data as well as equipments and a foreman is more than enough to efficiently manage the entire show. But things are pretty different with bigger sites having loads of equipments and manpower. There is always the stress of completing the task within a due course of time and that’s where the efficiency of IoT comes in play. Construction sites and buildings usually generate a lot of data which mostly goes unused. With the advent of IoT in construction, this data can be given its due. By adopting Internet of Things at the area of construction, the workforce and the supervisors can switch from a reactive to a proactive phase. This would potentially reduce cost and improve safety and security. IoT in any type of construction regardless of its volume is realistic. It is just a matter of time when we come across its need in all the phases.
We have all read how effective IoT can be but what matters is its proper and careful implementation and once done so it can lead to unparallel results.