Robert Merry contemplates an increasingly digital future as he looks forward to the Stone Digital conference on 22/23 February.

On the theme of change and revolution in the way we live and work, a good starting point this month is Stone Digital – Shaping a Sustainable Future on 22 & 23 February – no doubt you’ve read about it on the pages of this publication and on social media. Two days of talks and panel discussions on the impact of digitization and sustainability of stone.

Construction as a whole has some key questions to answer if it is to continue to grow and survive as an industry. It has been estimated that the global demand for construction projects will have grown 85% by 2030 – that equates to 200million additional jobs worldwide.

This will demand a huge drive to attract people to work in the industry. For that to happen we need an industry that the next generation want to work in, which means digitalization, and values of equality and diversity.

But we need to embrace this new technology for other, more fundamental reasons as well, particularly in the UK where productivity has only increased by 1% in the past 20 years on construction sites. Reports suggest 10% less efficiency results in 5% less profit. We have to increase efficiency and productivity to be able to reinvest and grow. Currently only a quarter of projects finish within 10% of the programme deadline. That means 75% are late.

Artificial intelligence must be the route to this promised land. Robots will not replace workers entirely. It is even argued we will need to increase the number of operatives on-site – more highly skilled to operate the robots and integrate with other digital systems.

But we need to build better if we are to succeed. Otherwise robots will be spending their time on idle, waiting for clarification because the digital room template they are working to is not what is in front of them.

We spend too much time doing this already. Builders need to build better and more accurately. And, more importantly, check their work!

We have already seen a revolution in design digitalization – from pen and pencil to AutoCad in less than a generation.

When I began in this industry, piles and piles of printed drawings weighed the postman down , not to mention the number of felled trees it took to produce them. Now a shared cloud space replaces all that wasted energy (some would say with more wasted energy searching through the damn cloud) but it is progress... promise.

It sometimes feels like we are dealing with two extremes of an evolution still working side by side: digital real-time changes and updates posted in seconds bumping up against the enormous mountain of virtual paperwork and sign off procedures required for the actual change to be built.

Is this because contracts are written as confrontational documents used to attack and defend our positions?

Contractors talk about collaboration as a key element of their relationship with

sub-contractors, often making it a selling point to their clients. But everyone spends enormous amounts of energy recording their position in defence of their actions; demanding instructions because we all live in fear we will never get paid.

This has to change. We have to take the confrontation out of contracting. And we will need a very large sledge hammer to crack that particular nut.

There are robots already deployed on building sites – look at www.bostondynamics.com to see Spot, Boston Dynamics’ survey robot. Slightly unsettling or soon to be man’s best friend? At least you don’t end up carrying a warm plastic bag around with you.

There is also the Okibo decorating robot, the Hilti overhead drilling robot, and various bricklaying and 3D printing robots.

With the average building site having more than 80 trades working on it in multiple rooms under multiple contracts, co-ordination will be key. Construction sites are complicated environments. But we can… we must change the culture, manage the technology, educate and skill the workforce, digitalize the process and increase productivity to produce a more resilient industry and deliver better built buildings. Yes, that’s what we need – better built buildings!

• Robert is giving a presentation titled 'On-site digital transformation' at 3.25pm on 23 February as part of the Stone Digital – Shaping a Sustainable Future conference.

https://www.stoneconsultants.co.uk