In its 2017 report, Reinventing Construction: A Route to Higher Productivity, the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that inefficiency costs the global construction industry over $1.6 trillion per year, primarily as a result of industry fragmentation. Diving a bit deeper, MGI further estimates that collaboration issues, supply chain management inefficiencies and lack of technology adoption combine to create about one-third of this inefficiency... about $500 billion dollars annually. These factors suggest that a reinvention of the construction supply chain will make a large impact on improving productivity. We're starting to see this already.

The movement toward 'smart cities' has developed momentum in the past few years as forward-looking city planners recognize that connected devices can provide value and create efficiency that was not possible previously. This will quickly become a driver for the construction of 'smart infrastructure' that collects the data. Of course, it will not only be cities that become 'smart'; states, regions and nations will all need smart infrastructure in order to take full advantage of the potential of connected devices... the Internet of Things (IoT).

This is the second of a 3-part series that discusses how the evolution of technology will affect the infrastructure product manufacturing industry. In the first post we discussed why the construction industry will embrace IoT. In this we discuss the role that smart infrastructure products will play in the future of infrastructure. In the third, we provide our vision for how technology will enable the reinvention of construction manufacturing in response to new, vertically integrated mega-firms.

IoT (the Internet-of-Things) has become a buzz-phrase that is thrown around a lot. It seems to be one of those phrases that is easy to shake off as a pipe dream offered by 20-something techies that will likely take decades to reach the floor of an infrastructure product manufacturing plant. (Perhaps, but don't get complacent.)

This is the first of a 3-part series that will show how the evolution of technology will affect the infrastructure product manufacturing industry. In this post we discuss why the construction industry will embrace IoT... and soon. In the second, we will discuss how smart infrastructure products will be demanded for projects. In the third, we will provide our vision for how technology will enable the reinvention of construction manufacturing in response to new, vertically integrated mega-firms.

It is the new year, a time that we all take stock about what has been and think about the future.  As we gave pause and reflected, a very clear (and, in hindsight, obvious) picture emerged: Before we know it, the manufacturing environment will experience the same relational shifts that we've seen with consumers since the early 2000s. (In this age of consumer technology, consumer adaptations always precede business adoption.) Here is what this means.

One of the most enjoyable elements of our work is that we get to visit precast plants. It is always enlightening to talk to the principals about how they manage their businesses and learn what they do to continually improve. Most often we hear about time- and cost-saving practices being applied to help their companies make more money in very tight bidding environments. Last week I traveled to AJ Foss (Farmington, NH), a very innovative, family-run company with a story of a slightly different twist.

GS1 is one of the most important underpinnings of commerce that you've likely never heard of. Over 5 billion scans are performed each day using GS1 standards for product tracking. GS1 is an international standards board with over 1 million members in 100 countries. We benefit from its impact with almost every product we purchase. And yet, it seems to work 'under the radar' for most of us. It's influence is now quickly moving into infrastructure product manufacture so we thought we would shed some light.

We don't usually promote our products or services in the lede of our blog posts, but we are so excited about our new Idencia 101 program that today is the exception. On January 7, 2019, the first group of precasters will start this guided, self-managed program that will leave them skilled in implementing their plants with RFID tracking. They will be heroes for saving money by reducing paper, enhancing inventory management and expediting shipping documentation!

We've received some great questions about the program so we thought we would address them in this post.

Sometimes the notion of implementing an RFID tracking system can seem more difficult than it really is. Naturally, anything new and different looms much larger in the mind than in practice. Transitioning from paper to digital records is no exception. We've drawn on our collective experience in helping customers implement the Idencia concrete tracking system to offer tips gleaned from best practices we have seen and encouraged.

If you are not familiar with the term 'reality capture' you are probably not alone. Now is a good time to become so, however, because this will be the core of 'smart infrastructure'. You are probably thinking: "Sure, some day, maybe."                  (Graphic courtesy of National Geospacial Advisory Committee)

Our guess is that precast manufacturers will need to offer some form of reality capture with every infrastructure product they sell in 5 years or less.  

We really enjoy learning how our customers make best use of concrete product tracking for their plants. Since the practice is relatively new, by definition our customers are forward- thinking. So there is a lot to learn from how they improve their productivity. We learn from them and pass it on to the rest of the industry. Here are three of the most popular applications.