The construction industry has an infamous reputation for being slow to change. Studies show that the construction industry has experienced a productivity growth of only 1% over the past two decades, significantly lagging behind other sectors. These numbers demonstrate the critical need for digitization and the adoption of emerging technologies to enhance productivity.
Some of the prevailing problems in the construction industry have been due to inefficient and archaic processes. For instance, manual scheduling, dispatch, and time-tracking procedures have proven to be tedious and labor-intensive, leading to operational delays and errors. The global architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) market is expected to grow to USD 21.1 billion by 2032, indicating that emerging technology will propel this growth.
Construction projects today are becoming progressively complex; with elaborate supply chains, strict compliance requirements, and evolving safety standards, there is no way around digitizing workflows. Manual processes aren’t configured for the demands and workflows of modern construction. For instance, worker safety is another major concern. As of 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics highlighted construction as having the highest number of injuries among all private industries. This often leaves companies susceptible to expensive errors, uncertainties, and potential compliance violations.
However, construction companies have begun transitioning to digitization to address these issues and maintain relevance in the current digital landscape. Between 2020 and 2022, an estimated USD 50 billion was invested in AEC tech, 85 percent higher than the previous three years.
Documentation and maintaining the paper trail are inevitable in construction. Whether you are dealing with contracts, blueprints, or inspection reports, every document is crucial and has its place. However, manually managing all the documents is tough, especially if multiple projects are going on. Your desk and folders are usually inundated with these forms. They are also prone to being misplaced, lost, or damaged when exposed to the elements.
What if we told you you could swap these mountains of paperwork for a simple dashboard that offers real-time updates and communication? Digital forms are the solution to all your manual document management. By digitizing forms, construction companies can simplify inspections and easily share safety hazards.
Digital forms are here to minimize the chaos of construction management, making it more efficient and organized. Let’s explore the wide range of benefits they offer.
Misplaced forms and documents are common. Adding to this is the time-consuming, labor-intensive nature of filling out, categorizing, and storing each form. Digital form makes it simple to store, view, download, and share documents; eliminating sifting through stacks of paper, minimizing the risk of misplaced documents and saving effort and time.
Construction companies can digitally store inspection reports, safety hazards, and other compliance-related documents. This streamlines the entire inspection process, making accessing, updating, and sharing inspection documents effortless.
Digital forms also help superintendents record changes, review safety hazards, and update all their reports through their devices instead of carrying stacks of files around. This makes the whole process much more efficient and less error-prone.
Usually, any design or material use other aspects changes must pass through multiple teams before reaching the field workers. Using digital forms allows for real-time communication, ensuring that all team members are kept in the loop regarding any project updates.
Real-time information sharing allows for better collaboration, decreases errors, and boosts general project coordination. Additionally, digital forms allow for real-time updates during inspections. Inspectors can directly annotate, review, and update various aspects on the forms through their devices. This real-time communication ensures that all updates are instantly available to the team, minimizing the risk of miscommunication or lapses.
Typically, there is mountains of paperwork for each project and each phase. Digital forms reduce paper consumption and contribute to organization-wide sustainability efforts. For instance, the immediate effect of going digital is the significant reduction in paper consumption, which helps companies reduce their carbon footprint. Further, with digital forms, waste generation is significantly less, minimizing the amount of waste that goes toward landfills.
While the larger impact is waste reduction, digitizing construction forms also helps construction companies achieve corporate social responsibility goals. Further, demonstrating a commitment to environmentally friendly practices will elevate the company’s reputation and project the image of sustainability to clients, stakeholders, and potential investors. By digitizing construction forms, companies can streamline operations, go green, and align with global sustainability initiatives and corporate social responsibility goals.
Physical files of documents and forms require infrastructure, space, lighting, and climate control, all of which require energy. Digital forms go a long way in reducing overheads.
By digitizing documents and forms, construction companies enable smarter resource allocation and management. By optimizing resources and workflows, digital forms reduce the need for physical resources, leading to smarter resource allocation and maximizing the usage of each resource.
A major pain point with physical forms and documentation is having to go on-site to access them. Digital forms make accessibility much easier, allowing team members to access it from any location, on-site, in the office, or remotely.
This feature ensures that vital documents are always available when required. Ease of access goes a long way in improving responsiveness and strategic decision-making. Whether team members or inspectors, they can access the necessary documents and forms on their mobile devices or tablets. This eliminates the need to bring the physical paperwork everywhere. This accessibility ensures that everyone has the information relevant to the current task.
While integrating digital forms into the general workflow offers several benefits, a top-tier concern for construction firms is always security and storage. Here is why incorporating emerging technologies in digital forms is the way forward:
With all documents and forms stored in a secure, cloud-based environment, the potential for misplacement, damage, or loss is drastically reduced. More importantly, it also protects documents from unauthorized access. Advanced technologies help encrypt cloud storage to safeguard sensitive information.
Another level of protection for digital forms is having strong access controls. These ensure that only authorized personnel can access specific documents. Role-based access controls or permissions restrict access based on user roles. This means sensitive information is available only to select people.
An important aspect of going digital is backup options. Given the frequency of cyber-attacks or hardware failure, going digital with periodic backups is simple. This also ensures the data can be restored easily, protecting all critical information.
Making digital forms accessible isn’t limited to cloud storage. For anything to be truly accessible, it needs to be easy to access during regular workflows. Users need to be able to access and manage forms from their mobile devices.
Mobile accessibility ensures that all forms and documents are always available, on-site or off-site. Digital forms improve the response rate and become part of an agile, business-resilient framework.
As with most construction companies, privacy and data breaches are a huge concern. It is essential for whatever platform you choose to adhere to high industry standards and maintain compliance for data security and privacy. This ensures that all uploaded documents are managed based on specific legal requirements.
Implementing these security measures helps digital construction forms be secure and easily accessible, improving operational efficiency. The next step after security is showcasing how digital construction forms and documentation will improve the workflow:
Digital forms significantly reduce the risk of errors that accompany manual entry. Further, with features such as drop-down menus, checkboxes, and auto-population fields, project managers and inspectors can rest easy knowing that the information entered is accurate.
With real-time updates, collaboration and communication are much easier. Further, communication between on-site inspectors and off-site project managers is simplified through notes and updates on the same document. This allows only the latest document to be viewed, avoiding multiple back-and-forth calls.
All documents can be annotated, and team members can define scale on them. This ensures that everyone on the team, from field workers to office staff, has a clear understanding of the project and its current phase.
This means all changes are visible, and people can see who made the changes and when through version control. Additionally, any issues that arise throughout a project can be communicated instantly, allowing for prompt action and resolution.
With all necessary documents stored in a centralized digital repository, team members, project managers, and site inspectors can retrieve and review past or current files. This helps everyone involved in tracking progress, course-correcting when needed, and ensuring compliance with safety standards.
By improving specific aspects of the workflow, digital construction forms ensure that operations are more efficient, fast, and practical, leading to better project outcomes.
When digital forms are combined with AI, the process becomes more intuitive and easy. For instance, AI can automatically generate forms based on project requirements, ensuring consistency and correctness. Form fields can also auto-populate with relevant data, reducing manual input and errors. With real-time data validation, leveraging AI in digital forms can prevent inconsistencies and ensure data integrity.
Further, data entry and analysis automation reduces manual effort and allows for efficient workflows. Streamlined processes and optimized resource allocation lead to cost savings. By leveraging AI within digital forms, construction companies can create more efficient, data-driven, and responsive workflows, ultimately improving project outcomes.
Incorporating emerging technology is no longer an option but a strategic imperative for construction companies looking to maintain relevance and flourish in a digital landscape. Digitizing workflows and using advanced project management capabilities helps construction companies heighten productivity, elevate accuracy, and improve compliance.
KYRO's cloud-based document management system helps construction companies easily access, store, categorize, and share crucial documents. Real-time updates also ensure that everyone on the team has access to up-to-date information anytime, anywhere. Powered by AI, Kyro is here to future-proof construction companies, streamline operations, and propel their sustainability initiatives. Adopting digital solutions demonstrates an alignment with the company’s corporate sustainability goals.
KYRO integrates smoothly with your existing tools, breaking down data silos, elevating document management, improving operational efficiency, reducing costs, and ensuring better project outcomes. Reach out to us to schedule a demo.
